A Soldier in Silver Chapter 10

Disclaimer: All characters with a speaking role here belong to me, except Swordread Shieldon. He belongs to General Durandal.  All MLP FiM settings are ™ Hasbro and Lauren Faust.

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Eaglewing swallowed hard and tears filled his eyes. Destrier knew that being told that you were indeed dying wasn't an easy thing to accept, especially for one so young.

"You aren't dead yet, soldier. I'm going to try and heal you, and I may just be able to prevent that from happening," the scarlet unicorn said, "But I need you to pay attention to everything I tell you from here on out. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir."

"Good colt." Destrier turned his attention to the mares that Eaglewing still stood protectively in front of. The chocolate colored unicorn worried him a bit. She seemed to be very close to breaking down into tears, something that Eaglewing didn't need at the moment, but Destrier spoke to Sunglow first; he had a more urgent task for her. Cocoaberry would be needed for an important task momentarily. 

"Sunglow, I need you to go to the library and ask Twilight Sparkle to send a letter to the Captain of Princess Celestia's personal guard, Lanceor Shieldon. Explain what has happened here and that we need guards to escort the prisoner to dungeons beneath the castle. Can you do this for me?"

"I can." The golden Pegasus looked at the tall scarlet unicorn and nodded, relief crossing her face as she headed for the door.  There was a low rumble of thunder outside, though the storm still sounded a ways off. It would arrive soon; one could smell the rain in the air and the wind was starting to pick up. "Lanceor Shieldon, Captain of her highness' personal guard. Got it."

Honeycrisp watched her go and glanced at Wildflower. The other earth pony was terribly frightened but kept her fears to herself, except for a worried glance to the thief and to Charger.

There was crash of thunder outside. The storm was getting closer.

"Wildflower and I better go and bring the supplies in before the storm hits," she said, stepping just past the slowly recovering bandit. He snapped his file sharpened teeth at her right rear hoof as she passed, and Honeycrisp reacted instinctively. She flattened her ears, whinnied loudly, reared and brought both of her front hooves down hard upon the prone unicorn's muzzle, knocking out several of his teeth, causing him to yelp from the pain.

At the noise, Destrier turned and looked at the three other ponies, his glance moving from Honeycrisp to Charger, at once assuming the other male had just lashed out at the prisoner. The younger unicorn made a little motion with his head to indicate the paint mare. She, on the other hoof, simply glared at the thief and shook her left foot menacing above his bleeding snout. The red stallion smirked a little. His Honey had spirit.

"Someone's still frisky. Charger, you need to zap him again. Just don't kill him."

"Yes sir! Step back, Miss Honeycrisp. I don't want to hurt you."

"Thank you, Charger," Honeycrisp said with a grin as the thief began to writhe again from Charger's jolt. Then she turned and walked out of the dining room, pausing only to collect Wildflower. The other earth pony mare all but ran from the room, just happy to be away from the carnage within if only for a little while.

Destrier turned his attention back to Eaglewing and Cocoaberry. As long as she stayed where she was behind him, the colt wouldn't relax. He was running on protective instinct and his guard training at the moment, and Destrier had no idea how long Eaglewing could hold himself upright before he would collapse from the strain; this could be a very bad thing depending upon how he fell.

"Cocoaberry, come around to me. You're safe now. The other can't hurt you. Both Eaglewing and I need your help." He spoke very soothingly using his voice to coax her forward. Cocoaberry stood where she was for a moment seemingly rooted to the spot, with eyes on the floor for a moment, breathing hard. Then she moved around the flyer to his commander.

"Thank you, Cocoa."

Eaglewing instantly relaxed at the sight of Cocoaberry unharmed, his rump meeting the floor.
The rest of him would have sagged to the floor as well, but now Destrier's magic held him up. The wounds upon his body had mostly been attended to, and the blood flow from the knife wound was slower than when the unicorn had arrived.

"What do you want me to do, Comm… Destrier?"

"I need you to remove the blade using your magic," Destrier said, keeping his voice calm and even. "Quickly, so that he won't be in too much pain and I can start the healing."

