Decades Lead to Every Day

by RLYoshi

Rating: teen
Tags: Comedy, Slice of Life, Dark, Romance
Length: 14502

Winter Solstice: born in Canterlot, raised in Fillydelphia, now residing in Ponyville as captain of the town's division of the royal guard. His life is... not quite what you'd expect it to be like.

Winter Solstice: unicorn, stallion, socially awkward, wisecracker, collector of knives, and the captain of the royal guard division in Ponyville.

His story isn't an ordinary one, that's for sure.

[This story takes place in a universe that branches off from the season four finale. Anything from season five onwards is ignored.]

(Chapter titles currently come from the song "Broken" by Sonata Arctica. Go listen to them, they're awesome.)

Arc 1: Winter Solstice (Chapters 1 - ?)
(GENRE: Primarily comedy slice of life, with dark/sad moments, particularly in backstory.)
Who, exactly, is Winter Solstice? His neighbours know him as a royal guard captain with a goofy side, his family knows him as a successful member they can be proud of… and his friends know him as just broken. Who's right, who's wrong, and why?

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-01-14 22:14:00 UTC

Chapter 1: I Was Raised From A Broken Seed

A small clinking noise. A door creaking open. A figure silently walking into the room.

The shadowy figure looks around before motioning to some other figures, all of whom follow it in. Once the door has been closed, they split up, searching through various filing cabinets as quietly as possible.

After almost an hour, an audible sound pierces their ears: paper flopping to the floor. The guilty figure can feel the glares through the darkness, and it bends down to pick them up.

Then it notices something written across the front. Guilty expression slowly turning to a grin, it quietly opens the folder and begins to read.

====================

FILE Pv-RG: WINTER SOLSTICE, CAPTAIN

Gender: M

Race: Pony, Unicorn

Born: December 21, ████; Canterlot

Special Talent: Shield Magic

Status: Alive

Appearance

Coat: ██

Mane/Tail: ██

Eyes: ██

Family

Bulwark

Relation: Father

Race: Pony, Unicorn

Status: Alive

Location: Fillydelphia

Perma Frost

Relation: Mother

Race: Pony, Earth

Status: Alive

Location: Fillydelphia

Limelight

Relation: Sister

Race: Pony, Earth

Status: Alive

Location: Manehatten

██████

Relation: ████████████

Race: ██████████

Status: █████

Location: ███████████████

Health and Mental Concerns

    - Low magic capabilities

    - Horn more sensitive than most due to ████████████████████████

    - High-functioning autism

    - Chronic insomnia

    - Dysthymia

    - Obsessive-compulsive disorder

    - ██████████████

Extra Notes

    - Currently resides at ███████████████ in Ponyville, Equestria

    - Maintains frequent contact with Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight Sparkle

    - Does not use standard issue royal guard weaponry; uses custom dagger set instead

    - Particularly efficient on non-combative assignments and peacekeeping missions

    - Possible ███████ ancestry; look into when able to

WARNING

AVOID THE FOLLOWING SUBJECTS WHEN INTERACTING:

    - ███████

    - ████

    - ███████████

    - ███████

SUBJECTS HAVE BEEN PROVEN TO PROVOKE HOSTILE RESPONSE AND/OR CAUSE TEMPORARY DAMAGE TO MENTAL PSYCHE.

====================

"We got it," the voice whispers into the dark. All searching immediately stops. "Lots of it's blacked out. But the important stuff's there."

The other figures nod, and one by one, they make their way out of the room just as silently as they had entered.

“All hail Princess Twilight Sparkle, lord of the library!”

The purple alicorn rolls her eyes, a playful smirk on her face as she turns from her book to the open door. “Captain, you don’t have to call me ‘princess’.”

“And you don’t have to call me ‘captain’.” The cobalt blue unicorn standing in the doorway smirks right back as he walks in, looking around. “You know, considering you have a giant crystal castle now, I didn’t think you’d really need to rebuild your old library.”

“Well, Ponyville needs a library, doesn’t it?” Twilight marks her page with a bookmark and shuts the tome, standing up. “So, how can I help you, capt… I mean, Winter?”

The stallion smiles at his actual name being used and lights his horn, levitating a few books out of his saddlebags. “I checked these out before the old library got… well, wrecked. Or Ti-wrecked, as the case may be.” He grins at Twilight’s exasperated look. “Since Golden Oaks just reopened, I figured it’d be a good time to return them. I hope you’re not counting the past few months towards my late fees.”

Twilight takes the books in her magic and glances over them as she speaks. “That wouldn’t be very fair, would it? Don’t worry.” She levitates the books to a small pile in the corner, stacking them up on top of several others. “I’ll have to sort these out later. Ponies have been bringing back books all day, but since I’ve already restocked the library, I don’t actually have a place to put them yet.”

Winter nods. “Sorry to add onto that, then.”

“Oh, it’s fine.” She waves a hoof. “It’s better than you just keeping them, after all. Anything else?”

“In a hurry to get rid of me?” He chuckles. “Actually, I wanted to take a look at some of your more advanced spellbooks.”

The alicorn looks a little surprised at this. “Um… how advanced, exactly?”

“Necromancy.” He says this with a straight face, and for a second, she looks horrified until he grins and shakes his head. “I don’t know, Twilight. Hornheads like myself don’t know what normal unicorns or alicorns find ‘advanced’.”

She makes a face. “You know I don’t like that term.”

“Neither do I, but it’s nicer than ‘magically deficient’ or ‘spell-slow’.” He glances around. “I guess I’m looking more for enchantments than anything. Spells to enhance other spells or objects. And not from one of the books I’ve already checked out in the past.” He notices her open her mouth to ask. “Volume 14 of ‘Enhance, Enlarge, and Enchant’ was the last one.”

Twilight blinks, then nods with a smile. “I think I have that series in the basement, still packed up. Spike should be down there right now, so just go down and tell him what you’re looking for. He’ll help you find them.”

Winter smiles back and nods. “Thanks again, Twilight.”

“Anytime.” She turns and heads back over to her book, set to continue reading, while the stallion makes his way to the basement door.

A baby purple dragon pushes open a wooden door, leading to a small room stuffed almost completely with boxes. “Should be somewhere in here.”

Winter looks around. “I’m a little worried at your lack of specifics.”

“Don’t worry, even the stuff in storage is organized. That’s Twilight for you.” Spike chuckles as he pushes one box to the side. “I think I can remember where the box of spellbooks is...”

