Chapter 45: Memories of the Past

I continued to watch from behind the colt, as he sat on a bench near a pond, throwing small stones into the water and watching them sink to the bottom.

'Isn't... that the kid from Fillyfjell?' I thought to myself as I stood up from my crouching position and crossed my arms.

"A little late to be this far from home don't you think?" I asked aloud, getting him to jump in shock and almost land in the water, just catching himself with his wings.

He panted a bit before turning around and looking right at me, a smile spreading across his face. "It's you! Oh man I knew I could find you again!" He yelled excitedly as he started to fly towards me.

He came to a stop and landed on the ground in-front of me, looking giddy as he looked me up and down. "Where's your cool armor?! And that awesome weapon of yours!" He asked running around me and inspecting me.

I shook my head and let out a sigh as my arms dropped. "Kid... why are you out here so late, isn't it like midnight?" I asked getting him to skid to a stop.

He looked down at his hooves and kicked at the ground a bit. "Well... no its like... six o'clock.... but I had to find you! I heard you were living here and I had to see you again!"

'Six o'clock...' I thought as I looked up at the darkened sky. 'Must be nearing the winter season, sun starts going down early' I thought as I felt the slight chill in the air. 'Wait... this kid lived all the way in the mountains!'

I looked at him bewildered. "Did you fly all the way here from Fillyfjell? Jesus kid!" I said as I reached down to pick him up.

"My name is Silver!" He said as I picked him up and immediately turned to walk out of the garden. "And no we're visiting my aunt here and I wanted to look around for you! You know cause you and Luna are together now." He said as I gawked at him.

"W-what!" I said as I put him down. "Where the hell did you hear that?" I asked as he shrugged.

"Well my mum and dad talked about how they read about you guys in the paper, and said you're basically king by now." He said smiling as my face glowed red.

"N-No... no me and Luna are not... together. And NO I'm not gonna be king... I have too much to worry about already." I said as I pointed at him. "And don't change the subject! You still shouldn't be out all by yourself in a city like this." I said as his ears drooped.

I let out a small sigh as I rubbed the back of my neck.

"Alright... let's go I'll walk you home." I said as I motioned forward. "Lead the way."

The colt nodded, ears still down, and started to walk ahead of me. We walked out of the garden and into the streets of Canterlot, as I looked around and noticed the few ponies still out this late looking at me. I've pretty much gotten used to it by now and learned to ignore it. As we walked I noticed silver has been really quiet the whole way, and still had his ears folded down.

'Maybe I was too hard on him. His parents will probably tear him a new one anyway' I thought as I sighed quietly.

"So... you said you're here visiting family?" I asked getting him to perk up a bit.

He nodded, looking back to me. "Yeah... my mom is visiting her sister. She's a unicorn who lives here. Said she'd give us a place to stay for now." He said as I raised an eyebrow.

"A place to stay? Why?" I asked.

"Well, we're moving to Ponyville. Dad says we should get a fresh start, and Ponyville is a small town like we're used to. So while our house gets built there we're living here for now." He said with a smile.

"Do you agree with him?" I asked noticing the lack of enthusiasm in his voice.

Silver sighed, and nodded his head. "Yeah I guess so. I mean, I'll miss the place and my friends there. But what happened there... leaves some bad memories."

'I know how he feels...' I thought as my mind drifted to my old home-world, eliciting a small shiver as I pushed the memory away. 'No... it's too soon to be thinking about them'

"What about you?" Silver asked, getting me to look at him with a questioning gaze. "Where's your family?" He asked as my breath hitched.

"....back home." I said after a pause. "They're... not here. Not on this planet I mean." I said as he nodded.

"Oh yeaaaaah! I remember that floating thingy with you on it. You're from another world! What's it like!?" He asked excitedly as memories from my home world flooded back, as much as I tried to push it back...

"It was... beautiful. Unlike a lot of the worlds we lived on, this one still kept it's lush look." I began with a small smile on my face. "I remember going and sneaking out every night." I said as I remembered returning home late and getting caught by my father, leading to some harsh punishment. "Man I got into a lot of trouble as a kid." I said as I chuckled. "The sky was so beautiful there. Looking out at it, it reminded you how small you are, with all the other worlds out there I mean." I said zoning out, forgetting where I was. "But... something about knowing that didn't bother me. It kind of... made me feel safe. Like nothing would ever come for a place that barely mattered..." I said as my smile started to fade.