There were sounds from the kitchen as Honeycrisp and Wildflower put the food away, talking so softly that their conversation was a merest mutterings to those in the dining room. Lightning flashed again; followed by a loud crash of thunder that made Cocoaberry jump, and then the rain started falling heavily outside.

"I-I don't think I could do it," Cocoaberry said, her expression changing to one of horror. She shied away from the pair near her. "I don't want to! Can't someone else do it?"

"Besides myself, there is only one unicorn other than you in this room," Destrier shifted his good eye to Charger, "and I'm afraid he's busy with that filthy misbegotten son of a mule. It won't take that long, Cocoaberry, just the merest of moments."

Cocoaberry looked doubtful, but then wordlessly stepped forward to do as she was asked. It was a good thing because during their conversation, Eaglewing started showing signs of acute distress. The colt's azure eyes were dilated in fear and he was panting heavily. This was bad. Destrier knew what he had to do. He would have to put Eaglewing under a control spell before slipping into his own healing trance. He hated using the control spell because it drained his magic and would make Eaglewing's recovery slower than if he just used his healing magic upon him, but he had no choice; he couldn't risk the flyer panicking and bleeding out, or injuring anyone else in the room, including the former commander himself.

"Look at me, Eaglewing!" Destrier said in a commanding voice. The scarlet unicorn's horn began to glow a brilliant gold. The Pegasus watched as a small ball of golden light appeared before his eyes, sparkling and spinning. Inside his mind, he could hear the commander telling him to relax and that everything was going to be alright. The words and the little dancing ball of light soothed away his fear. He could hear his mother singing him lullaby, her smiling face appearing where the ball had been. She took her colt into her hooves, rocking him gently and crooning her lullaby to him. He was so happy to be warm and safe.

"Do it now, Cocoaberry!" Destrier said sharply to the mare standing beside him. Cocoaberry couldn't see the ball of light. She knew nothing of what the commander was doing. She did as she was asked. Her magic, nearly the same color as her mane appeared about the handle of the blade, sliding it quickly from the damaged flesh. The weapon was swiftly replaced with a deep blue glow that now emanated from the larger stallion's horn. The Pegasus never moved, not even when the bloody knife dropped to the floor, clattering loudly. Then she bolted and ran to the kitchen to find relief in her friends and work.

The healing took a while. The outside storm gained strength, the winds picking up and the rain falling harder than ever. Soon the ponies within the lodge could hear the clatter of hail striking the roof and windows. Lightning flashed, followed swiftly by loud and near continuous thunder.

Honeycrisp left her friends in the kitchen, wanting to see how Eaglewing was faring, but it was not good. He had a slight grayish tinge to his coat and that made her wonder if it was too late to save him. She shook the thought out of her mind and moved through the room, heading off down the hall and into the storage closet. There were things she was sure the soldiers were going to need and getting them for them would give her something other than the possible death of the Pegasus to think about.

She dragged a featherbed into the room, moving it closer to where Destrier and Eaglewing were.  The white pony never moved, nor did the larger unicorn. Charger only moved when he noticed the prisoner starting to shift his weight in his direction. That only brought another zap.

"I've done all that I can." Destrier drew back from Eaglewing. He looked exhausted. The Pegasus was lowered gently onto the bedding. "The rest is up to Eaglewing."

There was a loud banging at the door, followed quickly by Stormchaser and another weather pony Honeycrisp didn't recognize.

"Twister's comin' — you all need… what in the Celestia's name happened here?" he asked, noticing the blood, the knife and the still twitching thief. He looked as shocked as he sounded.

"It's long story. Did you say a twister is coming?"  Honeycrisp asked, turning to look out the window. She couldn't see a thing. It was just raining too hard.

"Yeah. It's heading right for the Lodge. You better get into the basement until it passes!"

"We can't move him," Destrier said wearily. "I healed a good amount of the damage, there's a very weak spot on an artery near his heart. If he's bumped too hard, he could bleed to death internally."

