Looking Back
Pictures In Our Heads
An uncomfortable silence was the only thing that could be heard in Blue Arrow's office that night in the compound. All the other Red Hoof members had gone home, except for Blue Arrow himself along with his second-in-command, Dynamo, and the newly promoted Corporal, Papyrus. It had only been a week since the hero of Equestria, Ace or Blue Bass as he was named, had left Equestria to head as a diplomat to the zerba nation thousands of miles from Equestria, in which was said that he'd maybe be gone for a few years at least. Of course, this was not the truth as what the general Equestrian public were told. The truth was even more incredible of why he had left.
Only a small circle of ponies knew, those being the elements of harmony, the princesses and that new alicorn that had appeared named Lunar Eclipse. Now, Celestia had given the news exclusively to Blue Arrow's Ponyville division of Red Hooves. It may have seemed like a mistake to tell the truth to them, but the Red Hooves were a force that Celestia could trust with almost anything and would take a secret of her's right to their graves.
However, the three friends sat in silence in semi-darkness holding their mugs of hot chocolate in their hooves, still coming to grips with the truth. It was Blue Arrow though who finally broke the silence.
"…Would you've believed it, lads?" He said above a whisper to his two friends. "After all this time, te' stallion who saved Equestria...was an alien." The blue stallion shook his head and drank down some of his drink, in his mind, he couldn't believe at what he'd said.
"Incredible, isn't it?" Dynamo replied, looking into blank space.
"Never thought I'd see an alien," Papyrus added, taking a sip of his drink. "They don't look much different from us though."
Dynamo looked over at the younger stallion. "Not quite young chap. Celestia did tell us that in his true form, he stands on two legs at six feet tall and is called…a human, I think."
Papyrus stared at the second-in-command in amazement, while Blue Arrow suddenly cracked a small smile.
"You know what, since he managed somehow ta' defeat Discord like that, I did have my wee suspicious of how a pony could do it all on their own." He paused to take another drink. "Anypony would've been killed if they did what he did, not including that he had the 7th element on him. Now that we find out he was all this time from another planet, it makes sense."
Blue Arrow's words made the gears in Papyrus' and Dynamo's head turn just thinking about it. "To be honest you do have a point their sir," Papyrus replied, rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't know any other pony who could do such a…" he paused when he saw his commander shut his eyes and dip his head down sadly.
"What's the matter, sir?" Dynamo asked with slight worry as he walked up to the blue stallion.
"Nothin'," Blue Arrow replied gruffly looking up at him. "It's just…I feel so sorry about Rainbow Dash and her wee lad that Ace had ta' leave behind." Suddenly Dynamo also felt a lump in his throat and looked quite upset over by his captain's words, leaving Papyrus surprised.
"What's wrong now?" He asked quickly trotting over to the pair.
Blue Arrow turned to look at the younger private placing a fore hoof on the red stallion's shoulder. "Papyrus…it's quite strange of how much this sort of thing with him leaving his family behind relates to us older Hooves in the ranks."
He then looked over at an old picture on his desk that had been taken twenty-five years ago (with the color looking slightly faded due to it's age), showing a group shot featuring a younger Blue Arrow with a shorter mane, a younger looking Dynamo with a mullet style mane and small stubble around the lower part of his face. Also on one side of the picture was a younger looking stallion, Blue Arrow's now deceased corporal 'Flying Sunstar', with a messy mane, no glasses then but with a neatly trimmed moustache (it was the style of the times then!)
Blue Arrow turned to look at Papyrus again with a sad expression. "You see lad…what I mean is that when the first of the Red Hooves, like me and Dynamo, went off ta' fight in te' Farachan war thirty years ago, we had ta' leave our families behind, not seeing them until some years later when we came back, and…" The commanding Hoof troop paused and drew in a shaky sigh. "…Some of us had ta' leave the ones we loved dearly behind."
The brunette Stallion stared wide-eyed at the two older troops of what they were saying. "S-Something similar happened to you two?"
"Well, Dynamo mostly, I never got into love," Blue Arrow looked over at his second-in-command while drinking down some of his drink to calm down some of his nerves.
"Indeed, this whole thing with Ace leaving does bring a rather spooky similarity there with me." Dynamo said looking over to Papyrus as he drank down some of his hot chocolate.
Papyrus sat down on a nearby chair to listen to Dynamo. "What happened?"
The blue mane stallion turned his head slowly at the young fighter. "Well you will know in Red Hood history that Celestia would train us to send us off to battle during the early days of the war thirty years ago?"
Papyrus nodded.
Dynamo paused before continuing. "Well...at times during the spare time of what we had before we left Equestria, we would spend sometime with our families that we had leave when we were chosen to be Red Hooves. Sometimes, we had the chance to meet up with old school friends to say goodbye and that…"
He looked out of the window again, remember the events. "When I first joined, I was ten and Blue Arrow eight, though we weren't ready for battle until we both eighteen, until then, we trained until we reached that age. Of course I went away first, but Celestia did gave me and the many stallions heading out to Farachan the opportunity to meet up with friends and families as a farewell to them before I went. It was here I met…a wonder Mare. A unicorn she was, from my school days."
Blue Arrow turned away, looking down at his desk as Dynamo continued telling his tale to a now stunned Papyrus. "You see, in the week we had before it was time to go, I had this chance to know how things had been going on with her. We'd do everything like friends should like going places around Ponyville, heading out on large grassy opened spaces on starry nights. Such wonderful memories…then I had my orders to leave, but during the times with her, I had developed this emotion in me, I didn't know what to do, but I had to tell her as it was now or never."