The unicorn sits on the floor, waiting patiently as the young dragon searches. Soon, however, the moderate silence broken only by cardboard scraping against the floor begins to get to him, and he tries to start a conversation. “So… why do they call you Spike?”

Spike looks back at him, perplexed. “Uh… cause of these?” He points to the spines on his head and along his back.

“Shouldn’t they call you Spine, then?” Winter shrugs, indicating he didn’t really think this through.

“Well...” The dragon pauses. “Why do they call you Winter Solstice?”

The unicorn thinks. “Uh...”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The first day of his life began the way almost everyone’s first day begins: blinded by light, crying incoherently, and unable to comprehend all the voices around him. Somewhat less commonly, it did not begin in a hospital, but rather in a cozy yet well-kept Canterlot house. As the umbilical cord was cut by the doctor called in for this purpose, the earth pony mare that had just gone through the excruciatingly painful event fought to catch her breath.

Perma Frost was a turquoise colour, with simple brown hair that was shoulder-length on her head and floor-length at her tail. In both cases, it was brushed well and flowed smoothly. Her husband, the black unicorn with short contrasting bright yellow hair, was quickly at her side to make sure she was alright.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Bulwark,” the doctor said calmly as he watched the stallion fret. “She’ll be fine. She just has to recover.”

Feeling a little relieved, Bulwark still did not leave his wife’s side, almost blocking out everything else around him. He was only shaken out of it when, for the first time in a couple long minutes, she spoke. (If one did not count vicious pain-induced screaming and graphic threats directed at her husband, it was much more than just a couple minutes.)

“How… is it…?” Her breath was only barely back under control, but she was finally able to ask the question stuck on her mind.

The doctor smiled, holding what now looked like a bundle of cloth. “He is just fine, Mrs. Frost.” He smiled more at the happy expressions on the faces of the two parents. “Would you like to hold him?”

She obviously did, and very shortly, the bundle had been passed from one set of hooves to another. Cradling the light blue blanket wrapping, Perma looked in to see what - who - she had brought to the world.

A tiny foal, with fur a blue colour that lacked the greenish hue of her own and the very beginnings of a yellow mane to match Bulwark’s, stared back at her with wide hazel eyes. While Perma was recovering from the ordeal, he had realized that if he lifted those pesky eyelids, sight became no problem at all. Similarly, once he had let out enough noise from being spanked by the doctor to prove his lungs worked fine, he realized the sound of his own crying was beginning to hurt his ears (and his throat). So that stopped as well.

And now here he was: a quiet young blue colt, with what looked like a tiny unicorn horn coming off of his forehead, looking up at the mare he had slept inside for a number of months before being forcibly ejected like a soda from a vending machine that had gotten stuck on the way out.

He blinked.

With a noise that sounded like a combination of a coo and a sigh, Perma hugged the baby, which Bulwark tried to get in on without disturbing either of them too much. The little foal didn’t seem to understand why he was suddenly being crowded - well, really, he didn’t seem to understand anything. He only really came into existence less than a year ago, and he hadn’t known anything except quiet darkness until ten or twenty minutes prior at most. Nevertheless, this close contact with the two unfamiliar large ponies had a comforting effect on him, and he stayed calm.

“I’ll leave you to enjoy one another’s company,” the doctor finally said, breaking the silence as he rose, glancing out the window. “Moon’s already up? Huh… that’s the winter solstice for you. Really doesn’t feel as late as it looks.” With a small nod and goodbye that was barely responded to, he left the room and made his way out of the house.

Perma nuzzled her newborn. “The winter solstice, hmm…?”

Bulwark chuckled. “If you’re suggesting what I think you’re suggesting… I like it.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Winter shrugs. “I dunno. I guess my parents just weren’t very creative. If I was born fifty-two days earlier, they probably would’ve named me Nightmare Night.”

Spike rolls his eyes, turning to go back to searching. “Riiiight...”

Chapter 2: I Grew Up to Be An Unwanted Weed

It is around mid-to-late afternoon when Winter gets home, sighing as he shuts the door. While other ponies are still outside enjoying the remaining hours of daylight, he prefers to retire indoors for the remainder of the day. He levitates the saddlebags off of his back and onto a small coffee table; the only furniture in his living room besides a couch in front of it.

Most houses would have some sort of decoration in a room like this, but in this case, the only aesthetics besides the sparse furniture are a few framed photos on the wall. The first three are individual photos of his mother, his father, and his sister; the fourth is a group photo of them all, plus Winter himself, several years ago before he moved out. The last photo is a very old one of his mother and father, almost twenty years younger, with a small deep green pegasus colt. This photo is off to the side, as if Winter wanted to forget it but not take it down.

The rest of the room consists of just ways to get to other rooms, indicating that the living room was set up to be more like an intersection between parts of the house. There’s a doorway on the left, an actual door on the right, and two sets of stairs in the back going in opposite vertical directions.

As he sets to unpacking the bags, Winter hears padded steps coming from another room, but doesn’t think anything of it. Sure enough, coming in through the doorway from the kitchen is, as most ponies would see, a silver-furred fox. Upon noticing Winter, he pads over and leaps up onto the couch. “Just so you know, that apple pie you bought yesterday is now long gone.”

The unicorn doesn’t even bat an eye at the talking creature. “Hello to you too, Mercury.” He pats the fox on the head. “I bought another one today, don’t worry. But try to make this one last a little longer?”

Mercury huffs. “Fine...”

Most ponies would find a talking fox to be crazy or scary. However, Winter is not most ponies, and his silver friend is not necessarily a fox; rather, he is a kitsune, a rare species similar to foxes that are just as sentient and intelligent as ponies. They can even communicate, but only with ponies they want to; others only hear the yipping and barking typical of a fox.

Winter, whether he wants to be or not, is one pony Mercury has chosen as trustworthy enough to speak with. The silver fox embraces this as he nudges the saddlebags. “Whatcha got in there?”

“Pie, books, apple juice, and knives. Typical Tuesday shopping list.” He levitates out the two books first. “Volumes 15 and 16 of that enchantment series. Been waiting to get these since before the library got blown up.”

“Still don’t know what you’re looking for in those,” Mercury mutters. “You already enchanted Equinox, and you said yourself you can’t reliably use more than six daggers at a time, so you’re not adding more to your arsenal...”

“I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.” He boops the fox’s nose. “Top secret.”

