Prologue
Haysville, The Far North of Equus (Pre-Equestria)
24 BLB, Reap
The Calendar of Months is:
Storm - January
Rise - February
Gale - March
Thaw - April
Bloom - May
Warm - June
Heat - July
Cool - August
Harvest - September
Reap - October
Bounty - November
Frost - December
Days, Weeks, and Months in length proceed accordingly.
Constant Vigilance is 12. Celestia has been born for a year, and Luna is yet unborn for another year.
It’s getting quite cold.
The chill in the air was what woke Constant Vigilance that morning, and what a chill it was. It had been getting colder every day for three years straight, and it still showed no signs of stopping, not even for a young colt nestled in his bed.
Grumbling, shivering, tossing, turning and the like followed his awakening. All did little to stifle his discomfort, so in the end, he relented and pulled away his blanket.
Gazing quietly outside, Constant observed the gray grass and overcast skies. The weather, atmosphere, and scenery made it appear like the middle of (December) Frost’s winter. Although it was only (October) Reap’s fall.
Snow wasn’t scheduled (or so the Pegasi claimed) for a few more weeks, yet the clouds appeared to threaten a heavy snowfall despite this. Thankfully, no snow had come thus so far, and the temperature remained only mildly chilly.
If only those Pegasi didn’t always have to hurt our weather patterns, he thought to himself as he left the comfort of his bed, Don’t they know we can’t grow food if we don’t get enough sun?
His body responded with another shiver as he landed on the icy floor, and his leading forehoof recoiled at the touch before he settled on all fours properly.
Of course, they still say it’s our fault regardless.
He trotted over to the fragment of a mirror he had kept all those years ago, gazing into his lonely reflection. A quick inspection of the self told him that nothing was different about his navy-blue eyes, silvery hair, or lead-colored coat. His teeth were in an ordinary condition, and when he scrutinized his face for any discrepancies (or surprise facial hair), he concluded that nothing about him had changed overnight.
The only thing notable was the bags under his eyes, but that wasn’t exactly new. Ponies across their lands had developed the same phenomenon, worsening as it got colder, almost a reflection of the land itself.
Even the Pegasi and Unicorns weren’t exempt, though their habitual demanding of the crops Earth Ponies worked hard to grow ensured his pity well was near-bottomed out.
Not that they’d understand what it takes to grow crops, Constant thought irritably.
Once finished, his eyes wandered to the jagged edges of the mirror fragment, propped up against the flagstones that made up his bedroom wall, reminding him how grateful he was to have a bedroom when there were earth ponies who lived in tents or underground.
This contrasted heavily with the royal Unicorns, who easily used their magical abilities to construct their grandiose castles made of stone and built into the sides of mountains, filled with halls of endless revelry and cheer from their pretentious nobility.
Neither did this align with the militaristic Pegasi, who could quite easily build anything they put their minds to, and had no trouble at all, as they could make them out of thin air.
Or clouds, rather, but since Constant was an Earth Pony he knew naught of the finer points of cloud-craftsmanship. Everything to him, from the impoverished status of his species to the exploitation they constantly endured, was all nearly as biting as the cold winds that blew outside.
Constant Vigilance’s brows furrowed as his eyes locked firmly on the mirror fragment, his mouth curling into a frown.
“Why do the Unicorns and Pegasi always get to have nicer things than us?” Constant asked aloud, looking around as if expecting an answer.
The response he received was a creak from the wooden timbers, followed by a droplet of water pelting a wooden pail in the corner of his room. The thatched roof above him rustled with the wind outside, but that accomplished nothing helpful.
Constant Vigilance sighed again, turned away, and pushed open his bedroom door.
That’s enough thinking hard for one day.
He entered the main room of his household, circular in nature, with a table and chairs in the center. On his far right were the front door and some assorted furnishings. To his immediate left was the door to his parent’s room, and to the farthest left was the kitchen area where the fireplace stood.
There, also, was his mother bent over a burbling cauldron containing a sticky substance commonly referred to as ‘oatmeal.’ She scooped up a morsel and brought it to her mouth, smacking her lips as she tasted the concoction thoroughly.
“Needs more butter…” she mused with a flick of an ear.
