Chapter 20
Canterlot Mountain

I woke up in the middle of the night to some muted cursing. I cracked an eye open to scan the little outcropping of rocks Patches and I had chosen to hide in and quickly located the source of the noise. Patches was pawing through a small satchel that had an eerie magenta-ish glow emanating from it. Mixed into the light was a reddish glow that was slowly flashing and it was accompanied with a dull humming.

“Fuck, which one is it?” He hissed as he shuffled the satchel’s contents. I was about to sit up and reveal that I was awake and ask him what he was looking for when he pulled a small crystal out of the bag. I recognized it as one of those spell crystals, it was slowly turning red, shining, humming, then turning back to normal. “Answer,” he whispered and the humming stopped.

The crystal faded to a soft blue and a mare’s voice played through the crystal.

“Gabriel? Gabriel are you there?” It asked.

Gabriel?

“I’m here Marigold,” he replied softly, his voice significantly deeper than usual. It had to be at least an octave lower and had taken on a rumble his voice usually lacked.

“Gabe, oh thank the Sisters you answered. There are these THINGS,” the distressed voice stopped. “They’re tearing the town apart and kidnapping ponies! I think I saw one eating someone,” she trailed off a moment. I could hear distant screams and the crack of rifles being fired in the background.

“Marigold? Are you still there?” By the Sisters hearing his voice that deep bothered me.

“The local military is trying to evacuate everyone but they keep getting attacked by these monsters! What do I do Gabe?” Her voice was getting frantic.

“You still living in that two story house with the basement?” Patches asked, or was it Gabriel now? I’d have to ask him later.

“Yeah, you want me to go down there?” She asked, I could hear the sound of drawers being opened.

“Yes, but first you need to smash open all of your perfume bottles. Throw them at the walls, the doors, everywhere. Do it until you can’t stand the smell then try to cover yourself in dirt to hide your own scent. After all of that take a few day’s worth of food and water down to the basement,” he instructed as he produced a map and pencil from his pack.

“Alright I’ll do all that,” she responded over the sound of shattering glass. I heard several grunts of effort followed by the shattering of what I guessed were bottles of her perfume. It wasn’t long before she was coughing.

During this little outburst of shattering glass and coughing Patches was drawing on his map, his brow furrowed in thought. “Alright that’s probably enough Mary, they won’t be able to smell you over all that. Get your supplies and hide,” he whispered, he must not have noticed me yet. I kept still just in case.

“Gabe how long will it take you to get here?” She asked over the scuffling of more drawers being opened and what sounded like cans being put into a container.

“Shouldn’t take more than three days, but pack for a week in case I run into trouble on the way there,” he huffed a little and erased something on his map, tracing the pencil in another direction.

There weren’t any towns three days away if he was going to travel on the ground, was he seriously considering flying?

“Alright, I’ve got enough food stashed away, I guess I’ll try not to get caught,” she said as I heard a door opening and the periodic clunking of someone going downstairs.

“Good luck Mary, keep quiet and I’ll be there before you know it,” he said in the most reassuring tone he could manage with such a deep voice.

“Thanks Gabe, I’ll cut the spell and try to save magic in case a more urgent situation arises,” she said as another door shut.

“Smart thinking, I’ll see you in a few days,” he said as he folded the map up.

“Bye Gabe,” she sounded like she didn’t want to cut the spell. I understood, he was her only company in this time of disaster.

“Kisses,” he replied, then cut the spell himself. He dropped the crystal into the satchel and let out a stress-laden sigh.

Fuck, what was I going to do? Should I sit up and let him know I just listened in on his conversation? Should I go back to sleep? Was this another one of my freakishly real dreams?

Patches stowed the satchel in his pack and cinched it shut. He rose and walked back over to the rock he had claimed earlier when he relieved me from my watch. He sat on it and set his rifle down, leaning against the barrel as he stared off in a particular direction. He probably didn’t even notice me waking up.

No point in tiring myself out by not sleeping I suppose, I’d ask him about it in the morning if he didn’t run off on me.

/ / / / / / / / / / / / /

“Alex, Mars? Are the two of you prepared for your duel?” Castion, our trainer asked. He was eighty six years old after the decade he spent training us. The only thing on him that betrayed his age was the bit of salt and pepper on his muzzle. He carried himself perfectly, his armor was worn from years of use but his dress uniform was flawless whenever he wore it. He taught us how to fight, how to speak properly, how to be presentable, how to maintain and wear our uniforms.