Mercury sighs. “Why is everything top secret with you?”

“Hey, this is the first thing I’ve kept a secret from you that you haven’t ended up finding out on your own anyway. Don’t complain.” He takes out the pie box and apple juice next, setting them on the table. “Think you could bring those to the kitchen and put them away?”

“Yep!” The fox gets up, taking the box in his mouth and letting Winter nudge the bottles of juice onto his back. Loaded up, he heads off into the kitchen, carefully balancing everything.

Chuckling, Winter levitates out the final objects from his bags: a small sack of bits, and three sharp daggers. One of them is short with a bright red gem in the bottom of the hilt, while the other two are long and more practical-looking. One has a black hilt, while the other has a brown one. Turning each of them over a couple of times, he soon lays them on the table to put away later.

Quickly growing bored, Winter glances over at the photos on the wall. His muzzle curves up into a small smile at the first few, but when he gets to the last one with the pegasus colt, he sighs, his ears drooping a bit.

“I don’t like that look.”

Snapping his head in the direction of the voice, the unicorn notices Mercury having re-entered the room, looking worried. Winter sighs. “Just thinking, Merc. Don’t mind me.”

Glancing at the photo his friend was looking at, Mercury shakes his head. “I know how you feel, but if looking at his picture is gonna ruin your day, I’m going to take it down.”

“No, it’s fine. I just can’t let my thoughts wander.” He looks at the photo one more time before turning to the kitsune. “I’m just gonna put my new daggers away, then I’m heading to bed. Feel free to stay up or go out as long as you’re in my room by eleven.”

“It’s not even five,” Mercury points out. “And you haven’t eaten yet. Why the early bedtime?”

Winter shrugs as he tosses his empty saddlebags over by the door. “Tired.”

“You’re never tired.”

“I am today.” He lifts up the knives in his magic and heads to the stairs leading down to the basement.

Mercury follows. “Win, I just want to know what’s wrong. Are you sick? Is something happening early tomorrow?”

“No, and no.” The unicorn steps into his basement, which consists of a poorly-lit room and literally nothing except piles of boxes. Opening the nearest one, he is greeted with the contents: at least a dozen more daggers, each one slightly different from one another. “I just feel tired today, Merc.” As he puts the three knives in, his horn pulses a bit with magic, the knives glowing briefly before being placed inside.

The kitsune sighs, seeming to give up. “Fine, then.”

Winter turns and kneels down to his level. “I’m okay, Merc. Really. I just want to actually indulge in some sleepiness rather than insomnia tonight.” He smiles, using a hoof to pet his friend. “Come on, don’t take everything I do so suspiciously.”

Rubbing against the hoof, Mercury smiles as well. “Alright, Win. Sorry… I just get worried about you sometimes.”

“Usually for a good reason.” The unicorn chuckles. “But don’t worry, I’m good. How about you go out for a while? I’ll leave the door unlocked for you.”

The fox tilts his head. “What if somepony tries to break in?”

Winter smirks. “Then they’d be very stupid to try and break into the house of a knife-collecting royal guard.”

About an hour later, Winter still hasn’t gone up to his room. Instead, as soon as Mercury was out of the house, he turned and opened the door on the right of the living room, walking into his office.

This room is possibly the most-furnished part of the house. On the left wall is a large bookcase, tomes neatly set up vertically all across the shelves, with barely any room to add more; a window is beside it, blocked by a dark green curtain. A similar shelf is against the right wall, but this one lacks books; instead, it holds various trinkets and mementoes, such as letters or interesting-looking gems. Beside this shelf is a filing cabinet, currently shut but unlocked. The only light in the room comes from a lamp hanging from the ceiling.

Near the back wall, Winter’s office desk and chair have been meticulously set up, an extra chair for visitors off to the side. A stack of blank paper sits near the edge of the desk, a pen holder with four or five writing implements beside it. Also around the desk are sticky notes with various reminders, a small radio with the volume low, and a typewriter pushed to the side. On the floor next to the desk is a trash can, crumpled-up papers piling up inside.

Winter currently sits at this desk, flipping through one of the two books he got earlier in the day. Every few pages has a new enchantment, explaining its effects and properties, as well as how to go about casting it and how to remove it. Seeing as these are later volumes, the enchantments are much more difficult and specific, and so each one takes up almost fifteen pages, and at least a third of those are warnings of what not to do with said enchantment.

The unicorn doesn’t seem to actually read any of it. His eyes flick over the description of each spell, then he turns pages until he reaches the next one. Over the past hour, he’s made it about halfway through the first of the two books, nothing but quiet music on the radio to break the silence.

Until a loud knocking comes from the front door, that is.

Sighing, Winter shoves a piece of blank paper between the pages to mark his spot, then shuts the book and stands up. “Coming!” He makes his way out of the office and over to the front door, cracking his stiff neck before opening it up.

Standing on the other side of the doorway is an orange earth pony mare, smiling in a way that just screams how much she’d secretly rather be anywhere else. Nevertheless, she tips her hat in greeting. “Evenin’, captain.”

Winter blinks. “Evening?” He glances at his watch, confirming that it is, in fact, rather late in the day. “Wow… lost track of time.” He looks back up. “Um… how can I help you, Applejack?”

“Mind if Ah come in to tell ya?” The farmer grins sheepishly. “Could take a little while.”

Nodding, the unicorn steps back and gestures for her to come in. Once she does, he shuts the door behind her. “Have a seat and tell me what’s up. Is there a problem?”

Applejack shakes her head as she obliges, sitting down on one side of the couch. “Nah, nothin’ bad. Ah’m actually here for my sister.”

Winter tilts his head as he sits on the couch as well. “What do you mean?”

She sighs. “Apple Bloom’s at that age where she starts worryin’ about her cutie mark and whatnot. Her friends are, too. And the latest idea they had was bein’ royal guards.”

“...I dread what this conversation will get me to agree to.”

“Ya don’t have to agree to anything, captain.” Applejack smirks. “Hay, might even be safer if ya didn’t.”

He chuckles. “Hey, this is a casual setting. Just call me Winter.”

“Well then, Winter… any chance yer lookin’ for some ‘guards-in-training’?” Applejack asks with a small laugh.

The unicorn shrugs. “Ponyville’s a pretty peaceful place as is, outside of millennia-old evils being released and Everfree Forest creatures getting too close for comfort. We don’t really need more guards. And this is ignoring the obvious fact that, if I recall, your sister isn’t even seventeen yet, so she couldn’t enlist in the first place.”