She suddenly noticed her son standing in the doorway and turned toward him with a face full of motherly kindness as sweet as sugarcane.
“Oh! Good morning, sweetie. I made breakfast.”
“Thanks, mom.” Constant replied plainly, making his way over to the table. The wooden chair scraped against the floor as he pulled it aside to make room for himself, then sagged against his weight as he sat down.
His mother spooned a large helping of oatmeal into his wooden bowl and set it down, before re-filling the first one she had used. She sat down at the table with him, looking at them with a familiar sense of mild parental apprehension. The two took up their utensils and ate in silence.
“Your father’s off at the mill again,” his mother told him between bites, “We received another shipment of logs in from the east. He won’t be back for a few days.”
Constant grunted by way of understanding, his mouth full of oatmeal. After a few more moments of eating, the wooden bowl sat empty on the table, clean as a whistle. Constant stood up.
“I’m finished, mom. Can I go out?”
His mother glanced at the bowl in pleasant surprise, her mouth slightly agape. She took the bowl from the table at once and motioned towards the cauldron.
“Finished already? You sure you don’t want any seconds, hun?”
“Mom!”
“Alright, alright,” she conceded, with a smirk, as she waved a hoof at him dismissively. “Go on, then.”
Constant made his way for the door, snatching up a small cloth pouch and giving it a quick inspection. The bag rumbled with the noise of multiple small objects rolling around inside, Constant’s eyes particularly focused on the bottom, a patchy section taped over with multi-colored pieces of rough fabric.
“Yep, they’re all still there.”
His mother giggled delightedly at her son’s investment towards the receptacle he carried.
“You and your little friends have fun, sweetie.” She said to him, musically.
“We will, mom.” Constant added, with another mild groan towards her mother’s coddling. Mothers would be mothers, regardless of how old their little colts and fillies were.
“You sure you don’t want to take some oatmeal for your friends, honey?”
“Mom!”
Case-in-point.
The outside was even more bitter than the inside, but it was bearable with a stomach warmed up by oatmeal.
Constant made his way down in front of the cluster of homes that made up part of his village, examining the surroundings. Most of the earth ponies in Haysville lived on the same street, with all the government buildings and shops down the road at the ‘square’ of the town. Houses were made mostly from wood and cobbled stone, with thatched rooftops, a far cry from a Unicorn’s mansion or castle. Constant let out a sigh as he was doubly reminded of the poverty his species lived in.
“Constant!”
But it was then, with his face turning upward into a grin, that he made his way over to a group of ponies his age. They were gathered together only a dozen hooves away, standing in a small cluster, with their giddily foal-like faces to greet him.
First there was the young colt named Hardy Smith, child of the reputable Mister Strong Smith, the town blacksmith. He, like his papa, was always covered in ash and soot.
“Hello, Hardy.” Constant greeted, “Forge anything new today?”
Hardy Smith opened his mouth to speak-
“Achoo!”
-but instead sneezed quite loudly. After his eyes refocused themselves and he wiped his muzzle, Hardy resumed.
“Sorry… uh... oh yeah! We just finished a big batch of tools for next season’s farming! My dad even let me use the bellows while we were making them red-hot!”
Constant nodded with the sense of being impressed the same way any youngin’ was towards things like that, and he then turned over to his next friend, another young colt named Dig Deep. “Find anything this time, Dig?”
Dig reached into his saddlebag and showed off an old hunk of metal. It looked like nothing special to the untrained eye, but to the colts, it was a beauty upon their eyes as they were filled with dazzle and splendor, and absorbed by the wonder they saw in it.
“Whoa!”
“Amazing!”
“Nice!”
He looked at last to Golden Blossom, a pretty little pony, and the only filly in their group. Her mane shone like gold in the morning sun, and her coat was pale white. She lowered her head before Constant’s presence, but her cheeks lit up warmly, betraying a sense of familiarity and comfort.
“H-Hi, Constant,” she said to him, tripping up on her first word. She looked at him then, in the hopes that he wouldn’t judge her too harshly for the minor slip-up, likened to a lowly servant putting themselves at the mercy of a lord.
Constant Vigilance, despite his intimidating appearance, showed no animosity towards her minor mistake. If anything, he, too was self-conscious of himself while standing near her, though he couldn’t quite understand why. It was more like a feeling that hung heavy in the air.