"How long to we have until the twister gets here?" Honeycrisp asked, only her eyes showed the fear she was feeling. Because of that, Destrier made up his mind.

"Less than ten minutes, tops," Stormchaser said quickly. "Where are Wildflower, Sunglow and Cocoaberry?"

"Cocoa and Wildflower are in the kitchen. Sunglow went to Twilight Sparkle's house to send a letter about a half hour ago," Honeycrisp said, her voice shaking now. "That's not enough time! We can't get anything to protect all of us. There's a large closet in the hall, but we can't leave Eaglewing to the storm!"

"I can shield us in this room. Wildflower and Cocoaberry, get in here now!" Destrier said, knowing that he could use that very same spell that he had used to defend against the knife attack, only widening it so that it would repel a collapsing building once the storm tore it to pieces. The mares appeared and entered the room gathering close by their friends, but staying away from the electric blue pony. Destrier had a momentary thought to leave him out of the shield and let the building and storm take care of him, but with his luck, the twister could miss them and creep would disappear.  Explaining that to Lanceor would be hard.

A window blew open hard, banging in the hard wind, and the lamps blew out, leaving the ponies in complete darkness. More windows exploded, showering the shield with tiny shards of glass as the winds roared outside. Some of the ponies made soft noises of pain as the air pressure changed and their ears popped. Debris slammed into the walls and roof. There was a tearing sound, of the clay roof shingles being ripped away by the tornado. Yet the roof timbers held. The lodge shivered under the onslaught but in the end stood standing mostly undamaged aside from the windows, the impact of some of the debris to the outer walls and the roof. All inside the dining room were safe.

As quickly as it had come, the tornado lifted into the clouds and disappeared.  It became still both outside and inside the lodge as Destrier's shield dissipated. Honeycrisp gave the big red unicorn pony and affectionate nuzzle of thanks, before turning her attention to a sobbing Cocoaberry. Charger did the same with Wildflower who was huddled against him. The weather ponies followed the wind leaving the group behind to give chase.

Eaglewing slept through the entire event.

The would be killer jumped to his feet while Charger was distracted and raced for the door, only to find his way blocked by a pair of Pegasus guard ponies, who upon hearing Sunglow's cry of "That's him! The one who tried to kill me!" tackled him roughly.

"Hey! Don't rough him up too much! My father will think I did it. I'll get my rump chewed if he's too damaged!"

Swordread Shieldon stepped around the struggling group, turning his attention to the large red unicorn in the middle of the room.

"What a day, huh Red?" he said cheerfully as he walked further into the room. "Catching a suspected murderer red-hoofed, and then nearly getting blown back to Canterlot in a twister! If this is what retirement is like, I might just consider it myself. Uh… Red? You okay?"

"I'm… so tired," Destrier said softly. He took a step towards the newly arrived guard, but then he tottered for a moment and fell lifelessly to the floor.

A Soldier in Silver Chapter 7

On the way back to Canterlot he told the colts that they were going to take the balloon to Ponyville. Both younger ponies greeted this news with excitement. They were as eager as school aged foals on a field trip. They practically tackled the balloon operator when they arrived at the terminal.

The flight itself lasted a little more than an hour. Destrier learned that travelling in this manner was relaxing as Eaglewing soared off to measure the distances between the balloon and the village and so wasn’t there to chatter so much, and that Charger already knew which pony to look for once they arrived in Ponyville, an old school friend.

“What’s his name?” the red pony asked.

“That would be her name, sir,” Charger corrected. “Her name is Wildflower.”

“She was your best friend, I take it?”

“Yes sir. I had colt friends too, but for some reason I got on with Wildflower best of all; we were always together. Then my parents decided that they wanted me and my sister to have more unicorn friends, so they moved us to Canterlot.”

“So she wasn’t a unicorn, then?”

“No sir, she’s an Earth Pony.”

Destrier knew the reason why. The filly wasn’t a unicorn. There were still unicorns that felt that they should only mate with their kind, whether it is a playmate or life-mate. This wasn’t a belief that Destrier himself held. However, Minty was a unicorn and so was Lancer. Maybe they feared their son’s growing attachment to his friend could lead to something more than just being a playmate. It would serve them right for throwing their son away like he was trash.