“I am ready,” I said, giving a quick bow to Castion, Mars did the same. We were both bruised and tired from the day of fighting other Rustwings in our training group.

“Very well then, remember the winner of this duel will be fighting Kathana for first place,” he reminded us with a grin. “Now step forth, challenge each other, and don’t forget your manners!” He barked as he backed out of the circle.

Mars and I were not using weapons of our choice, everyone was using a sword and shield for this tournament. The shields were diamond-shaped, but the edges had been covered by rounded metal caps to prevent impalements. The only real armor we wore were helmets, our bodies were covered by heavily padded clothes that would still allow some nasty bruises. We would be fighting with weapons of our choosing at a later date. We both strode forward until we were three paces apart and raised our blunt training swords to challenge each other.

Mars was around 5’8” and had a brownish orange coat. His eyes were a bright orange and his mane was cropped short like every other warrior in training present. In spite of his smaller size, his wings were larger and stronger than mine.

“Are you ready to meet your better?” He asked, a small smirk on his face.

“Quite, I’ve heard she’s an unparalleled fighter,” I responded, immediately dispelling his smile.

“Manners, children,” Castion spat.

We both lowered our swords and bowed to each other at his words.

“That’s better! You may begin!” He barked, a grin on his face.

I dashed forward and to the right, trying to get my shield into a better position to hammer Mars with. He had apparently been paying attention to my earlier fights and moved farther to my left, keeping my shield out of reach. The crowd of young Rustwings watching yelled and cheered for either myself or Mars.

“You’re not going to catch me with that one!” He shouted over our crowd as he continued circling me.

That’s right, run in circles you little idiot. Tire yourself out. I continued turning to face him, turning ahead of his path slightly as he picked up the pace.

He slammed a leg down and sprang in the opposite direction, making a lunge at my right side. I thrust my hips forward to dodge the blade and was promptly bashed by the front of Mars’ shield.

I caught the edge of his shield with my sword hand and swung the edge of my own shield around his, jamming the blunted edge into his ribcage. I was rewarded with a loud wheeze as I knocked the wind out of him. I immediately released his shield and swung my sword, striking his helmet with satisfying force and an equally satisfying cheer from the crowd.

The force of the blow caused him to stagger away, which he was free to do after I had released my grip on him. His wings flared out to steady himself as he regained his composure.

“Non-lethal blow, continue!” Castion yelled, his grin widening. Mars and I had been competing with each other for months and had just been pissing each other off. We had both been looking forward to this fight.

“Yeah kick his ass!” Someone in the crowd cheered, seemingly to both of us. I think half of them really just wanted to watch both of us get our asses beaten.

“You and that damned shield,” Mars started as he stepped toward me to attack again. “Are really starting to piss me off!” He yelled as he tried to dodge around my shield only for me to turn and face him.

“I’m surprised you have breath to spare for wailing at me like that,” I taunted as I maintained my defensive stance. “Do you intend to become a banshee so you might scream me into submission?” I asked with a smirk.

“This coming from the pony afraid of attacking me,” he snarled as he swung his blade. He was far enough away that only the tip of his sword was near me and it was an easy block.

“I’ve landed every blow I’ve sent your way so far. Can you make the same claim cousin?” My grin only widened when I saw him tense and get ready to try to shield bash me. He kicked off the ground and threw himself at me, perfect.

I leaned forward, all my weight on my left leg as our shields collided. I pushed against him as hard as I could, pushing up and forward with my leg as well. His helmet slammed into the back of his shield and the smaller Pegasus was lifted from the ground. I continued the explosive sweeping motion, pushing out as hard as I could to throw Mars. It worked.

If the crowd cheered at my much more successful shield bash, then they completely fucking lost it at what happened next.

Mars landed on his wings. His fucking wings! They had extended to the ground and caught him, keeping him in a prone position about a meter off the ground. I swung my sword at him and he blocked it with the bottom of his hooves, the steel clanging loudly against his horseshoes.

“Too slow,” he sneered, then twisted to the side to deflect my blow down and to the left. His wing curled up and struck my helmet with incredible force, nearly knocking me over as I staggered to the side.