He managed a slight smile, and greeted her with a pleasant, if nervous: “Hi, Bloss.”
Hardy and Dig exchanged glances at each other, grinning cheekily with the nature of a young one discovering something even a mite emotional. “Oooooooooooh!” they said in elated unison, “Constant and Blossom like each other!”
The two of them repeated this mantra in a singsong voice, always on the edge of mocking the pair, but never crossing it. It took only a single look from Vigilance, and the furrow of his eyebrows, to end their song abruptly. Their expressions melted away, replaced by looks of guilt.
Golden Blossom, now comfortable thanks to Constant’s actions, moved a bit closer to him and lifted her head a bit higher. Her blush increased in luminosity.
“Don’t listen to them, Constant!” she proclaimed to him defensively, perhaps as a way of trying to impress him, “They’re just being a couple of m-meanie colts!”
Constant’s smile returned with satisfaction as he looked down at her. “Thanks, Bloss.”
Blossom, ever bashful, leaned her head away but retained her glad expression. “Y-You’re welcome,” she told him contentedly.
The two stared at each other for a long minute before Hardy Smith spoke up, eager to swap topics.
“So, uh… what should we do, everypony?”
“We should visit the forest again!” Dig Deep suggested earnestly,
“Naw, we already went there yesterday.” Hardy Smith countered, “We should go up on the hills over to the south!” (“Why do you think I said ‘again’, Hardy?!” Dig Deep shouted, unheard by his peers.)
“I’m fine with anything, you guys.” Golden Blossom told them quietly, spurning her own tastes in favor of submitting to the will of the group. She, resultantly, went unheard as well.
Constant turned his grinning expression on the bickering group, and with a flourish, revealed the sack he had carried from his household. He overturned it and spilled out the contents onto the ground, revealing dozens of marbles in different colors and sizes. Most were made of different types of stone or rock, hewn into a spherical shape. “Wanna play?” Constant asked, to the awed look of his peers.
“Are you kidding?!” Dig Deep exclaimed, “You don’t need to ask us twice!”
The group of them sat down in the dirt and played all the while with the marbles. At first, they simply admired them for their appearance, but soon enough Constant and Dig Deep were entered into a fierce game of marble competition. All bets were off.
“We’re down to the final few marbles.” Hardy Smith commentated to the group, “Constant Vigilance has the shot, but if he misses, it’s game over!”
Constant Vigilance had his right hoof clamped down on the top of a particularly shiny marble, the special shooter one he used for games like these, and was eyeing up a mass of 3 marbles within the bounds of the circle. Dig Deep was anxiously biting the ends of his hooves, desperately hoping for a bad shot. Even a few other ponies milling around town had gathered to watch the intense showdown between marble and marbles.
Constant was so concentrated on the game that he only barely heard the sound of Golden Blossom, cheering him on. The urging noises of excitement and tension mostly blended together into one shmorgasborg of euphoric exclamation.
“This is it, folks! He’s taking it!”
Constant Vigilance applied a great deal of pressure to the marble he was pressing, and with practiced technique, used the friction to shoot the orb like a high-velocity peashooter. The shooter ball crashed into the three marbles, knocking them right out of the circle.
“That’s game!” Hardy Smith announced, to cheers from passersby, and a cry of anguish from Dig Deep. “Constant Vigilance wins!”
Constant, with a benign yet moderately arrogant smirk, scooped up Hardy Smith’s shooter ball along with some of the others. He gave each a quick examination of their notable features before carefully before depositing them into his bag. Hardy looked incredibly unhappy.
“Aw dang, that was my last shooter you just took.”
“Sorry, Hardy…” Constant said apologetically, before his friend’s lamenting got him to thinking. “Y’know what, here.”
Constant reached down, grabbed his shooter marble, and put it in Hardy’s hooves. “Keep it safe ‘till our next game, ‘kay?”
Hardy stared at the prized marble in his hoof, and sniffled a little at this gesture of friendship. His smile of joy washed over all of his prior grief. “Okay. Thanks, Constant.”
“Hey, don’t thank me yet, Hardy. You still remember the bet, right?”