She shakes her head. “Ah meant more along the lines of just showin’ them around, tellin’ them about the job. See if they like the idea or not. Ah reckon they’ll give up if ya just tell ‘em what training was like.”

“Or it’ll make them even more interested,” he warns. “It was grueling, sure, but a lot of ponies underestimate the difficulty. Even just standing in formation is way tougher than it sounds. No matter how much I try to drill it into their brain, they’ll probably think of it as just being at a school assembly. And if they go into boot camp with that mindset, I refuse to accept any of the blame when they come home crying.”

Applejack rolls her eyes. “Ya make it sound like ‘boot camp’ is just a fancy name for a torture device the princesses made up.”

“If torture makes you strong and buff, that’s pretty accurate.” He shrugs.

“Yeah, strong and buff. So how many days of trainin’ did you skip?” She smirks, but flinches when he levels a powerful glare at her. “Ah was just jokin’...”

“I took all my training in stride, and I’d appreciate it if that was respected, or at least acknowledged.” His expression softens and he pokes his own belly. “Also… I’m not fat.”

She chuckles to herself. “Wasn’t what Ah was implyin’, sugarcube. But gettin’ back to the main topic. Think ya could show Apple Bloom and her friends around?”

He sighs and looks away, thinking about it. “I can’t just bring them in on any random day. Like I said, Ponyville’s a peaceful town, so we don’t do a lot of work as long as we keep ourselves in shape and are always ready for action. We have a training session every two weeks to make sure everypony’s still on top of their game, or when a new guard shows up. If they want to see what it’s like to be a guard, that’d be the best day to bring them in, because I refuse to take them along on an actual mission.”

“If ya did, Ah’d probably kill ya,” she agrees. “So when’s yer next trainin’ day?”

“Next Monday. They’d have to be excused from school, though. We start at eight in the morning sharp.” He taps his watch with a smirk. “If you can get them to the base by seven-thirty, I can give them the usual ‘don’t touch anything’ warning spiel before starting the day.”

“Fine by me.” Applejack nods with a smile. “If Scootaloo’s parents and Rarity give their approval too, they’ll all be there right on time.”

He smiles back. “Alright then. See you on Monday?”

“Hopefully before then,” she answers, standing up. “Thanks for the help, Winter. They’ll be really happy to hear this.”

The unicorn stands up as well, only nodding in response as he tries to figure out what she meant by that first part. The two walk to the door and he opens it for her, waving goodbye as she heads out. “Have a good night, Applejack!”

“You too!” she calls back, waving as well as she starts her walk back home.

After a moment, Winter closes the door and sighs, rubbing his temple before heading back to his office. What am I getting myself into?

Chapter 3: Ever Faster the Time Exceeds Me

In boot camp, royal guards are expected to get up as early as four in the morning, followed by about seventeen hours containing physical exertion of the highest caliber before it’s right back to bed. Once they pass training and get assigned to one of many towns across Equestria, they generally get to make their own sleeping schedule, as long as it doesn’t take much to wake them up and they don’t miss any of the training days chosen by the captain.

Winter, of course, has happily adapted to these rules, along with training days and actual dangers in town both being rare. He rarely gets a good night’s sleep, if he even sleeps at all, and so if he manages to stay peacefully unconscious, he enjoys it for as long as he can. Thus, on Wednesday, when he lumbers out of his bedroom in sleeping attire and still yawning, it is no shocker that it’s almost noon.

Mercury, who tends to get up long before his friend, looks up from his spot lying in the hallway near the stairs. “Look out, everypony! The zombies are attacking! There’s their king now!”

Winter just grumbles and walks down to the bathroom. Mercury gets up and follows him in, causing the unicorn to look at him with slight irritation. “Merc, have you not learned the concept of privacy?”

The fox chuckles. “Relax, I’ll go in a second. I just wanted to remind you that we’re leaving for Fillydelphia tonight.”

“Huh?” The tired unicorn rubs his ear. “Fillydelphia? Why?”

“Don’t you ever check the calendar?” Mercury rolls his eyes. “Tomorrow’s your mother’s birthday, Win. The one you actually promised yourself you'd go to.”

He blinks, then facehoofs. “Ugh… right. Can’t believe I almost forgot…”

“It’s fine, you’re just tired.” He turns to head out of the room. “I’ll be down in the living room when you’re ready to go gift shopping.”

Sighing, Winter shuts the door after his fox friend leaves, rubbing his eyes. “Should’ve gotten up earlier...” He shakes his head to clear the last bit of sleepiness and turns on the shower.

Eight o’clock in the evening. The sun is still barely visible on the horizon, beginning to trade places with the moon. For most ponies, this time of day in the middle of the week is not particularly optimal for leaving on a trip, but there are still a few ponies around the train station as they wait for their ride.

Among them is, of course, Winter Solstice, sitting on a bench with a large bag to his left and a silver fox to his right. As he waits for the eight-fifteen train, the fox leans closer and quietly asks, “We didn’t forget anything, right?”

The unicorn shakes his head, slightly hesitantly, before replying just as quietly. “I don’t think so. We picked up a gift, I told Twilight where we’d be for the next couple of days, we made sure the house was locked up, I put Combat Boots in charge of the guard until we return… there wasn’t anything else, right?”

Mercury shrugs. “I don’t think so. But it’s your stuff to take care of, not mine.”

Sighing, Winter tries to distract himself by looking around. Most ponies are chatting with one another, either having come to the station together or just making fast friends. But since he’s traveling alone - one talking kitsune aside - this leaves him with no immediate company, and the other waiting ponies don’t seem to notice him. Or, if they do, they quickly recognize him and avoid all eye contact.

Figures of authority: making the ponies they protect and serve feel awkward around them since the beginning of time. The unicorn slumps back a bit against the wall, boredom slowly making the transition to loneliness thanks to that thought.

“Why so down in the dumps?”

Winter at first opens his mouth to reply to Mercury, only to realize before speaking that the fox was not the one who spoke. Instead, looking up reveals that the speaker was another pony, who had approached him and was now standing beside the bench.

The first thing Winter notices is that she is a pegasus, with a butter-yellow coat and light blue hair. Her tail nearly touches the ground, while her mane is a fair bit shorter; both appear neatly groomed. Her eyes are a similar blue colour and show slight concern, and her cutie mark appears to be a picture of a heart with a bandage on it. She has a set of saddlebags on her back, as well as a large suitcase beside her, indicating that she too is waiting for a train.