“Non-lethal blow! Continue!” Castion bellowed over the now louder crowd. His voice was getting ragged after screaming all day long.

Mars had taken the opportunity to get back onto his hooves, a fresh grin on his face. “Brute strength isn’t everything in a fight,” he taunted, mimicking my defensive stance. “Too bad you lack a true Pegasus’ instinct, you’d probably stand a chance of beating me if you actually knew how to use your wings!”

“True that brute strength isn’t everything, but you’d need a considerable amount of it to attempt a stance like that against me!” I yelled as I charged him with my shield raised. I saw his wing tense as he prepared a powerful counterattack, perfect. He knew the only chance he had of standing against me was to use his superior wingpower, but in a grounded fight…

I dropped to my knees right as his wing snapped out at my head, sliding under his guard. I brought my sword out in a lunge, thrusting the blunted blade into his stomach, then turning it and swinging it up into his chin. I pulled it sideways as I struck, forcing him into a spin as he lost his footing.

I didn’t give him a chance to recover as the crowd screamed at us from the edge of the circle. I sprang up from the ground and slammed my shield into his back, pushing him face first into the dirt. I then began a relentless assault against the back of his head, I struck his helmet five times with the blunted edge of my sword before I was stopped by Castion’s hand grabbing my arm.

“Fuck’s sake Alex! I told you to stop! I’d hate to have one of you die this close to graduation!” He screamed as he released his grip on me. When did he tell me to stop? The crowd of onlookers was dead silent after my display.

Mars let out a soft groan and shuffled on the ground, the helmet had been dented by the force of my strikes. He started to push himself up off the ground and fell forward again.

“Mars, are you going be able to haul yourself out of the circle or am I going to have to drag you?” Castion asked, his hands on his hips as he looked down and the disoriented Pegasus.

“I cn gehrt pup m’self!” He babbled as he struggled to rise and toppled over again, his eyes opening and closing rapidly. He let out another groan and closed his eyes.

“I’ll take that as a no,” Castion grumbled as he knelt and grabbed Mars’ hooves. He rose and dragged my unconscious cousin from the circle. “There’s always ONE crazy motherfucker,” he muttered as he unceremoniously dropped Mars next to Deimos.

Deimos was another one of our instructors, easily the youngest at only thirty years of age after the decade spent training us. He was a Unicorn with a pale green coat that had white spots all over his face, arms and legs. He saw to all our injuries when he wasn’t instructing one of our classes or teaching spells to the Unicorns. He was almost never without work to do.

My attention was drawn to the mare striding into the circle. Kathana stood an inch or two shorter than Mars and had a white coat. Her mane was black and she had grey eyes that had an eerie shimmer to them. Similar to Mars, she had a larger wingspan than I did.

“Kathana? Alex? Are the two of you ready to fight?” Castion asked. “The winner of this duel will be champion of today’s tournament, and that’s something you carry to graduation,” he said with a smirk.

“I am ready,” Kathana replied, giving a quick bow, I followed suit.

“Good, step forth and challenge each other,” he said with a nod as he backed out of the circle.

Kathana and I stepped up to each other and raised our swords, presenting them to challenge each other. The crowd was starting to get noisy again. Kathana had proven several times that she was unrivaled in skill, but a large part of this fight was endurace. I had plenty of that.

“Don’t think your compliment from earlier means I’m going to take it easy on you,” she said with a confident smirk.

“Good, it wouldn’t be a fair fight if either of us held back,” I said with a smirk of my own. We bowed to each other before Castion could berate us further and waited for his command.

He was silent for longer than usual, he was testing our discipline. The crowd even grew silent as Castion watched us holding our bow, never taking our eyes off each other. The air itself seemed to go still, thick with tension.

“Begin!” He barked.

Kathana immediately lunged forward with a quick thrust that put me on the defense. I knocked her sword to the right with my shield and attempted a strike at her side. A quick flick of her sword deflected my own attack behind her and exposed my back to her, she’d still need to raise her sword to strike my unprotected side.

Rather than back off and give her the ground she most likely sought, I spun with her parry and brought my shield around. Her sword struck my shield with a loud clang and a cheer from our audience. I attempted a quick thrust at the opening my move had created and she quickly jumped back to avoid my attack. I had to keep up this momentum.