Hardy stood up sluggishly, putting away the marble for safekeeping in his own bag. “Don’t remind me,” he groaned, as he proceeded to lean down and scoop up the marbles littered in the dirt, a long and arduous process in and of itself.
Constant couldn’t help but snicker.
After some time spent on cleanup, all the marbles were put away, and the ponies watching dispersed. The sun had begun to dip low into the evening sky, the colors red and yellow mixing into a fiery orange like a palette of wonder. The light of the sunset splayed all across the town, refracting into infinite shapes and spires.
Hardy Smith and Dig Deep waved and chanted goodbyes as they went home. Once the two had disappeared into their houses, the chill of the air deepened, and the two remaining ponies turned to face each other.
“I liked the way you played marbles, Constant,” Golden complimented cheerfully, “You did really well. In fact, you were amazing!”
“It was nothin’,” Constant replied with a look of pride, “I practice a lot in my free time.”
Constant then tilted his head towards the sky and dreamed for a moment of a brighter future. “Who knows,” he considered, “Maybe one day I’ll get one made out of solid silver. I’ll bet the Unicorns and Pegasi have those.”
“Wouldn’t they fall through the clouds?” Blossom wondered aloud.
“Oh, crud, you’re right. They probably would.”
A moment of silence passed between them. Constant rubbed his head again, and Blossom tucked a foreleg behind her other. Blossom took in a breath, and then let it out.
“I… I have to tell you something, Constant.”
“Huh? What’s that?”
Blossom hesitated, but only for a moment. “...You make me happy. When we’re together, I mean.”
Blossom blushed. Constant followed suit with a similar expression, and the both of them looked away for split moments.
“I- uh. You… you make me feel happy too.” He told her, the sureness in his voice wavering as the compliments washed over him.
Another awkward silence passed before Golden Blossom continued.
“The truth is… It’s not very nice at my home,” she confessed to him woefully, “My Mom and Dad support me… but they don’t make me feel happy. They’re really busy, and they never have time to see me, so I have to cook and clean all by myself.”
She stopped for a moment, if only to reflect on her troubles. “It wasn’t easy to keep going on; with each day…”
She steeled herself once more, her expression uplifting to determined optimism. “U-Until I met you! Y-You’re strong; and kind… and funny sometimes, and-and… and I’m glad that we’re friends. I really am.”
She lowered her head shyly, excitement building within her from her emotional display. Constant was in shock at her words, and a blush crept upon him.
“I don’t know what I would do if you and I were separated from each other.”
There was a silence.
“Wow, uhm. Wow.”
Golden Blossom’s expression fell, and she recoiled in the fear that she had said the wrong thing. She turned away from him as if the sight was too awful to bear.
“Oh no, I said it too soon… I’m sorry Constant, I didn’t meant to, I-”
She then found herself in Constant’s tight embrace, as he bashfully faced away from her. Her expression turned to surprise and confusion as she looked up at him. His blush burned fiercely, and hers matched his.
“N-No! It’s… well… I was just kinda… amazed by all the things you like about me,” he told her abashedly, “And I really like you, too.”
Golden Blossom returned the favor, and held him tightly. The two held each other for some time, until Constant turned to look at her.
“Are you… that unhappy with your family?” He asked, finally.
Golden Blossom fell into the comfort of the embrace, but her expression only became grim. “Yeah… it’s been happening for a long time. I couldn’t keep it quiet anymore, and- and I don’t know what to do, but… I know what I want to do. I wanna keep seeing you.”
“I do, too,” he told her shortly, his eyes seeming far away with astonishment.
Abruptly, a hollering met their ears, and they turned together to face it in one movement. Golden Blossom’s mother stood near their home not far away, waving her hoof.
“Blossom! Come home, sugar buns, we’ve got an important announcement!”
Golden Blossom looked with uncertainty at her mother, then at Constant. She swallowed.
“I- have to go now.”
“Yeah.”
Golden Blossom fidgeted slightly, before reluctantly breaking away. “B-Bye, Constant. S… See you later.”
“Yeah.”
She left. Constant stood there, in wonder.
“Wow. I can’t believe she thinks about me that way,” he remarked, bewildered, “I mean, I guess she is… cute. And nice. And she has a great laugh, and-”
Constant shook himself from his thoughts, alert to a sudden time and place he had to be. “Oh, no!” He exclaimed, “I’m late for dinner!”