"Did you say it?" Papyrus asked, leaning in closer to him to hear more, somewhat in the know at what Dynamo's feelings for this mare were.
Dynamo had a small smile on his face as he looked over to the red Stallion. "Oh yes, I did, and most surprisingly, she felt the same for me."
He had another drink before saying the rest. "And that night before I left, we had a…well, passionate night, though it wasn't suppose to be like that mind you, but when you're young and in love, anypony can do crazy things. But that wasn't the end of the story."
Though he wasn't sure, Papyrus swore he could've seen Blue Arrow getting all glassy eyed, but the long strands of mane covering his eyes made it difficult to see. So he turned back to hear more of Dynamo's story.
"When we were over there, time and time again, we would have letters sent to us from home, and I received many from her when I was there, but one letter I got from her three months after I left Ponyville. I discovered that…She…She was pregnant, with twins. My twins." Dynamo shuddered slightly as he finished that sentence.
Papyrus gasped back in surprise and nearly dropping his mug at this revelation, he couldn't imagine a laid back pony like Dynamo could doing something like that. Still, as Dynamo had said, love can make any young pony do crazy things.
"Whoa…" Papyrus uttered after a long pause. "Never thought you had it you."
Dynamo rubbed the back of his head with a slight awkwardness. "Well…it's not something I'd like to brag on about. But she would send me letters saying things like how her parents were going to have my head for me getting her into that state. At times, I felt like it was my entire fault and would wish it would all end for me on the battlefield. But I then realized I needed to survive to be there for her, and the foals."
Now it was Papyrus' turn to have a bit of a lump in his throat, it did sound like something out some typical love story, but that fact that this was real did make the younger stallion think.
Upon seeing his young friend now starting to look quite upset, Dynamo placed a comforting fore leg around his friend's shoulders. "But this story does has a happy ending dear chap. When we finally came back, the lucky ones I may add, we were reunited with those close to us, and all I wanted was to see her face again. When I did meet up with her, oh Celestia, she was beautiful, and the two fillies were beautiful like her. It was twin filles we had, both of which were unicorns like their mother. Eventually after all this, and trying to win her parents over...she became my wife in the end."
"And her name is Star Burst," Blue Arrow added, finishing it off for Dynamo. "And I was your best stallion at your wedding," He smiled for bit at the happy memories that it brought back.
The young stallion blinked at them with his mouth open.
"Her?" He asked in amazement as Dynamo merely nodded replying. Now Papyrus and the other hooves did know that the second-in-command had a wife called Star Burst, though he never knew that the Mare in the story was her, during the whole time during the story, he thought Dynamo was talking about some over mare. "Talk about jumping to conclusions you idiot," he thought to himself in embarrassment.
But then he looked at them confused when he remembered what they were talking about earlier. "What a minute, what's this gotta do with Ace and Rainbow Dash then?"
Dynamo was about to answer his question, but Blue Arrow cut him off. "What I think he means te' say is that Blue Bass and Dash might have a similar thing with him going away and then coming back again. I bet they will have a happy ending after all this malarkey when he comes back."
A small smile appeared on Papyrus' face, thinking about what Blue Arrow said. "You're right, sir." Then the small small on his lips turned into a little grin. "Though, even though he was here for while, he did do a hay of a lot of things here. That being joining that club in Ponyville, discovering the 7th element, defeated Discord once and for all and finally knocking up the most stubborn mare in all of Ponyville…lucky devil…!"
The two older stallions couldn't help but chuckle. "Aye, so true," Blue Arrow replied with a little chuckle. "However, their son is quite strange, an alicorn would you believe."
"I never thought I'd see the day a alicorn born into the world in my lifetime," Dynamo nodded. "And that Lunar is going to be looking after him for the time being, such is that the birth of a new alicorn in the world will be the source of quite a number of attempted kidnappings or even worse…"
"I've haven't had the chance to see their wee colt yet," Blue Arrow interrupted. "Though a powerful alicorn Lunar is, looking over him, anythin' could happen to 'em. So if I were you guys, just be on standby."
"But the other elements of harmony will be doing the same though," Papyrus corrected. "No need for us."
The older blue stallion sighed sadly. "…Aye, they'll know what to do, though it would give us somethin' ta' do if they gave us the call."
"So when did Celestia said how long he was going to be gone for?" Dynamo questioned looking back at Blue Arrow.
The blue stallion rubbed his chin in thought. "Mmm, few years I think…sad thing about it is me and the rest of you never got ta' say goodbye at least...but don't worry, things always work out in the end. He'll be back before we know it." The other two stallions muttered in agreement and sat in silence for a while, drinking their hot chocolate.
Just then, Papyrus had an idea. "Guys, with these drinks here, do you think we could, you know, give a toast to him?"
Dynamo raised an eyebrow, turning to look back at Blue Arrow. When Blue Arrow turned to look at the red stallion, he smiled. "You know what, for once I'm going ta' agree with the corporal."
He then raised his mug into the air with his fore hoof. "To Ace, Blue Bass…Dan, or whatever the hay his name is!"
The others chuckled as they raised their mugs in a similar fashion to Blue Arrow.
"To Ace!" The other two replied and they clanked their mugs together before drinking down what left they had of their hot chocolate. The three Hooves and the rest of the platoon at that time didn't know when they would meet again with the young blue stallion, Ace had certainly gain the respected of Red Hooves in Ponyville and maybe the other Red Hooves across Equestria.
Though whatever would happen to these highly trained stallions in the coming years, one thing was for certain.
They would never forget Ace.