“...I'm sorry?” Winter tilts his head, not sure what to say.

“I said, why so down in the dumps?” The pegasus sits down on the bench as well, Winter's own bag in between them. “You looked like you were ready to lie down on the tracks.”

The unicorn's eyes widen. “I did?” He looks at Mercury, who just looks confused, before turning back to the mare. “N-No, I'm fine... just bored and waiting for my train.” He tries to smile reassuringly.

She smiles back, much more genuinely. “Well, that's good... sorry for intruding.” She stands up to walk away.

He isn't sure what compels him to, but for whatever reason, Winter reaches out a hoof to stop her. “Hey, it's fine. No need to rush off.” She looks at him curiously, and he fumbles for something else to say. “I mean, unless you have somewhere to go…”

The mare shakes her head. “No, just waiting for the train to Fillydelphia.”

“Really? Same here.” Winter smiles, his bored and lonely feeling now fading. “I don't think I got your name?”

She smiles and sits back down. “I'm Asylum. And yours?”

“Winter Solstice.” He extends a hoof, which Asylum gladly shakes. “Sorry if I worried you.”

“Careful there, Winter,” Mercury warns quietly in words only his friend can understand. “Keep being so likeable, and she might fall for you.”

Asylum giggles, not hearing a thing Mercury says. “It's fine. Sorry for jumping to conclusions.” She rubs the back of her neck. “So, you're going to Fillydelphia too?”

He nods. “My mother's birthday is tomorrow, and she lives in Fillydelphia, so I decided to just take a late train and be there in the morning.”

“You're welcome for the suggestion,” Mercury grumbles. Winter idly pets him, and he rubs up against the unicorn's hoof. “That's close enough to a proper thanks in my book.”

Asylum now can't help but take a look at the silver fox. “Oh, is that your pet?”

Despite hating referring to his friend with such a term, Winter nods, that being the only explanation either of them have been able to come up with that doesn't reveal Mercury's true nature. “This is Mercury.”

The kitsune stands up and wags his tail, yipping at Asylum happily without bothering to actually say anything. The pegasus smiles. “He's adorable!”

“Dang right I am!” Mercury declares, which once again only Winter can understand, before lying back down and pretending to go to sleep.

Winter chuckles. “Yeah, he is.” He continues to pet the supposedly sleeping form. “So, how about you? You going to visit family too?”

The pegasus shakes her head. “My family all live here in town. I'm going to a friend's wedding, actually.”

“Aww, that's nice.” Winter smiles. Before he can continue, though, the glorious (to some) sound of the train finally rolling up to the station can be heard. “Hey, there's our ride now.”

Asylum smiles, standing up. “We better get on before all the bedroom carts are taken. Overnight rides on just a bench are no fun.”

The unicorn nods, levitating Mercury onto his back and grabbing his bag. “Need any help?”

“I'm fine, thank you.” The ponies who rode the train into town have finally finished vacating the train, and more passengers are starting to file on. “We should hurry.”

Nodding again, Winter starts walking to the train, his new friend right beside him.

Fortunately for the two, they were able to get on board before the last bedroom cart was claimed. Since each ‘room’ on this train has space for two ponies, rooming together is frequently an option, and one that both Winter and Asylum are forced into with only one room remaining.

“Well, this is definitely new to me,” Winter remarks as he drops his bag beside the bunk bed. “You want top or bottom?”

“I’ll take top. And what’s new? Riding a train?” Rather than using the ladder, Asylum just quickly flies up to the top bunk, leaving her suitcase and saddlebags on the floor in the corner.

Winter shakes his head as he sits on the bottom bunk, lying the silver fox down on it as well. Mercury proceeds to get up, shake himself off, walk in a couple circles, and then lie down to actually sleep. “Nah, I’ve ridden trains a billion times. I meant, you know… sharing a room with a girl.” He chuckles, trying to laugh it off.

Asylum peeks at him over the edge of her bed. “What? Is that weird?”

“Kind of, at least for me. I know a lot of places are co-ed with their sleeping arrangements, but back in training, just starting a conversation with the other gender put you on thin ice.” He sighs, smirking. “Ah, memories.”

“Training for what?” The pegasus tilts her head, curious. “The Equestria Games? No offense, but you don’t seem like the type of-”

Winter shoots her a look, holding up a hoof. “Look, I know where that statement is going, and regardless of the fact that you started your sentence with ‘no offense’, I will likely take offense to it, so please just don’t.” She shuts her mouth. “And for the record, I was referring to my guard training.”

“You’re in the guard?” Asylum raises an eyebrow, seeming a fair amount more incredulous than surprised.

“Yes, I am; captain of the Ponyville division, in fact. I know, I don’t look or act the part.” He chuckles. “But if you do your job well, does it really matter what your downtime is like?”

She smiles. “Guess not, really. I wouldn’t know, though. I got my job because of how I normally act, not despite it.”

He tilts his head. “What is your job, if I may ask?”

“Nothing too special. I’m the school nurse and psychologist at Ponyville Elementary.” She shrugs. “My talent leans more towards the medical end of healing ponies, but I find a lot of joy in being there for comfort as well. Somepony to talk to.”

Winter smirks. “Do you offer your services to adults as well?” She blinks and looks down at him worriedly. “Not for me. Couple other members of the Ponyville division could use some mental treatment, though.”

She climbs down from the top bunk. “I’ve heard of soldiers commonly getting various levels of post-traumatic stress disorder on the battlefield… is that what this is?”

“That, and just general sadness from losing a friend.” He sighs. “Not everypony can roll with the punches.”

“I see...” The pegasus sits beside him on the bed. “What happened?”

“Long story short: when I became captain, my squad didn’t listen to me because I was at least three years younger than any of them, and because Ponyville is so peaceful anyway that they had grown lazy and disrespectful.” He growls lightly. “So of course, the first time we had to deal with an actual danger, they didn’t listen to me. It took two of them dying to their own arrogance before the rest of the squad actually followed orders.”

Asylum flinches. “What danger was this? I only moved to Ponyville a few months ago.”

“...do you know what a gemhound is?” She shakes her head. “Imagine a diamond dog. Now, most diamond dogs are, while not particularly fond of ponies, at least able to be reasoned with. Some can even live peacefully alongside us. Gemhounds, however, are like the distant cousins of diamond dogs. They mine for jewels and such, but they can’t speak or even understand our language. So we’re just another source of food to them.”