I stepped forward with my shield up and attempted to bash her out of the circle with it, only for her to dive to the side and roll around me. Shit!

I spun and knelt just in time to block the strike that would have sent me stumbling out of the circle. I took a low and purposely slow swing at her hooves that she jumped over. I then easily reversed the swing to sweep her legs out from under her. Her hooves tucked farther up and planted themselves against my shield. Fuck.

She kicked off with enough force that I would have fallen out of the circle had I been standing. If the crowd was loud when I was fighting Mars, they were trying to raise the dead after that stunt. She managed a backflip and stuck the landing, but her air time gave me the chance to retake some lost ground and go on the offensive again.

I dashed forward and struck at her with my sword, she easily parried the attack but I continued delivering rapid, powerful strikes to keep her from making an offensive move. Any opening I ever left for her was open for too little as all her effort was concentrated on blocking my strikes. She was losing ground and heading toward the edge of the circle again.

She darted around my right side and struck at my side, I turned with her and added my momentum to the strike to leave her side exposed. I swung the edge of my shield around, aiming for her ribcage. Her wing snapped forward and deflected my blow into her upper arm. The impact definitely hurt but she wasn’t giving up.

She kicked the ground and launched herself away from me so she could recover her defensive posture. She rolled her shoulder and her brow drew down slightly as it popped a little. If it hurt her shoulder that badly then her entire tricep was going to be bruised the next day.

“It was a non-lethal blow, if the two of you were waiting for me to say so. You may continue,” Castion’s voice had changed slightly. He was no longer barking at us and his grin was replaced by a much more pensive stare. The rest of the group paid him no mind, the cheers were mixed as well. One moment I’d hear encouragement for myself, the next it would be for Kathana.

She had taken quite the pause to see to her shoulder and arm, if I kept the pressure up on it I could disarm her and create an opening. I started forward and began delivering strikes toward her right side, ones she would have to block or dodge. Unfortunately for me she was an expert at the latter.

The duel turned into a flurry of attacks and dodges that skirted the edge of the circle. Then I noticed it, I was slowing down. I was breathing harder. She was wearing me out to create an opening. Not if I could help it.

I swung at her right arm again, this time arcing it over her to attack her shield arm. She had nearly forgotten that side of her body during my constant assault. I pressed my blade against her shield to prevent her from dodging right and slammed my shield into her. She had no choice but to block with her sword arm.

I yanked my sword back over her shield, narrowly missing her face. Our swords collided and the steel sang as the sword was wrenched from her weakened grip. As soon as I had knocked her sword down I swung right again. This time my sword met with her unprotected arm, impacting the bottom of her shoulder which let out a loud pop.

She let out a cry of pain and spun, bringing her shield up to bear as she lashed out with a wing. I didn’t have enough time to avoid the strike, it was more than that however. I felt her wing wrapping around my head and it was too late to stop her. She spun, yanking me by the head as she did so. When she released me I stumbled forward and only just managed to stop myself at the edge of our circle.

“Non-lethal blow, but that one looked like it did some real damage. If you can continue to wield your sword I will allow you to continue fighting Kathana,” Castion called over the din of our viewers. Nearly every last one was yelling encouragement to her, even the ones who had been cheering for me moments ago.

I took this moment to catch my own breath, if Kathana was indeed going to continue fighting I’d need to be careful with what little energy I had left. The lull in the fighting made me painfully aware of how sore my body was from all the impacts it had endured. Add hunger, thirst, muscle soreness from constant exercise, and exhaustion from sleep deprivation and constant fighting and I was nowhere near pristine fighting condition. At least everyone else was in the same boat as me.

Kathana bent over to retrieve her sword, her arm was trembling and unresponsive. Her fingers were barely able to grasp the sword and she dropped it before she was able to straighten back up. The crowd fell silent as her sword clattered into the dirt.

“Kathana I’m-” Castion began.

“NO! I can do it!” She barked at Castion before stooping to retrieve her weapon again. This time she managed to hold onto it and stand back up, but it just hung limply at her side.

“Can you raise it to fight him?” Castion asked, gesturing to me.

Her arm turned slightly but she failed to raise it at all. The blade was beginning to slip from her weakening fingers again.

“Damnit, no you don’t!” She snarled as she wrapped her wing around her arm to give it support. She went as far as to wrap it around her hand as well, forcing herself to grip the weapon with renewed vigor. She gave me a determined glare before looking to Castion for his approval.