"That's not true!" Silver said out snapping me from my trance.

"Huh?" I asked as he looked back with furrowed eyebrows.

"No matter how small you are, you always play an important role!" He said as he turned to look in front of him. "Like where I lived! You wouldn't think a small town in the middle of the mountains would be useful at all! But even though we were such a small town, and looked like we didn't do anything important... we actually contributed so much!" He said, looking back again with a smile. "We gathered a special root that only grew in the mountains. And being a population of Pegasi, it was really easy because of our immunity to the cold! That root is used in many medicines to cure things like the common cold and feather flu!" He said excitedly as I thought back to my old home.

"Yeah... you know what you're right." I said with a small smile as I reached down and ruffled his black mane. "You're a pretty smart kid, you know that?" I said as he giggled a little bit.

As we walked a bit further, I looked at his flank and noticed he didn't have a cutie mark yet.

I wonder how old he is?

"We're here!" He said as we stopped in-front of a nice medium sized house.

I walked forward and knocked on the door, and immediately I heard hoof steps clicking on wood. The door swung inwards, and a voice spoke up.

"Hello, how can I-" The female voice began before stopping once they saw me. "O-oh! Oh my goodness!" She said as she ran back inside.

I stood there for a second, before I heard two sets of hooves running back to the door. Two ponies emerged, and I immediately recognized them from Fillyfjell as Silver's Mother and Father. I didn't really have enough time to see the details then, but I soaked them in now as they smiled at me.

"See I told you it's him!" The female pony said as the other pony looked me up and down, smiling.

The female pony looked to have a blue body, and teal colored mane, and from what I could see of her cutie mark, it looked like red Icing being spread on a cake. Her eyes shone a light pink color as they looked to her spouse. The other pony had a grey body, black eyes and a white mane, his cutie mark depicting swirling winds and snow.

"Well look at that..." the male pony said aloud. "Never thought we'd get to see you again and properly thank you for all you've done." He exclaimed as he reached a hoof forward. "The name's Storm. Storm Snow." He spoke proudly as I shook his hoof. "And this here's my wife, Velvet Snow." He finished as I gave a small bow towards Velvet. "We're honored for the visit."

Nodding, I finished shaking his hoof and put my hand down."My name is Jake Carson, General of the Night's Vigil." I said getting Storm to bow his head a bit in respect as I looked behind me towards Silver. "I'm actually here to deliver something of yours." I said as I stepped out of the way, revealing silver who was attempting to hide behind me. "Found him in the royal garden."

Storm looked down at him, and anger crossed his features. "Boy! Did I not tell you going out by yourself is dangerous! What if somepony else had found you, and not this kind gentle colt here? Anything could have happened!" He scolded as Silver looked at the ground. "You know your mother was worried sick!"

Silver nodded a little bit as I crossed my arms.

"Come on, get in here and don't think you're off the hook for this!" Velvet said as Silver hurriedly ran inside.

"Well it was nice to meet you guys, I hope you have a good evening." I said as I nodded and started to turn around.

"Wait!" Velvet said, causing me to stop and look back. "Why not stay for dinner? At least let us show some appreciation for what you did." She asked as I shook my head.

"No really, it's alright. I was just doing my job." I replied as Storm stepped forward.

"Nonsense! Come on, dinner is almost ready!" He said ushering me inside.

"Please?" Velvet added in as I looked between them.

I let out a small sigh, and smiled back at them. "Alright."

They both adorned a huge smile, and turned to go back into the house. I followed them in and shut the door behind me as I took off my shoes and looked around the interior.

Directly ahead of me to the right, there was a staircase leading to the second floor of the house. To the left there was a small archway that led to what looked like a living room. I walked into that and noticed that on the right there was another archway leading to a dining room, where a heavenly smell was coming from. Before going further, I looked around the living room some more, it seemed very cozy, and smaller than I thought it would be.