“By all means, we should look her up,” Destrier said giving Charger a quick smile as the balloon touched down. “If you know her direction, that is.”

“I don’t know where she is anymore, but I don’t think she left Ponyville,” Charger answered as he leapt out of the balloon. His smile broadened as he took in the sights of what he considered home. “I could ask a couple of ponies if they know her and where she would be.”

 "This might be as easy as finding a needle in a haystack," Destrier grumbled, mostly to himself. From the way it sounded, Charger had been fairly young when his family had moved from Ponyville to Canterlot, and one never knew if this Wildflower's family had done the same, perhaps following the settlers to Dodge.

"I remember that Wildflower's mom had a florist shop in the town square," Charger said as Eaglewing appeared, the Pegasus landing with little impact near the gray unicorn. Immediately he began to speak.

"I didn't see any florist shops, but I wasn't looking for them either. There was a cart near the fountain not far from here. There was a really cute mare selling flowers. By the way did you notice all the mares? I did! Fillies and mares by the dozen! I think I'm going to like it here!"

Destrier sighed and walked on ahead of the duo who was chatting cheerfully about the sheer amount of females in the village. It wasn't as though Destrier himself wasn't interested in females, he was. He just was waiting for the right mare to come along, one that wasn't interested in his lineage or the level of magic he possessed, for his family line was very old and prestigious, and he was a pretty powerful magic user. It wouldn't hurt if they weren't put off by his looks, either. Not many mares were interested in a stallion with one eye and huge scars down his face.

They rounded a bend in the road and could see the fountain just up the street. The sweet smell of sugar hung in the air as they passed a confection shop. It was here where Destrier, lost in thought for a moment, nearly trampled over a pony.  She was small, pink with a darker pink mane and tail. Destrier began to apologize as the mare glanced up at him and let out a gasp. He should have been used to this reaction, he'd seen it enough.

"I don't know you!" she exclaimed, leaning in closer to get a better look at him. "I know everyone in Ponyville. That means you're new!"

"Uh..yes," Destrier said warily. Eaglewing and Charger now flanked him, the former looking at the pink mare with curiosity, the latter with amusement. "We've only just arrived. We're looking for Wild—" he never got to finish as the mare cut him off.

"We simply have to have a party in your honor!"

"What? No. We don’t have the time…"

"Sure you can! It'll be fun! We can have cake, ice cream and play party games. Does two o’clock sound good to you? Because it sounds good to me."

"No we can't. We don’t even have a place to stay yet," Destrier snapped, not used to anypony telling him he had to do something when he'd just told them he couldn't. He was a Commander in the Equestrian Royal Guard. He was used to saying no and that being final.  No ifs, ands or buts about it.

“Oh, there are plenty of places to stay in Ponyville, like Silvermist's Bed and Breakfast, the Whitetail Lodge, Risen Sun Hotel,” the pink mare said dismissively. “We can have the party and then after you can go and get rooms."

"A Party sounds like fun." Charger leaned forward, giving the mare a bright smile. The younger soldier knew by the annoyed look on Commander Knightsbridge’s face that the older pony was running out of patience already. It would be better for all involved if Charger took the initiative and steered the conversation away from a likely argument."Thanks for the information. My name's Charger and I used to live in Ponyville when I was a little colt. This is Eaglewing and that's Comman… uh, Destrier. I was wondering if Lilac Bouquet still has her flower shop up the road."

"My name's Pinkie Pie. It's nice to meet you, Charger and friends. Sorry, but Lilac and Starbuck moved to Appleloosa."

"Oh…" Charger looked disappointed.

"They moved about a year ago after Nightmare Moon came back, I threw them a going away party. I don't like going away parties very much, everypony is so sad to see our friends go. Parties should be enjoyable, don’t you think?"

"I see…they all moved?"

 "Only Wildflower lives here in Ponyville now. She runs Whitetail Lodge with her friends. The Grand Opening Party was so much fun."