“I’ll allow it,” he stated simply. “However,” he said as he raised a hand. “If you drop it again I’m declaring the fight over,” he warned. “You may continue.”

“Kathana, I do not wish to cause you further harm-” I started.

“I wish I could say the same to you!” She snarled before she launched herself at me, her wing-assisted strikes landing with unmatched ferocity. Even when I blocked her onslaught with my shield her blows landed with enough force to knock my shield back against my helmet.

I was losing ground quickly and every time I would sidestep and turn to avoid the edge of the circle she would lay into me with her powerful strikes. I could hear her shoulder popping in its socket as her wing roughly handled the injured limb, but she was far too enraged to care.

I ended up dropping my own sword to brace both arms against my shield. I couldn’t focus with it banging against my head. Some of the viewers pointed at my discarded weapon and yelled at Castion.

“I said if Kathana drops hers! Alex’s arm still works and he can retrieve it!” He snarled at the jeering audience.

I had to come up with something! Kathana was still trying to smash her way through my shield!

Crack!

Oh fuck.

My fucking shield was cracking, I could only imagine what was happening to that abused shoulder joint. It was still popping with every motion but it looked like it wasn’t dislocated.

That’s a terrible idea.

I unbuckled my shield and dropped it, immediately reaching up and grabbing the flailing limb. I spun away and to the right, yanking the smaller Pegasus in a circle around me. I stuck my left leg out as I continued to trace my right one back, tripping her and sending her down into the dirt.

“I’m sorry Kathana,” I said as I pinned her arm behind her back and tucked her fist up between her shoulderblades. Her shoulder popped loudly and she let out an ear-splitting scream immediately releasing the sword. The cheering of the crowd immediately halted. There was no victory cheer. No tapering off. It ended, punctuated by her pained scream.

“It’s over! Let her go Alex!” Castion yelled as he and Deimos ran over.

I immediately obeyed and backed up to give our instructors space. I could hear a bunch of murmurs around me as Deimos worked Kathana into a sitting position and set about resetting her shoulder.

“Ow! Fuck!” She shouted as the joint was put back in its proper place. Deimos gave her a sling to use for the next few days and a reassuring pat on her newly set shoulder. He made her go through the range of motions to make sure it still worked and she winced with every movement.

Castion walked up to me as I rose and set a hand on my shoulder. “Good job Alex, you’re the tournament champion,” he said, looking past me. His hand slid off my shoulder as he turned to the rest of the young warriors. “Alright, tournament’s over! You have your champion until the final tourney two months from now! I hope this experience helped you realize what you need to work on!” He yelled to our group, even Kathana was paying attention.

“Now all of you go eat dinner and go to sleep! Tomorrow we’re starting before dawn!” He ordered, earning a chorus of “yes sir” from the group before they departed. I was about to leave as well but was stopped by Kathana of all people.

“Alex,” she said whilst looking down. “I forgive you, you did what you had to do. I was out of control,” she trailed off and turned away with a huff. “Let’s go eat,” she said as she worked her arm into the sling and started off toward the camp.

“You’re an unparalleled fighter Kathana, it was a hard day of fighting. That last battle could have gone either way,” I said, trying to offer my cousin some comfort as we left the fighting circle.

“I’ve proven that I am the best of our group time and time again, but today your endurance bested me. I wasn’t supposed to fail!” She yelled with a frustrated groan.

“We all feel that way Kathana, every last one of us is here to succeed. Now imagine how our brothers and sisters who lost first round feel, we’re all in this together Kathana. Perhaps two months from now you’ll be the champion,” I offered.

“Perhaps?” She asked with an amused smile.

/ / / / / / / / / / / / /

I sat up abruptly with a loud snort and looked around the campsite. Patches was still sitting on his rock, he looked over his shoulder with an arched eyebrow at my sudden outburst. Beyond his visage I could see the sky turning its usual pre-sunrise blue and I could even hear the sound of a bird chirping.

“Sleep well?” Patches asked, his voice had returned to its normal tone.

“Yeah, well enough,” I said as I rose and checked the camp over. Nothing out of order, no sign of the mess Patches made last night during his call. “Anything out of the ordinary?” I asked as I knelt to deliver my morning prayer.