For some reason, I kind of expected everyone who lived in Canterlot to have these HUGE houses, now that I look back at it I'm not sure why I thought that. The living room adorned a couch against the wall across from where I came in. To my left I noticed some bay windows with comfy looking chairs sitting in front of them. After looking around the room, I moved through the archway to my right and into the dining room, which looked like what you'd expect. There was a pretty old, golden colored chandelier hanging from the ceiling, which had candles lit atop it. The room was big enough to house the table, which looked like a semi large oval table surrounded by 6 chairs, the ones on the end having armrests. All in all, not too much different than a human's dining room... other than the slightly lower ceiling, which was no problem apart from the fact that the chandelier hung low enough that I could walk into it.

Across from the table was what I presumed was the kitchen, as I could tell the wonderful smell was coming from there.

"We have a guest?" I heard from a voice inside the kitchen.

A few moments later a Unicorn came out and stopped when she saw me, before quickly turning around and fixing up her mane, shaking her head a bit, then turning back to face me with a smile.

"Hello there... my name is Crystal Melody." She said in a proud tone as she walked over to me and gave a small bow. "It's so nice to meet you Jake."

I looked at her bewildered for a moment. "You... know me?" I asked.

She looked back up and smiled. "But of course! How could I forget a face as handsome as yours? Especially from the way you presented yourself in the sky alongside princess Luna!" She finished as she giggled a bit. "I must say I'm a bit surprised. I didn't expect to see a General at dinner today." She said as she raised her hoof a bit.

'Of course! Pretty much every pony must know me by now after that speech I gave' I thought as I mentally slapped myself for being so stupid.

I looked at her for a moment to quickly take in her features, she was a white unicorn with a red mane and rosy eyes. Her cutie mark depicted a music note with music sheets swirling around it.

I knelt down and got to eye level, taking her lifted hoof and giving it a small kiss. "Well I'm happy to make your acquaintance Miss Melody." I said getting her to blush.

"My my! If all humans are as chivalrous as you are I can't wait to meet more of them." She said as she put her hoof down. "And just Crystal is fine dear, go ahead and find yourself a seat dinner will be ready soon."

I nodded and stood back up, looking at the seats, I decided to take the seat on the far left end of the oval table. Who could turn down the chair with the armrests?

As I sat down at the table, I looked around the dining room's walls at all the pictures hung up. There was a couple with Velvet and Crystal in them from when they were younger, playing in a sandbox. Another one that looked like Velvet wearing some kind of uniform and holding school books.

As I looked at the pictures I noticed one with two ponies who looked an awful lot like Velvet and Crystal, but the picture looked real old. Black and white, a bit crumpled up around the edges and faded.

'Must be their parents' I thought as I looked at it sadly.

Before I could dwell on it any longer, the door to the kitchen flung open, and out came Silver. He ran around the table, and hopped up onto the chair to the right of mine.

"Mine!" He said aloud as he planted himself in place.

I gave a small chuckle as Storm and Velvet came out of the kitchen as well, taking their own seats on the other end a bit to the left. Leaving the arm chair directly across from me open.

"I was just admiring all your photos." I said gesturing to the walls. "Who are those ponies there?" I asked pointing to the picture which I suspected was their parents.

Velvet followed my finger and looked at the photo in question. "Oh, those are my parents, Lotus and Night Melody."

I nodded at the answer and decided not to push anymore, I didn't have to know every detail.

A few minutes of idle chatter went by before Crystal peeked out of the kitchen.

"Oh my, I completely forgot to ask you what Humans eat." She exclaimed in a worried tone.

I waved my hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it. We're omnivores, We can eat anything except things like flowers and stuff. We eat meat, veggies, fruit, all that stuff." I said with a smile.

"Whew!" She said aloud. "We have daffodils included but they're on the side." She said as she went back into the kitchen.

A few seconds later she came walking out of the kitchen with plates of food in tow in her magic. She set the food down across the table as she pulled the chair across from me and took her seat.

Things went on pretty smoothly after that. We all passed around food, taking portions onto our plate and making small talk, telling jokes, and having a good time. I looked around, with a smile on my face as they laughed with each others jokes. I should feel happy, this is something I haven't experience in... a long time. A family getting together and enjoying themselves...

...

Then why do I still feel empty?

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