Her eyes widen. “They eat ponies?”

“Well, they ain’t herbivores.” He smirks before going back to a stone cold expression. “Here’s the story as I remember it...”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The attack was sudden and unexpected. One moment, the ponies of Ponyville were going about their everyday lives; the next, a large paw had burst from the ground, and with one swipe, destroyed a carrot stand in the market before the figure it belonged to had even crawled out fully into view.

Panic struck quickly. The large, diamond dog-like beasts all came out of the ground around the same area before splitting off, chasing after ponies fleeing for their lives or just tearing stuff down for the sake of destruction. Compared to gemhounds, diamond dogs were tame and weak; these things were several feet tall and ripping through solid brick like it was dirt.

This all happened on a Monday, and so it was already training day for the town’s division of the royal guard. Not that they were getting much done; very few soldiers actually bothered doing as the new captain ordered, and just pretended until he walked away. They were like students misbehaving behind a substitute teacher’s back.

But when a gemhound literally smashed through the front door, that got their attention rather quickly.

Winter was the closest to the door, and his first response was to light his horn for a split second, then let it dull and jump out of the way as the gemhound tried to attack him. Within two seconds, six daggers flew in from another room to his side, and his horn glowed again as he took control over them all through levitation.

Glancing back, he saw the rest of the guard just frozen in place, and as he plunged two of his floating daggers into the gemhound’s torso, he turned. “You think this is a street performance?! Get your weapons! We’re under attack!”

For the first time, everypony listened. The guards scurried around, grabbing their individual sets of armour and weaponry. The gemhound was long dead before they were ready, but a look out the door revealed that he was nowhere close to the only one.

“What in Tartarus are these things?” One of the pegasi, Marauder, looked around at the chaos.

“Gemhounds,” Winter growled, twirling his Equinox daggers in his magic. “They’re-”

“They’re called diamond dogs, captain,” another guard spat, stepping up. Callus, an earth pony, was one of the strongest ponies in the squad, but far from the most pleasant; aside from his laziness and refusal to work, he was the only one who ever talked back at Winter, and no amount of punishment ever dulled his refusal to cooperate. “These guys are easy. Come on, guards!”

With that call, he charged forward, several others following behind him into battle. Winter was not among them, and he yelled at them, “Get back here! They’re not-”

Too late.

Callus drove his sword into the leg of one gemhound. The beast just reached down, grabbed the earth pony in one huge paw, and slammed him into the ground. The rest of the squad froze, before panicking and starting to run back when three other gemhounds saw them and began running over. One of them was too slow, and was dragged back literally by her tail before the gemhound holding her bit down on her torso forcefully. Her scream went silent as her blood poured out onto the dirt below.

The other two gemhounds leapt for the retreating guards, but both of them slammed into a translucent white dome. Winter, horn glowing brightly, turned to the arrivals with a deadly glare. “Are you trying to get yourselves killed?!”

“Captain-” One guard started to speak, but Winter cut him off.

“Oh, now I’m your captain?!” Winter turned to the rest of the guard, all safe within his provided shield, but none of them feeling particularly safe under the circumstances. “As soon as the town’s under attack and none of you have a Luna-damn clue what we can do to stop it, you finally acknowledge me as something more than a nuisance?!”

Another guard stepped forward. “With all due respect, captain, the town is under attack right now… is this really a good time?”

Winter glared at him. “Well then, what do you suggest we do, Private Grindstone? Charge into their big open claws like Callus and Dive Bomb? Real effective strategy right there!” When the guard didn’t reply, Winter continued, now addressing all of them once again. “Here’s what we’re gonna do, so listen up! I’ll open a hole in the shield! Private Boots, you and the other pegasi make a distraction! Get those things to notice you and use your speed to lead them to the outskirts of town, away from civilians! The rest of you, head out to the outskirts yourselves in groups of five, and no less! When a pegasus brings a dog over, take it out! Their stomachs are their weak point, so hit ‘em where it hurts with everything you got!” He took a deep breath. “And, if any more of you disobey my orders and try to be a hero, then if the gemhounds don’t kill you, I will make you wish they did!” The glow around his horn grew dimmer, and a hole in the top of the shield opened up. “Over! And! Out!”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Eight dead. Thirty-nine injured. Thousands of thousands of bits in property damage… and we called it a success, just because we either killed or chased off all the gemhounds.” Winter pokes at his pillow, which at some point he had ended up laying his head on. “That was the first time any of those guys had seen one of their own die. Sure, Ponyville has a lot of issues; Everfree Forest creatures invading, usually. Or being the centerpiece of a villain’s quest for world domination. But rarely does the guard need to get directly involved, and never have any of them been killed in action inside the town. That sort of stuff only happens in bigger cities, like Canterlot or Manehatten, where even the ponies living in the town sometimes go rogue and start stealing stuff or harassing others, and attack any guards that try to stop them.” He sighs. “Never mind, that’s not really relevant. Point is… they just watched two ponies they had been very close to get killed. And not slowly or dramatically; just, one second they were on all fours, and the next they had half-broken bodies and were being torn up by gemhounds.”

Asylum hasn’t moved much. She’s adjusted to a more comfortable sitting position, but remains on Winter’s bed, watching him and listening in worry. “You keep saying ‘they’...”

He nods. “Yeah. They, them, whatever. The other ponies in my squad.”

“I know...” She tilts her head. “...but what about you?”

Winter blinks and turns his head to look at her. “What about me?”

“Well… didn’t it affect you somehow, too?”

Realizing what she’s getting at, the unicorn sighs and shrugs. “Not as badly as it did them. Before I was promoted and assigned to Ponyville, I was a part of Canterlot’s guard. I had already been on a couple missions where I had seen death and nearly experienced it myself. I wouldn’t say I was completely numb to it by the time the gemhounds attacked, but I was at least able to keep it all inside until I was alone.”

Asylum nods slowly. “And… how did you cope with it?”

“The anger of losing soldiers under my command? The sadness of realizing ponies had died? The trauma of watching them get eaten? Or the guilty relief that, if I was gonna watch anypony die, at least they were ponies I didn’t like much?”

“...all of the above, maybe?”

He sighs again. “I got over the anger by buying a ton of pillows and ripping them apart with my hooves. The sadness and trauma went away on their own after some funerals and vivid nightmares. The guilty relief? Still there. And frankly, I don’t care if it’s wrong, because I’m not gonna force myself to feel even worse about something I already feel bad about.”