Constant raced home, moving at top speed, and he proceeded to barge in the front door. His mother, now leaning over a pot of soup, turned to look at him with a mixture of shock and curiosity.
“Where’ve you been, honey?” she asked innocuously.
“I was busy,” he replied, sitting down to the hot bowl of soup placed on the table for him, and scarfing it down hungrily.
His mother eyed him with a squint before she bore that look of motherly playfulness at him. She stirred the pot, swirling the soup that filled it.
“Were you talking to that filly a few houses down? Golden Blossom?”
“Mom!” Constant cried in a mixture of terror and apprehension,
“Sorry, sorry!” she apologized spiritedly, “Just curious.”
Constant resumed terrorizing the beans in his soup with his hungry mouth and proportionately massive teeth.
That night, Constant Vigilance couldn’t stop thinking about Golden Blossom. He’d always liked her as a friend, but now whenever he thought about her, he found his face turning as red as a tomato. He cursed internally with words he wasn’t allowed to speak for fear of his mother’s wrath.
That morning, Constant quickly decided after his breakfast of oats and milk that he wanted to see Golden Blossom. Surely if he talked with her, these feelings of his could be sorted out.
When he got there, however, he instead found a large wagon and her parents outside their house. Furniture was being carried from the interior and placed around the wagon, in preparation to be loaded. Constant approached Golden Blossom’s father, a middle-aged stallion named Silver Blossom.
“What’s going on?” Constant asked, to the mild surprise of her father.
“Oh, hello young Vigilance. I’m sorry to say, but I and the missus are moving east towards the coast. We won’t be living here in Haysville anymore.”
The proclamation speared itself through his heart like a well-thrown javelin.
They’re moving?! But-But that means-! Constant thought fearfully,
“Where’s Bloss at- uh, I mean, where’s Golden Blossom?” he asked quickly, correcting his words to hide his affection.
“Inside, I imagine.” he told him, “Do you want to say your farewells? Give me a moment.”
Her father turned to the open doorway and cupped his muzzle with his hooves.
“Sugarbuns! Goldie, honey, your friend Constant’s here to say goodbye!”
No response. Her father tried calling for her again, and again, but to no avail. Constant was getting severely anxious.
“Shiny?” her father called, this time to Golden’s mother, Shining Blossom. “Can you let Goldie know her little friend’s here to say his goodbyes?”
“I thought she was outside with you, hubby!” Shining Blossom called, directed back to her husband.
Golden Blossom’s father contemplated the situation for a moment, and then shrugged. “I guess she must be saying goodbye to her other friends. Y’might be able to catch up if you run-”
Constant zipped away without another word.
“-Fast enough.” Her father finished, heavy with slight apprehension. “Sheesh, what’s gotten into that colt? Enduring and his wife surely weren’t so antsy, where they?.”
Constant ran all over town. He ran to Dig Deep’s house, the Smith residence, even to the town square and the post office. Nowhere was Golden Blossom to be found.
“Think, Constant, think. Where could she possibly be…”
He thought hard before a memory occurred abruptly to him, and all of the things she confided to him when they were alone together came rushing back.
“The truth is… It’s not very nice at home.”
“...but they (my mom and dad) don’t make me feel happy.”
“I don’t know what I’d do if you and I were separated from each other.”
Constant’s heart skipped a beat. He swallows hard, his head twisting look around even more closely than before, hoping it meant he would find her. “Does- Does that mean she’s run away?!”
He trotted in place out of nervous anxiety, and his teeth gritted. Where was he supposed to find her, and what was he to do? If she got hurt, then…
“Oh no, oh no, oh no… keep thinking, Constant, where’s the one place she’d want to-”
“We should visit the forest again!”
Constant, the memory unearthed from his subconscious, went wide-eyed. “The forest!”
Without a second glance, he was off.
The forest on the north-western edge of town wasn’t particularly scary, not like the stories he’d heard of the enchanted deadwoods full of the corpses of trees and thorny shrubs at the farthest-northern parts of the land, but it was still mysterious. The morning light glimmered through the tall treeline and spread their shadows in rows across the soil.
