A Soldier in Silver Chapter 9

As Honeycrisp escorted the males to their lodgings two more mares appeared from a side room; Destrier recognized the brown unicorn with the strawberry red mane and tail that had been with Honey at the Gala years ago, and a palomino Pegasus. Both looked at the newcomers with interest and smiled at the stallions as Honey stopped to introduce them. The unicorn smiled broadly, said her name was Cocoaberry and shook hooves, and the Pegasus giggled saying that she was called Sunglow. Honey told them that her name was actually Honeycrisp, which given her apple cutie mark, the name was fitting. Not that he was staring at her flank… no not at all.

 Given that Eaglewing was completely without the ability to speak at the moment, Destrier again made the introductions to the trio of lovely mares, each representing the three races of Equestria. Once finished, Honeycrisp resumed her task of showing the stallions to their respective quarters.  

The rooms of this modest inn were not as luxurious as one would find in an expensive hotel suite in Canterlot, but they were more than comfortable for a trio of soldiers whose duties had sometimes required them to sleep on the ground out in a field. The beds were large enough for a pony of Destrier’s size to sleep with ease. There was a writing desk in each room and enough space for the former guards to put their belongings. All for just fifty bits a week, meals included.

Eaglewing bounded into his room, finally finding his voice to excuse himself from the company of the Commander and Honeycrisp. He needed to rest for Pinkie’s party later that evening.

“Pinkie Pie is throwing you a party?” Honeycrisp asked the scarlet unicorn with a smile. “You might want to rest up as well, Commander. You’re in for a long night.”

“I’m not going.”

“You didn’t promise her you would attend, did you?”

“I made no promises. My companions did.”

“You didn’t swear on it? Something like ’Cross your heart, hope the fly, cupcake- in- the- eye’ type of swear?”

“No…” Destrier said, a confused look crossing his face. He had to ask why. There was no way around it.

“Oh, that’s good. Pinkie gets a bit upset if someone breaks a ‘Pinkie’ Swear. She can be downright scary when she’s upset.”

Destrier raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. He'd faced down dragons before; what could a little pink earth pony do to a well trained former guard pony, even if she was one of the Elements of Harmony?

“You should put in an appearance, you know. Just go in, say hello to Pinkie and her friends, eat some cake and drink some punch. Meet some of the other residents of Ponyville. Thank Pinkie for the party, but tell her you are so very tired from travelling and need to get some sleep. It shouldn’t take more than a half hour to forty five minutes at the most.”

“Will you be there?”

”I wasn’t invited. ”

“I’m inviting you now. Please? I don’t know anyone else in Ponyville outside of Eaglewing and Charger. Forty five minutes with complete strangers would seem like an eternity, especially since most will avoid talking to me because I’m disfigured; that scares some ponies.”

Honeycrisp knew that he didn’t want sympathy, Destrier was simply stating fact. Even when her friends here had been introduced to both stallions, they had directed most of their comments to Eaglewing, despite the fact that the colt was all but mute. They glanced at and then quickly away from the scarred unicorn and barely said a thing to him outside of a few pleasantries.

It was weird to the little paint pony, because Destrier didn’t look horrible to her. The scar lines were thin, pink and well healed, and whatever damage there was to his eye was hidden behind that closed eyelid. There was no torn and hanging skin, no open wounds weeping blood and gore, and no exposed bone. He just didn’t look like a hideous monster in her opinion. If anything, the scars made him more intriguing to her.

“Okay, I’ll go with you. I think I can spare forty five minutes from my busy schedule for a Pinkie party,” she said with a wink before turning to go. “Since I am going with you, I think it would be a good idea if we both get some rest before going. See you later, soldier.”

“See you, Honey…crisp.”

In all the party was fun. Pinkie Pie had arrived to escort the newcomers to her party, cheerfully chattering all the way, bouncing along effortlessly like she had spring-loaded hooves. The party was located at the local bakery and sweet shop called Sugar Cube Corner. Eaglewing flew behind her, nodding in agreement to whatever she was saying. Charger and Wildflower followed, still engrossed in conversation about their childhood together. Destrier and Honeycrisp were last, the paint pony talking about her relatives that lived there in Ponyville.

Destrier found that he'd had such a good time that he hadn't even noticed if anyone stared at him or not, since he was engaged in conversation with many of Honeycrisp’s friends and family. He even felt honored to meet the other five wielders of the Elements of Harmony.

 Charger was reunited with more old friends and Eaglewing was a hit with the youngest partygoers. The colts and fillies seem to flock to him, finding the Pegasus a source of amusing stories, silly faces and fun games. This didn’t surprise Destrier at all, for it seemed that Eaglewing was very much a young colt himself.

How long the party went on, Destrier didn’t know. He and Honeycrisp left earlier than most of the others, though not as early as they had originally planned.  Honey smiled as the larger pony trotted along side her in a good mood, happy with how things had turned out this evening. He walked her to her little house that was on the property of the Lodge and was completely caught off guard when Honeycrisp kissed him lightly on his scarred cheek, thanking him for taking her on a fun “date” before she went inside.