“Nothing crazy, want to eat breakfast on the go?” He asked, I could hear him getting off his rock.

“Yes, it will save time,” I replied as I finished my prayer and rose once more. I walked up to my friend and debated asking him exactly what happened last night. I decided against it and started following the train tracks up the side of the mountain before I’d been standing still too long. If he noticed my hesitation around him, he didn’t say anything.

He did mention his past traveling the world, it explained him knowing random ponies all over the place. But why would he need a different alias? Had he committed crimes in the past? Was he trying to escape someone or something he’d done? Actually, considering his promiscuous nature he probably changed his name to escape a crazy ex… Or two.

Since the railroad was an established path up the entire mountain Patches and I decided to follow it. Of course this also carried a higher risk of encountering someone less than friendly. I noticed Patches glancing off in a certain direction fairly often and decided to ask him. hopefully he’d be honest with me.

“Something bothering you Patches? You keep looking out to the horizon,” I said as casually as I could.

He stopped and let out a little sigh. “Yeah, I got a call from a friend last night and she’s in trouble,” he quickly raised his hand before I could talk. “Don’t worry though! I’m still going to get you to Canterlot, but I’m afraid that’s where we part ways,” he said with a small frown.

“How’d you talk to her?” I asked, tilting my head a little.

“I used a communication spell on one of those crystals. I was going to give you one for when we had to separate,” he explained as he reached into his pack and produced a little pink crystal. He held it out for me, a little smile on his face.

“Thanks Patches,” I felt a smile of my own as I took the little crystal. “How do I use it?”

“Just focus on me, think about me and my sexy body,” he said with a little chuckle as I rolled my eyes. “If you focus enough on the idea of talking to me, the crystal will call mine and we can talk. Just make sure you save it for emergencies, it can only cast the spell two or three times depending on how long you use it per call,” he explained as I pocketed the crystal.

“I’ll keep that in mind, let’s get up there so you can go help your friend!” I motioned him forward as I headed up, thankful he had been at least partially honest with me. He didn’t bring up the identity thing, but I suppose I could let it slide.

“Have any idea how long you’ll be gone?” I asked as we rounded a corner and entered one of the many tunnels the railroad track took to get up the mountain.

“Aww! I’m touched that you want me to come back to you right away!” Patches sang as we plunged into the darkness.

“What can I say? You’re a fun guy to be around Patches,” I said with a little chuckle. Note to self, get a fucking lantern. I tried that wing sonar trick and could roughly make out the locations of the railroad ties, I used that knowledge to my advantage and stepped on them.

“I can hear you using that trick, how’s it working for ya?” He asked.

“It’s weird doing it in a tunnel, the walls echo back a lot but I can see the railroad ties now. How do you keep from seeing like three hundred walls to the left and right?” I asked as I popped the air again and focused as intently as I could on the railroad ties.

“Just be gentle with it, you’re displacing too much air. If you do it more gently like this,” he then demonstrated with a light pressure wave that I barely felt even when I was a few feet away from him. “You shouldn’t see more than a few walls on either side,” he finished, I could hear his smile.

“Alright I’ll give it a try,” I displaced a much smaller field of air pressure and promptly tripped over the next railroad tie. “Fuck!”

“Hahahahaha! That was a little too gentle!” Patches’ laughter echoed through the tunnel as we advanced.

After a little more walking I noticed some strange lumps on the ground and stopped. “Patches, can you tell what these are? All I can see are rough outlines,” I muttered as I tried again. Nope, just lumps.

“I think this is someone’s abandoned campsite,” Patches mused as he bent over and picked one of the lumps up. I heard the sliding of fabric and ‘watched’ the lump deform. “I think this was a blanket being used as a tent,” he observed. “Check that one over there,” he pointed to the one farther away.

I carefully walked over and knelt next to the lump. I grabbed onto it and immediately dropped it. “Whatever it is it’s wet,” I said, fearing the worst. I sniffed a bit but didn’t smell blood.

“Yeah, all this stuff is too. There must be more rain than usual on the mountainside now and someone got washed out of here,” he guessed as he resumed walking through the tunnel.

“Doesn’t explain why they left it all behind,” I pointed out as I resumed walking as well.

“Maybe they ran into trouble? Not like we’re gonna figure it out just standing around in the dark,” he said dismissively.