"She does? Can you tell us where Whitetail Lodge is?"

"Of course I can, silly! It's on the edge of Whitetail Wood. That way."  Pinkie gestured towards the northeast of where they were currently standing.  

Charger was so happy he hugged her and then promised Pinkie that the three of them would allow her to throw them a "Welcome to Ponyville" party later. Destrier gave a snort; it was doubtful that he was going to a party thrown by someone that gave him a headache just from the merest conversation.   

The trio set off for Whitetail Lodge, Eaglewing rhapsodized near continuously about how cute Pinkie Pie was. Ironically, for someone that talked a lot, he had said absolutely nothing to her, just stared. Destrier wondered if the colt knew how to talk to females at all. It didn’t seem so.

To make matters worse, the closer they got to the Lodge, Charger became more and more anxious. He had no idea what he was going to say to Wildflower after all these years. Would she remember him? Would she even want to talk to him because he never got in touch with her like he had promised?

It took a very short time to reach the Lodge itself, as Charger fidgeted nervously and Eaglewing babbled on and on, Destrier was left to do all the talking to whomever appeared as he knocked on the door. He could hear female voices from within, and stood patiently waiting as the door opened by an earth pony mare with dark eyes — the eyes of a memory.

Story: "A Soldier in Silver" Chapter 2

For a moment, Destrier contemplated strangling the Pegasus with one of the curtain pull cords. How he hated hearing that. “Stop Right There, Criminal Scum!” was the new catchphrase amongst the Royal Guards of all of Equestria’s races.  Students used it all the time, bellowing it to one another during training drills until Destrier had enough of it. 

“A fire spell’s a little drastic for catching a simple shoplifter, criminal scum or not, don’t you think?” growled the silver clad officer, striding over to the Pegasus and staring down at him. “Fanning the flames with your wings in order to flush him out is a bit of overcompensation, wouldn’t you say? You both are lucky no one DIED in tonight’s debacle.”

“I agree, Commander,” said Princess Celestia as she entered the room, flanked by General Fireflight, Eaglewing’s commander and another pony that Destrier hadn’t recognized. Others followed, but he wasn’t sure he recognized them either. They were out of Destrier’s limited field of vision. The three in the room bowed as was custom for the Guards when the Princess was present. It was obvious she was very angry.  “Loss of life would have made tonight’s unpleasant spectacle into a disaster of horrific proportions. It’s bad enough that several ponies have lost their livelihoods because of the foolishness these ones caused.”

Destrier stepped away from Eaglewing, now getting a better look at the newcomers. He recognized Charger’s parents; the older grey unicorn’s expression was cold while the colt’s mother looked teary eyed. The Pegasus that had to be Eaglewing’s sire looked frustrated and disappointed. He didn’t look very surprised though. Then his gaze shifted to the plump little unicorn that had entered with Celestia.

It was Greenbacks.

Destrier heard a familiar buzzing in his ears, feeling the first stirrings of rage at the sight of the little fat unicorn even as the Princess started speaking again. Charger and Eaglewing were being drummed out of the Corps. The Equestrian Royal Guards would compensate the shopkeepers, who were being represented by the majority owner-the smug little swaybacked son of a mule himself.

This was the pony that brought that rag tag circus to Canterlot, the one that convinced the skeptical Guards that the Chimera was as docile as a house cat under control of his flea-bitten trainer.

At first everything seemed fine. The circus played for three days without incident.

Then something happened, the spells used to subdue the chimera failed, right in the middle of the afternoon show. The careless trainer was horrifically slaughtered in front of the audience by the beast, the very first to die. It then attacked and maimed or outright killed several foals and their unsuspecting parents, members of a school field trip that had come to see the circus.

The Corps were sent in to control the rampaging animal, to no avail.  It decimated the 145^th. The 72^nd pegasi wing joined in the fight and the creature tore through them like so much paper.  Destrier had been young and filled with stupid bravado, he had charged the brute. It took him down too easily and tore out his left eye.  If it hadn’t been for the timely arrival of Princess Celestia, Destrier might have been killed as well. Only she could control the monster until they could euthanize it, for the chimera was too far gone to rehabilitate. In all thirty died. Fourteen of those killed by the beast were members of both the 145^th Ground Brigade and the 72^nd Air Wing.