Constant, with no regard for their beauty, raced across fallen logs and overturned stones half-buried in the ground. He breathed heavily, almost hyperventilating, as he made a beeline for the place they had discovered the last time he and his friends had visited: the crevice at the heart of the forest.
At last, he arrived, to see Golden Blossom standing on the rocky outcroppings. Her eyes were locked with the woods beyond on the far side of the gap, far too wide for any earth pony to reach with a simple jump. Constant might’ve thought about how easy Pegasi and Unicorns had it when it came to crevice-circumventing, but his mind was on other things besides racial politics.
“Bloss!” He yelled at her errantly, upon finding her there.
Golden Blossom jumped at the sound of his voice, and turned around to face him, her eyes were slightly wet with already-shed tears. She looked a mess, with an unkempt mane and sorrowful eyes. No doubt she had skipped her brushing that morning when she was delivered the news.
“C-Constant?!” she exclaimed in astonishment, “H-How did you get here?!”
“Bloss, listen to me!” Constant begged her, “Please don’t run away!”
Golden Blossom absorbed the knowledge that Constant knew what she was trying to do, and she frowned, receding slightly towards the direction of the crevice.
“B-But I can’t go back!” she shouted at him, “M-My parents will take me away if I do, and I can’t leave home!”
“Bloss, I know it’s scary, but trust me!” he implored her, stepping closer as she stepped away from him. “You don’t have to leave! We can talk with your parents! You can stay home with me!”
She considered this for just a moment but denied it almost immediately thereafter. “I can’t! They’d never let me! They’ve never really known me!”
“Please, Bloss!” He beesched with fear and fright soaked in his words, “I’ll visit you! I’ll get a job that travels so we can see each other in town! We’ll send each other letters and be penpals! Anything for you, just please don’t run!”
Golden Blossom said nothing, and now she was pressed up against the ridge. Her eyes flickered towards the chasm below, and then to Constant Vigilance, who reached out his hooves to grab her.
“But… But then I wouldn’t be able to see you every day!” She told him, “I can’t live life without you!”
“I know how you feel, and I know it’s hard to be apart from you! I know it, because- because-”
At last, on the edge of his words, he understood.
“Because I love you, Bloss. I couldn’t stop thinking about you last night, and- and I realize it’s because I love you, and I… I want to be with you, too.”
Blossom gasped, her cheeks lit aglow with color. The sadness vanished from her face. “Y-You do?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I guess I do.” he decided resolutely, “But we can’t see each other ever again if you run away, and I think you know you don’t want that either!”
He breathed, pausing for a second as Golden Blossom shifted slightly.
“When I’m old enough, I’ll- I’ll marry you! Then we’ll be together forever, and we can always see each other!”
Golden Blossom’s smile was like the rays of sunshine lighting up the sky. It was the most precious, most glorious thing Constant had ever seen. How could he have never seen it before?
“Yes,” Blossom said at once, “I do. I love you too, Constant, and marrying you… would be the one greatest thing in my entire life. I… I…”
She conceded, defeated by how silly she had been, trying to run away from home for fear of losing Constant. How could she have run away from him of all ponies?
“I won’t- I’m sorry… for trying to run away.”
“It’s okay,” Constant told her, with the brightest smile in the world, “I forgive you. Because I love you.”
Golden Blossom’s next smile was even more adorable than her last. She reached out a hoof to him, and he reached to take it.
But then, at the last moment, a rock on the edge of the crevice loosened.
Constant didn’t know how long he screamed for her, but he kept screaming. Even after he watched her fall into the dark depths of the ravine, with one hoof reached out from both of them. In one singular moment, the hopes, dreams, and wishes of a lifetime vanished in an instant. In their place, was only heartache.
And after it was done, once it was all over and he could no longer see her fall, he found himself crying to an extent he never knew was possible.
But he didn’t care. Not about him or anypony else. Not even about the ponies who found him lying there, in the woods, alone and in tears.
Just her, Golden Blossom, the one he loved.
Constant Vigilance spoke with the soldiers that arrived that afternoon. He told them everything, and the scribe they brought wrote it all down.
Then her parents showed up, and they cried too. They cried as hard as he had, and they hugged each other. They hugged him and told him they were ever grateful that he’d tried to save her.
