When War is Close by

When War is Close by

Chapter 4
Red, Sliver and Black

Twilight looked down into her tea cup, that had been emptied and refilled a few times, since she had started sharing her first experience. Of this one, of the two commanders of the Equestrian army.

She recalled the memory and numbness she had felt that day looking after the leaving soldiers. Their hooves shaking the ground making sound like a rumbling thunder that rolled off into the distance.

The talk she had with the princess, her mentor, afterwards, brought about the things to come and things to be done as well as a heavy book of combat spells and a list of pages she had to study.

Her mentor hadn't been angry, she seemed to be kind of happy. That she herself, Twilight, had decided to take care of Ponyville. Yet her mentor also seemed worried and concerned about what the future would bring...

“Well, the commander doesn’t sound like a too bad of a pony”. The just a bit taller than ponies dragon broke the silence.

“Well, ah' guess I can't argue with that”, the orange farm pony followed up.

“Yea!”, the pink party pony exclaimed as she popped out from under the table and sat on her rump next to Applejack, Pinkies blue eyes shining with admiration.
“He and Twilight even managed to convince Granny Smith to move into Ponyville retirement village!”

“Yeah... she ain't all happy 'bout that. But ah' reckon it's all for the better...”
The orange farm pony nodded and adjusted her Stetson before continuing.

“But really, ah'm truly grateful. Not having to worry much about Granny, in case the war hits...”
Now the orange farm pony put on a serious frown.
“Yet, fer some reason, ah don't feel all that secure around him”.

“Well, everypony seems to feel like that”, Twilight nodded understandingly. “Well, everypony except Pinkie pie...”, she giggled.

“What? He is such a nice pony to talk to!”, the pink party pony beamed. But quickly her smile turned into a concerned frown.
“But he is so quiet and it's so hard to get him to smile... I mean, he does smile sometimes but it's only for a really, really short time”.

The others shrugged at this information. It wasn't really something they had noticed.

“W-wait...”, came a small and nervous outbreak from a certain butter coloured pegasus who had laid aside her nurse uniform on the table. “Y-you 'talk' with the... with the...”
The shaking pegasus was struggling to press the last word past her lips.

“Yes, of course I do! We're friends”, said the pink party pony with a newly brightened smile on her face as she scooped up a cupcake with rose red frosting and ate it one bite.

“But h-haven't y-you heard the rumours?!”, the still shaking butter coloured pegasus exclaimed as she tried to hide her frightened expression behind hair, “That pony is dangerous!”

“Oh, come on!”, it suddenly burst out of Scootaloo stopping Pinkie from responding.

The relatively young orange pegasus, who up until now had just been sitting there quietly and listening sat down her tea cup, before she continued.

“These rumours sound really ridiculous to me. Nopony with a sane mind would ever dream of murdering ones own parents! Not to speak of the one saying that his coat should have changed colour.”

Her words were met with agreed nodding and silence but Twilight broke the silence.

“Actually I investigated most of those rumours”, she began.

Her friends turned their faces to look at her with questioning faces. She hadn't actually told anyone about her little investigation of her own superior, until now.

“Well? Spill the beans already”, said the orange pegasus impatiently. Her heterochromian eyes shining with curiosity.

Twilight stayed silent for a short moment before she began to talk.

“There are a few facts that in a way support the possibility of him having committed the murder on his parents. If it even was murder.”

Twilight stood up to reach out for the pot of tea to fill her cup again. “The mansion that belonged to his family burned down on same date as the day of the so called murder.

The fire alerted the neighbors and the fire brigade was called. According to eye witnesses, he was found a short distance outside the mansion. Unconscious, yet otherwise unharmed, but covered in blood.”

Twilight filled Spikes tea cup for him and received a thankful nod as she sat down, the dragon took the tea pot from her and served everyone another round of tea, as Twilight spoke.

“Along with him was found a sword from older pony history that apparently had been passed down in his family through the generations.

Later on he was tried for the murder of his own parents...”

She paused to gather herself for a moment and sip some tea.

“Was he ever, ya know... sentenced?” her orange farm pony friend asked quietly.

“Apparently not.” She replied as she slowly shook her head. “ Princess Celestia stepped in and had the case closed and all charges dismissed.
But I couldn't get any other information about the case. It's been sealed from more than just the normal public eyes...”