All of it had been Greenbacks’ fault.   

Hadn’t Greenbacks pledged to compensate the families of the ponies that had been killed?  Hadn’t he pledged to have a statute made, commemorating the valiant Guard ponies that gave their lives in order to protect the citizens of Canterlot? He did. The nag reneged on each and every promise. And yet here he was, greedily awaiting compensation from the very Guards that he had been directly responsible for murdering fourteen Corps members of only five years prior. Gleefully watching as the Military careers of two promising colts was abruptly ended. Both would have dishonorable discharges on their records.

“Destrier?” Princess Celestia cut into his thoughts, her voice soothing the rage in him that was so very close to the surface. “As Charger’s commanding officer, do you agree to the terms of the settlement with the property owners in Canterlot?”

He nodded, not daring to speak while the shopkeeper remained in the room, knowing that it would be impossible to argue against the settlement, no matter how much he hated Greenbacks.

The group was then escorted from the room by General Fireflight to sign the necessary paperwork; with the exception of Princess Celestia. Destrier regarded her silently for a moment and then spoke.

 “As Charger’s commanding officer I am directly responsible for his actions this night.” He said, his voice quiet and controlled, “As such I am as much to blame as he is, therefore I will be resigning both my position as Commanding Officer of the 145th and as instructor at the Equestrian Royal Guard Academy, effective immediately.”

Story: "A Soldier in Silver." Chapter one

The commander of the 145^th Brigade of the Equestrian Royal Guards was exhausted. Not physically, but mentally. This night had been nothing short of a disaster, all thanks to one of his own. The scarlet unicorn sighed, looking over the city of Canterlot. The fire brigades had finally put out the flames, but not before several businesses downtown had been destroyed.

All this chaos and destruction to catch a petty thief.  It wasn’t worth it.

Destrier turned from the window to consider the ones who had wrecked such havoc. Charger was young and new to the unit. He had talent that much was evident. His father had been a guard himself; the grey stallion was only following family tradition. The pony in question kept his gaze on the floor, not daring to look at his commander.

Charger had not been alone in causing such chaos; a member of the Pegasus wing had also been involved. Destrier shifted his gaze to Eaglewing.  The white winged pony was awaiting the arrival of his own commander. When the scarlet unicorn turned to glare at him, Eaglewing winced at bit.

Destrier knew it wasn’t his rank alone. It was his appearance. He had lost his right eye in a fight with a chimera years ago. The beast had landed a hard blow to the unicorn’s face, sharp claws tearing through both his helm and the skin underneath. The empty socket had been sewn shut and it was covered by a long angry scar. There were still lighter claw scars to the left and right of the wound, but not as deep. It had also shattered his right hind leg, leaving him with a barely noticeable limp. He had nearly died and there were friends in his unit that had been killed in the struggle with the monster. He was one of the few that survived. His reward was a medal, a higher rank and a nice cushy teaching job instructing new recruits. After all, a member of the Princess’ personal guard was useless in battle if he was blind in one eye.

It was before the princess had decided that her unicorn guards had to be a uniform gray in color and her pegasi guardians had to be white. The troops were a myriad of colors at the time. The unicorn sighed; he was one of the very last of his kind.  Only the earth pony guards were colorful now.

“So…” rasped Destrier, the unicorn in silver armor finally getting his temper under control enough to speak to the duo.  “Would either of you idiots mind explaining the thought processes that warranted using a fire spell on a shoplifter? Or would either of you like to wait until the Princess arrives?”

That brought Charger’s gaze from contemplating his hooves to the furious face his commanding officer.

“The Princess...Princess Celestia?” he asked looking completely aghast. Destrier nodded, wondering if the grey unicorn was feared a long vacation to the moon for this mess.

“He was criminal scum, sir!” interjected Eaglewing. “It’s our duty to stop them!”