The next day, the scarlet unicorn was up as early as he normally would have been if he had still been in the Guard.  Old habits were very hard to break after all. After breakfast in the dining room of the Inn, he found Honeycrisp outside “fixin’ to do her daily chores,” as she said in her soft twang. She had to get a load of apples from her cousins at Sweet Apple Acres, pick up some kitchen supplies for Cocoaberry, buy some more linen, groceries and other assorted items for the lodge and make the bank deposit. Destrier volunteered to help her, saying that he would be more than happy to do so. Although she appreciated his willingness to help, she protested because he was a guest and shouldn’t have to do so.

Their conversation was interrupted when a loud skidding and tearing noise sounded above them. The pair looked up at a large storm cloud grey Pegasus with a tornado cutie mark as he shook the remnants of the damaged roof tiles from his hooves.

“Stormchaser!!!” shouted Honeycrisp angrily. “Why can’t you land with finesse? You are going to have to pay to fix my roof — again!”

The pony smiled, leapt down from the roof and landed lightly in front of her.

“Honeycrisp, my favorite variety of apple, so sweet and tasty,” the Pegasus said in flirtatious tones. He leaned in and picked up Honeycrisp’s right hoof to place a kiss on it, oblivious to the murderous look he had gotten from her large scarlet companion. “Why aren’t you my mare, lovely?

“I dun know, could it be because you’re a complete jerk that keeps wreaking my place of business, maybe?” Honey snapped, snatching her hoof away from him. “You better have a good reason for tearing up the lodge.”

“You might want to get things done as soon as possible today, oh Crispy one. Looks like there’s bad weather on the way. Not just rain, either.”

He would have said more, but the weather team leader appeared and called him back up into the clouds. He gave Honey a cheeky smile as he leapt skyward, vanishing as swiftly as he had appeared.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” Honeycrisp said to Destrier. “Stormchaser’s a jerk sometimes, but he’s always right about the weather; we better get a move on.”

    

By the time she was finished, she had two large carts and heavy saddlebags. As strong an earth pony as she was, Honeycrisp couldn’t haul all of her things back to the lodge on her own, and gratefully accepted his help.  Destrier took one of the carts, the one with all the apples and one of the larger saddlebags.

They ran into Wildflower and Charger coming out of the Whitetail woods, the pair loaded down with colorful fall foliage and flowers that she would use to make decorations for the lodge. 

The four talked happily as they neared the building, but the conversation abruptly stopped when a piercing scream came from within the inn itself. Destrier used his magic to disengage himself from the cart and followed Charger into the Inn, followed by the mares.

“Where’s the money?” a strange voice demanded hoarsely. “Give it to me!”

Charger halted quickly, when a knife embedded itself in the wall beside him. Destrier snarled a low curse as he took in the scene. A strange pony stood in the middle of the room, a unicorn with a mangy electric blue coat and matted greasy brown mane and tail. His teeth seemed to have been filed into sharp fangs like those of a carnivore. Around the pony floated an assortment of knives. There were more sticking out of various pieces of furniture in the room and worst of all one large knife was buried to the handle in the chest of Eaglewing, who stood protectively in front of Sunglow and Cocoaberry.

Eaglewing had several small wounds. But none were as bad as the knife in his chest; it was way too close to his heart. Blood flowed about the wound, forming a puddle at his feet. Though severely wounded, the young guard pony stood his ground on shaky legs, his eyes never leaving the unicorn stranger.

Again the blue unicorn sent a knife flying towards Eaglewing, but this time it was rebounded harmlessly away; Destrier had called upon his shield magic, a spell that all unicorn guard soldiers learned upon entering the Academy. Using this magic he pushed the blue unicorn away from the injured. He had succeeded in getting the twitchy thief away from his victims, but then what? Eaglewing’s injury was priority. Without a healing and soon, the colt could die. Destrier would have to hone all that he had into the healing; he could not waste his magic upon disarming and imprisoning the attacker.

Charger seemed to know the conflict going on within his commander.

“I’ll take care of it, sir,” said the grey unicorn.

Destrier’s eye widened in horror thinking that Charger would burn the Lodge to ashes in an effort to contain the bandit, just as he'd done before. How else could a fire generator stop a thief? He started to tell him no when the knife thrower sent another sharp missile in their direction. Charger pawed the ground and took a fighting stance. Before Destrier could stop him, Charger's horn sparked, his eyes went white and he sent an electric bolt crashing into the criminal. The blue pony jerked hard and flailed wildly, finally collapsing in a heap upon the floor. 

Destrier stepped over him and moved to Eaglewing. He was shaking harder than ever, fighting to remain upright. Destrier could also see that the young stallion was very scared. It was going to be hard to keep him calm. If Eaglewing suddenly panicked once the blade was removed, he would bleed to death in minutes, and at the best of times Eaglewing was already very flighty. Destrier wasn’t sure the Pegasus guard was going to make it; he had lost so much blood already.  

“I’m dying, aren’t I, sir?” Eaglewing asked as Destrier approached.

“Yes you are, colt.”