She nods, albeit slowly. “That’s a way of handling it, I suppose… whatever works best for you.”

“It works better than wallowing in whatever ponies are supposed to wallow in. Mud or something like that.” Winter chuckles. “And on the bright side, everypony in my squad actually obeys me now.”

Asylum smiles. “That’s one way of looking at it.” Glancing out the window reveals that the moon is well into the sky by now. “We should get some sleep for tomorrow. The train arrives at seven in the morning.”

“Yaaay. Early wakeup times.” Sighing, the unicorn levitates his glasses and watch off, laying them on his bags. “Well, goodnight, Asylum. Thanks for letting me get all that off my chest.”

She nods, hopping off the bed to start flying up to her own. “Anytime. It’s my job, remember?”

He smiles. “Right.” Lighting his horn one last time, he flicks off the overhead lamp once the pegasus is up in her own bed, casting the room into darkness.

Chapter 4: Little Harder Again to Remember You

“Attention, passengers. We will be arriving at Fillydelphia in approximately ten minutes. Please ensure all of your belongings are accounted for and prepare to exit the locomotive. Thank you.”

Asylum sighs and shakes Winter again. “Come on! We have ten minutes!”

The unicorn groans and swats her hooves away, pulling the covers up more. “I just got to sleep… lemme sleep.”

“You were asleep when I woke up thirty minutes ago,” she says dryly.

“Exactly.”

Asylum grabs the blankets and tosses them to the side. “Just get up already. There may not be a shower on the train, but you at least need to brush your mane and smooth out your coat before you go out in public.”

With a loud moan, Winter forces himself into a sitting position. “Why…?”

“What do you mean, ‘why’? You look like a mess!”

“I thrive on your constructive criticism. Thank you.” The unicorn cracks his neck in both directions before standing up, stretching. “First off, I’m gonna shower when I get to their place anyway. Secondly, my mane and coat look just fine, at least for me. And third, they might not recognize me if I look too different from the last time I saw them.”

Asylum raises an eyebrow. “And when was that? Four, five months ago? Six?”

“About three and a half years.” He notices her eyes widen, and he chuckles. “Last time I saw them was the day I left for boot camp in Canterlot. Which I did as soon as Hearth’s Warming vacation was over after I turned seventeen.” He shrugs. “Then training took over my life, and when I was assigned to Ponyville, the trip to Fillydelphia was still too far and too expensive to be worth it on anything but special occasions, like birthdays. But whenever one of their birthdays came up, or it was a holiday, I was either already out on an assignment or unable to get a ticket before they were all taken.”

“Wow…” She blinks. “Wait… seventeen? How old are you now?”

“Twenty.”

“How did you become a captain as such a young age?” she asks, incredulous. “Doesn’t that take years?”

He tilts his head. “Becoming a captain? Yeah, back in the days when squads were still being formed. But now that every town’s division has a captain, new ones are only assigned if one dies, goes MIA, or is declared unsuitable for work.”

“So the captain of Ponyville’s division was killed, or something… and you got promoted?” she asks, trying to clarify.

“Actually, he retired. But yes.” He notices her open her mouth for another question. “Before you ask: the princesses, along with other select high-ranking guards, mark down possible candidates based on their skills and strategies, their level of experience, and any of their outstanding accomplishments. Apparently, what I did on my first assignment fit nicely into the last category.”

“...now I’m curious. What did-”

“Attention, passengers. We are now arriving at Fillydelphia. Please prepare to exit the locomotive. Thank you.”

Winter chuckles, grabbing his bag and starting to nudge Mercury awake. “That story will have to wait until the ride home. What day do you leave?”

She smiles. “Saturday.”

“Hey, same here. Keep an eye out for me at the station.” He smiles back, letting Mercury sleepily climb onto his back and curl up. “Have fun, Asylum.”

“You too, captain.” She smirks, and they get ready to depart as the train slows to a stop.

“You willingly signed up for the second-most dangerous job in all of Equestria behind being a criminal.”

“Yes.”

“You went into battle numerous times with just some knives as your weapons.”

“I know.”

“You became the captain of your own division and earned the respect of everypony who ranks less than you even when they’re twice your age.”

“I was there for that.”

“So why is knocking on a door such a scary and difficult concept?”

“Because I haven’t seen the door in three years!”

The argument is conveyed in hushed whispers between a cobalt unicorn and a silver fox, both of them walking up and down a street to avoid seeming out of place. The fox, resting on his friend’s back, sighs. “Would you rather chicken out and not show up for the birthday you spent so much time planning to attend, or see your family again?”

“It sounds so easy when you phrase it like that...”

“That’s because it is!”

“What do I say?” Winter snaps. “‘Hey, mom and dad! What’s up? Long time no see!’”

Mercury shrugs. “Pretty much.”

“Really?! These are my parents, Merc! And they haven’t seen me in three years! This is gonna be the most awkward couple days ever!”

“Yeah, hanging out on a street corner because of your nervousness would be pretty awkward,” the fox agrees sarcastically.

“...point.”

The next time their casual walking takes them to the house, Winter stops and turns to the door. He sighs, and Mercury pats him on the head. “It’ll be fine, Win.”

“Let’s hope so...” Taking a deep breath, the unicorn lifts a hoof. Before he can convince himself not to, he knocks loudly three times on the door. “No going back now.”

After a second, they both hear hoofsteps growing louder as one of the inhabitants of the house comes closer to the door. A moment later, the door opens, revealing a dark turquoise earth pony mare very familiar to Winter. She takes one look at the unicorn in the doorway and blinks, surprised.

Winter just smiles, albeit nervously. “...hey, mom… happy birthday.”

“Who’s at the door, dear?” a masculine voice calls from inside the house.

Perma Frost coughs before turning to call back. “I-It’s… Winter!” When the other voice goes quiet, but hoofsteps take its place, the mare turns to her son once more, this time with a smile on her face. Quickly, she pulls him into a hug. “Winter… it’s been far too long...”

“Believe me, I know.” He chuckles, hugging back as best he can and trying to ignore the fact that they’re doing this in public view. “We’ve got way too much to catch up on… mind if I come in?”

She releases him from the hug and steps back to allow him entry. “Why would you need to ask? I don’t care where you live now. This is your home just as much as it is ours.”