“Did you investigate the ruins of the burned down mansion? ” the heterochromian pegasi poked in next to her. “There has to be something, some kind of clue at that place!”

Twilight shook her head again in response. “No, I wanted to have a look at it myself.
But the commander had a new mansion build in exactly same spot and the fire brigades report didn't say much more than the fact that the fire might have emerged from the fireplace in one of the bigger living rooms.
It also stated that, due to how the mansion was build, determining where the fire actually started was impossible.”

Her friends shrugged at this almost dead end information.

“Then how about that obscure rumour about his fur's colour chance?” the pink party pony exclaimed across the table stretching out her neck towards Twilight, looking sceptical,
“I mean he must be dyeing his coat or something!”

“Well no”, Twilight once again shook her head. “In fact this rumour appears to be somewhat true. No one knows how he did it and it's never been seen before.”

The party pony let herself fall back onto her back giggling. “I thought I finally had a leg up on our mystery pony friend!”, she said before rolling in under the table still giggling.

“So he used to have a white coat?” said her purple scaled friend sceptically as he lifted his cup to take a slurping sip of tea, letting Pinkies Pie be Pinkie Pie.

“Yes, I even talked with the headmaster of the Canterlot magic school he was attending at that time and he confirmed that commander Blackmanes fur did indeed change colour at the date of the murder.”

“Well”, the farm pony nodded and then smiled, ”It's true that he is mighty suspicious but gold bits don't lie much...
Thanks to him we have a whole lotta work to do at the farm and we get a big bag of gold bits from the army every month for as long as we can supply em' apples.”

“I suppose that deal is really good for you and your family”, the heterochromian pegasus began, “But is there really no catch at all?”

“Eyup” the orange farm pony replied with a bright smile. “Well, ah' guess you can say that the 'catch' is that ah' hardly have any apples fer anypony else ta' have”, as she shrugged.

The truth behind the farm ponies words made Twilight feel a bit guilty. She was after all part of the reason that the deal between the army and her friend had gone through.
She managed to hide her guilt well enough for her friends not to notice.

“He sure sounds...” The purple dragon paused trying to find the words, “Interesting, this commander. Even if you say he seems like a nice guy, all those rumours and facts sound kinda scary.” He chuckled nervously.

“Oh...”, a deep velvet soft voice suddenly spoke up in a melancholic tone right behind the purple dragon.
“I’m so sad to hear that my tainted reputation have preceded me once again...”

Twilight was about to inhale her tea in surprise instead of drinking it, forcing her to cough violently a few times. She had completely forgotten that today she had to meet up with the commander and formulate her report of the week to him.

Fluttershy had jumped in surprise and was now hiding behind Applejack shaking like a leaf.

Spike stood up and turned around to look at the smaller stallion who met the dragons studying eyes with an almost timeless gaze.

The commanders armour had over the past half year only seen harder and harder battles. The helmet, that the commander had taken off before showing up, was the only thing that seemed to be relatively unharmed.

Holes and broken off pieces the battle worn armour had been fixed by replacing them or repaired with scraps of metal, seemingly found on the field, and strapped on with a glue-like substance, making his armour look like an odd mix of white steel, golden pegasus armour and an occasional single large leg piece of back steel whose origin Twilight only could guess would have belonged to a half dragons armour at some point.

Ponies at the other tables around them had fallen silent at the commanders entry at the part of the main square that belonged to sugar cube comer but Twilight and her friends hadn't noticed before now.

She could feel the usual odd stomach feeling settle in and could clearly see it spelled in the faces of the ponies tabled up around them as well as her friends. She had mostly gotten used to it herself but only because she was the one who spend the most time with the commander.

For how long had the commander been standing there and how much of their conversation did he listen to?

“So... you must be Spike”, the commander said calmly, directing a armoured hoof at the purple dragon in front of him giving him sign to shake it. “Nice to meet you, I'm Lucas Blackmane, commander of Ponyville.”

The taller dragon hesitated for a second. Twilight felt like the taller dragon was somehow smaller than the commander but as the purple dragon closed his claws around the the commanders hoof and shook it, this illusion faded away faster than thin fog on a warm spring morning.

“Um... like wise”, the stunned purple dragon managed to say before letting go of the armoured hoof. “I'm... Twilights former assistant”.