Others didn’t see it the way they did, not after that day of her death. The ponies rumored, gossiped, and told each other lies, and eventually most of the townsfolk agreed that her death was a tragedy. A tragedy that the now ‘uncouth and wild’ son of Enduring Vigilance, had gotten mixed up in, therefore being at fault.
Constant wanted to talk to his friends Hardy and Dig Deep, but when he went to their doorsteps, he only met their aggrieved parents. The only thing they told him was that he was no longer welcome at their house for what had happened. In the end, he complied.
Because he agreed with them, too.
Constant’s parents, at least, were loving in the same way that they always were. They dismissed some of the wilder notions and defended the integrity of their son’s account with all their might, but it did nothing to improve the general beliefs of the townsfolk. They called him names when he walked through town, like ‘poker’ for poking his nose where he didn’t belong, or ‘grim’ for his dark tones.
Eventually, they settled on ‘pusher’, after a particularly nasty rumor spread that he was the one to do it. None were true, but the rumor mill remained hard at work churning the deceit at-hoof. Those who didn’t bother with nicknames, usually old mothers, simply chose to never refer to him by name. They called him ‘that Vigilance boy’ as they went on with their day.
And Constant believed he deserved every title and every nickname.
Word even spread to some of the neighboring villages, and even the other tribes. They, naturally, propagandized the story to further their advantage. They called the earth ponies ‘weak’ and ‘disorganized’, and as a result; Constant was all the more hated.
It wouldn’t take long before it was forgotten under the blistering snow that came on the fifth year after the tragedy fell, and the far more light-hearted tale of Hearth’s Warming emerged to leave it forgotten in the pages of history. The efforts to relocate southward towards Equestria overshadowed the ‘Haysville Accident’. Within a few years, only former residents remembered that the village had even existed.
But Constant still remembered, even if they didn’t. He kept remembering, after the third year and beyond. And he would never forget.
Constant Vigilance sat on the side of his bed, on the second day after the tragedy. The pail that stood in the corner was full.
How… How could I have let this happen? If only I had… gotten to her sooner, or maybe I shouldn’t have gone near her at all. She’d probably have come back on her own, if I had given her time...
But no.
He slammed his own hooves against his face as if to punish himself for his failure, but there was no use in it. He fell back against the coverings on his bed and felt like crying again. Unfortunately his tears were spent, even if his sorrow wasn’t. The permanent look on his face was of extreme misery.
I’m worthless. I’m to blame. Everything that everypony in town says about me is right. It’s all my fault.
He tossed and turned in bed.
What should I even do anymore?
He thought about it. And then he thought about it some more. And then he came to understand one thing.
“I… I can’t let what happened… happen again. I can’t. I can’t. “ He stated to himself, before getting up off his bed.
With a glint in his eye, he stood tall in the center of his bedroom, as if facing an invisible foe.
“I won't!” he declared, “I won’t! I’m going to get stronger, and stronger, so I’ll… I’ll never hurt anypony else again!”
His resolve hardened, even at the slightly childish notions, but he would have none of it.
“I’ll never let anypony die because of me again. Never. I’m going to train- and, and-”
He paused for a moment, thinking it out with a tap of his head.
“-And I’m going to start right now!”
Then he marched, straight out the door, right to the nearest tree. His father had told him that there were apple buckers in some of the orchards to the far east, with strong hind legs that could knock apples off a branch in seconds.
“Well, I’m going to knock the leaves out of this tree!” he decided, as he approached, already turning around. He reared his legs back and slammed the trunk with all of his stored strength and pent-up frustration.
Unpracticed at bucking a tree, he only hurt himself. But the tree was shaken, and a few leaves did fall off. So he kept going like that, for the whole evening, until his mother and father (who had arrived home early due to the events of two days ago on leave) found him furiously working at the tree, not stopping for even a second.
Constant had made a vow to himself, and it was then he determined that he was going to keep it. He would be vigilant, so that never again would he ever fail as he did before. It was in his name, after all.
He would’ve kept going if his parents made hadn’t made him stop, but that didn’t matter, for all night long he dreamed of becoming so strong that there was nothing else that would ever stop him from keeping everypony safe.
He was certain, both for himself… and for her, no matter what it took. No matter the sacrifice.
He would be greater.