He had a point, no use wasting time. I had to remember he was in a hurry too, his friend was in trouble. I needed to hurry as well, I needed to report in to Luna and I didn’t want to get stuck outside of Canterlot at night.

It wasn’t terribly long before we made it to the end of the tunnel and two ponies jumped out from behind some rocks. They were both armed and leveled their rifles at us. “Hands up!” One of them barked.

“How about no?” Patches replied as he raised his cannon of a rifle at one of them, I made sure to aim my revolver at the other pony.

“Uh, shit you guys were supposed to get scared and give us your money and stuff,” one of them said as he looked to his partner in crime and they exchanged a shrug.

“Can I throw them off the cliff?” Patches asked with a little more excitement than I thought was necessary.

“Only if I get to skin that one,” I replied and pointed at the Pegasus who looked like he was shitting himself.

“To quote your friend there, how about no?!” He yelled as he turned and jumped off the cliff. He spread his wings and took flight, abandoning the Earth pony that had helped him hold us up.

“Hey don’t fucking leave me you ass!” He called to his once-partner. He then looked at myself and Patches as we slowly closed the distance, our weapons trained on him. “Hey hey hey hey! We don’t need to do anything drastic do we?!” He cowered and dropped his weapon. “Please don’t hurt me!”

I leaned down with a scowl. “Listen up and listen well, because I’m NOT going to repeat myself. I’m in a hurry, my friend here is in a hurry. So we’re going to let you go, but only if you walk into that tunnel and go all the way through it. WITHOUT your weapon, if you do that you’ll be free to come back and get it. If you pop up around here and hold us up again I WILL let him throw you off the cliff,” I growled as I grabbed his chin and made him look at me. “Do we have an understanding?” I asked as calmly as I could, releasing his chin as I did so.

He nodded slowly and rose, then sprinted like he was being chased by Death herself into the tunnel.

Patches held up his hand for a high five, I had to jump and flap my wings to get high enough to hit his hand. “Nice job on that intimidation thing, I thought we were actually going to have to kill them for a minute there,” he said with a chuckle as we resumed our trek.

“I guess we can still catch a lucky break every now and then,” I said with a little smile. Then the words hit me and I let out a little sigh.

“Shit that made you think of her didn’t it?” Patches asked, reading me like a freaking book.

“Yeah, guess I’m going to have to stop using the term,” I grumbled.

The rest of the journey up the mountain was relatively uneventful, we ran into a mountain goat that was somehow just standing on the cliff face. No big fuckin’ deal apparently. It just stared at us and chewed absent-mindedly as we passed by. The only other noteworthy things we spotted were places where the railroad had been torn up to make it unusable. After a few hours we finally reached the gates of Canterlot.

“Well, I guess this is where we part ways,” I said as I turned to Patches, feeling quite downtrodden.

“Just for now,” he said with a little smirk. “It’s not like I’m not coming back,” he chuckled a little.

I unbuckled the holster for the revolver he had given me and held it up for him. “Thanks for letting me borrow this, but it is yours,” I said as I started digging for the ammo box.

“Fuck that noise!” Patches said with a dismissive wave. “I fucking gave that thing to you! You’ll need some kind of ranged weapon that they can’t dodge! Keep it you turd!” He said with a smile as he pushed the revolver back to me.

“Alright alright, I’ll keep it,” I said as I put the holster back on. I then held out my hand for Patches to shake.

He grabbed my hand then yanked me into a hug. “Ahhhh, I’ll miss ya buddy,” he sniffled a bit as he squeezed me.

“I’ll miss you too,” I groaned.

He set me down and waved as he spread his wings. “Until next time, buddy!” He took off, displacing enough air to force me to take a step back.

“Until next time!” I called back.

“Don’t get eaten or anything crazy like that!” He called as he flew off.

I turned and looked at Canterlot with a sigh, the world felt just a little less bright without Patches at my side. I knew it would come to this eventually, I guess I just hoped he’d be able to stick around a little longer. I started toward the gates that hung slightly ajar, I didn’t even see any guards.

“Well shit.”

Author's Note

Ah, another slice of Alex's upbringing and some secrets that Patches is keeping. Or is it Gabriel? Such a sad little goodbye, now Alex is all alone marching into ground zero. Will he survive? Tune in next time and find out!

-Jake