“Yeah, so I have been told.” The commander hummed, “That aside, welcome home. I hope the changes I have applied haven't made it too unfamiliar.”

Spike opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by a loud excited yelp from a pink party pony who had jumped onto the table and leapt into the air only to land heavily on the commanders back making him groan at the sudden crash that had taken him by surprise but he regained his composure in a flash.

“Lucas! You are finally here!”, she exclaimed with shining bright smile hugging him closely around the shoulders and neck.
This gesture made the commanders, otherwise serious stiff, frown wobble shortly into an uncanny small smile that faded away fast back into his usual stiff frown.

Twilight shook her head and looked across the table at the orange farm pony and the heterochromian pegasus who looked just as surprised as she herself felt.
Fluttershy still hiding behind Applejack not daring to move from the spot yet still shaking like a leaf.

“We are having your favourite tea! Do you want some?”, the party pony questioned the stallion below her.

“Oh...”, the armoured unicorn started to trot forwards seemingly unhindered by the weight of an extra pony on his back. “I might as well, now that it's here.”

The pink earth pony jump off the red stallions back and on to the table, flipped the last tea cup and filled it with the still hot tea that she had brought them not too long ago.

Today’s tea was a weird honey sweetened tea of a mix that Twilight had never had before but it was a surprisingly soothing tea.

The pink party pony served it with a chocolate muffin from the basket of goods set amidst the table, as the commander dropped his weapon belt and sat down with a slight armoured clunk, right between Spike and Twilight.

The pink earth pony jumped of the table. “Well, it's about time I get back to work. See you guys later”, she beamed before she bounced off to take care of newly arrived guests.

The commander took a rather long sip of his tea and exhaled with a heavy sigh holding his cup between two hooves. His stiff his expression changed to a more relaxed one.

Somehow Pinkies actions had pushed away not just the weird tension but seemingly also most of that odd feeling that always seem to settled in, in everypony when the commander was near.

“Sir...”, Twilight began as the red stallion next to her sat down his tea cup,
“I'm sorry that I didn't meet you at the usual place... it's just that--”.

The red commander interrupted her with a lifted hoof and an understanding nod.
“It's quite all right, Miss Sparkle. It happens to everypony now and then.” He reached out and took a hold of the muffin in front of him to take a rather large bite of it.

“So AJ”, he managed to say before gulping down the last of his muffin, “How is it going at the farm?”

The farm pony put on a joking smirk adjusting her Stetson. “Oh shucks commander, you worryin' 'bout me now?”

The commander pulled up a dry short laughter that seemed almost imitated but still somehow real.

“Well, I did choose to take care of the battlefront myself but that doesn’t mean I can't come back and meddle in the job I handed to my vice commander”, he replied.
Placing his hooves on the table and rising into a proud stand in an attempted joking manner that somehow managed another smile that seemed bit less uncanny.

“Then, how do you feel, commander?”. It suddenly came from the heterochromian pegasi who sat across the table.

The commanders uncanny smile faded into a frown again as he sat down with a heavy metallic thump. It was then Twilight noticed the only slightly darker red bags under the commanders eyes.

“Sir?”, she questioned the commander who had now placed a thoughtful hoof on his chin looking down into the table. “Is everything all right?”

The commander didn't respond at first but after what seemed like about a minutes time he sighed and looked up.
The grim look on his face told Twilight that todays number of victims returning from camp Left Hoof would be one of the bigger ones.

“Well... if you all really want to know”, he paused, maybe listening for an objection to continuing but no one said anything so he continued, his voice dry and some what melancholic.

“We had a rough night. A night some of my men will never forget. A night some of my soldiers didn't make it through...” The red unicorn had once again picked up his cup of tea with his hooves emptying it with one large gulp.

The purple dragon shook his head and said, “That's... terrible”.
Twilight felt that she couldn't agree more but she didn't utter a word.

However the commander let out another heavy sigh. “It is indeed but none the less it's my duty to watch over those stained fields to keep the rest of Equestria safe.” The commander sat down his empty tea cup and turned to Twilight.
As he raised up to a stand from his sitting position and put on his steel white helmet, showing intention of leaving.
“But speaking of duty, it's about time that Miss Sparkle and I go on to do what is our duty towards this town.”