Here have some art! This is gonna be big!

Destrier and Honeycrisp. Scarred side of Big Red. above. Below in armor. 

Honeycrisp (above) Checkered Flag (below, sans cutie mark)

Honeycrisp is scared of heights.

Flt Lt Starsfall (above) PawPrints (below)

Stormchaser and Sunglow

All artwork and characters are © eablasingame. Moar on my dA account

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 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.”