He walks in, smiling and nodding gratefully. “Well, sorry for coming home a little after curfew.” Mercury stands up and yips happily at the mare. “Careful there, Merc. You might fall.”

“Aww...” Perma coos, petting the fox. “Is this your pet?”

Before Winter can respond, the basement door opens, and out comes a black unicorn who recognizes the other stallion immediately. Smiling, he trots over and pulls his son into a hug. “Long time no see, Win.”

“Way too long,” Winter agrees. He feels his mother join in the hug as well. “So, what’d I miss?”

They both laugh, and Perma nuzzles him. “We could ask you the same thing… captain.”

The younger of the two unicorns in the room sighs. “Mom, it’s weird enough for my friends to call me that. It’s even weirder from my parents.”

“Hey, no talking back to your mother, young man,” Bulwark warns, a playful smile on his muzzle.

Winter smirks. “Sorry dad, but I outrank you now. Dare you risk being charged for insubordination?”

“Dare you risk being grounded?”

“Can’t do that. I’m already grounded.” He motions to his side, grinning. “No wings, see?”

Perma sighs despite her smile, shaking her head. “Boys, boys, boys...”

The catching up is far from boring for any of the ponies involved. While Winter’s parents learned about his life since training thanks to various letters, they’re just now finding out different details, such as how particular missions went or any plans for the future. While the former makes for good conversation, the latter only elicits a few shrugs from the cobalt unicorn and a couple remarks about how “life is good as is”. Mercury, already knowing all of this, has fallen back asleep on the arm of the couch, Perma consistently petting him idly while speaking to her son.

“So, dad, how’s your work going?” Winter asks, trying to see if he can finally divert attention away from himself. “You’re a scientist now, right?”

Bulwark chuckles. “Close enough. I prefer the term ‘magic mechanic’, since I don’t do much of the technical parts. Just the arcane ones.” He taps his own horn. “As for how it’s going? Pretty good. Hoping to start testing the Zodiac Initiative soon.”

Winter tilts his head. “The Zodiac Initiative?”

“Just another military experiment to enhance the capabilities of the royal guard.” He rubs his son’s mane. “Don’t worry about it. You’ll hear more when we start getting actual guards involved.”

“Right...” A little worried despite his dad’s reassurance, Winter stands up. “I’ll be back in a second. Just need to shower.”

“Long trip?” his mother asks, giggling.

He nods. “Long, and hot. How is it we can fight off creatures fifty times our size without getting a scratch, but we haven’t put air conditioning on trains yet?”

Neither of his parents have an answer for that. The cobalt unicorn makes his way to the bathroom, remembering the layout of the house even after three years, and starts a refreshing shower for himself.

As the water warms up, Winter glances in the mirror, noticing his mane looking even messier than usual. He tries to flatten parts down with his hoof, but they just spring back into place. Maybe I need a haircut… I haven’t had short hair since I moved to Ponyville. He looks back at his tail, which almost touches the floor. Could get my tail done too. Hay, my entire body could go for a reworking at this point...

He sighs as he turns back to the mirror to take in his full appearance. His mane and tail look like they’ve only ever received minimal brushing to remove tangles, which is more or less the case, and his coat just barely qualifies as ‘smooth’. Then there’s his freckles and glasses, making him look like he belongs at the front of a classroom with his foreleg raised. And while he definitely has the muscle structure expected of a guard, that fact is contrasted by his noticeable belly bulge, making it hard to tell whether or not he’s out of shape.

While Winter is normally not one to care about appearances, he finds himself spending a good moment trying not to smash a mirror.

One shower later, Winter is feeling a bit better. His anger has dissipated, leaving him wondering where that thought process had come from in the first place, and his mane and tail have both flattened out. Using his hoof to wipe a circle into the steam-covered mirror, the unicorn then takes a brush and runs it through his mane until it returns to its normal state. He then starts to do the same with his tail.

Once he’s back to his regular look, he opens the bathroom door and steps out into the hall. He turns to head back to the living room and immediately has his vision completely obscured by a wall of turquoise.

The unicorn falls over onto his back, kicking his back legs and trying to push his assailant off until he feels hooves around his sides. He quickly realizes what’s going on, and with a playful roll of his eyes, returns the hug. “Happy to see you again too, Limelight.”

The earth pony who glomped him soon stands up and offers a hoof to help him stand as well, allowing him a full look at his younger sister. Her coat is a turquoise several shades lighter than her mother’s, while her mane and tail are a magenta colour; in contrast to her brother’s naturally scruffy appearance, her own hair appears to be greatly cared for, and therefore is brushed neatly. A black headband rests in her mane, and her orange eyes meet with Winter’s own green ones before she pulls him into another hug as soon as he’s stood up.

“You’ve been gone way too long,” she states simply, nuzzling him.

He smiles, nuzzling back. “Believe me, I know. But at least I wrote, right?”

“Yeah...” Limelight frowns. “I still wish you would’ve visited more often, though...”

“Sorry, Lime. But you could always come visit me too, you know.” The unicorn grins. “So I’m not totally to blame here.”

She pouts. “Wiiiiinteeeer...”

“Alright, alright. My fault.” He nuzzles her again. “Come on, cheer up. I don’t like it when you’re sad.”

Limelight giggles, nuzzling back before looking him over. She hums. “You know… I kind of expected more.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“Aren’t you a royal guard now?” She pokes his foreleg. “You’re bigger than when you left, but aside from that, you look pretty much the same.”

“Change and I aren’t the best of friends.” He shrugs. “What did you expect? A buzz cut? A uniform? Coat completely dyed a new colour?”

She grins sheepishly. “All of the above? I mean, most guards have white coats, don’t they?”

“That’s just an optional enchantment in their armour,” Winter explains. “It’s purely aesthetic and only used when protecting any of the princesses. Ponyville doesn’t bother with it, since it’s more of a Canterlot thing.”

“And what about the hair and the uniform?” she prods.

The unicorn rolls his eyes. “I like my hair long, and I left my uniform at home. This is a family get-together for mom’s birthday, not a medal award ceremony.” He glances down the hall. “Speaking of which, we should get back to mom and dad.”

Limelight nods, grinning. “Right! Finally, the whole family’s back together!” She practically prances off back to the living room, leaving her brother alone.

Winter blinks, then sighs as he slowly follows, looking down at the floor. Not all of us…

Chapter 5: Held A Torch for You When Lightning Stroke Me

Once all four members of the family have arrived, the conversation quickly goes from Winter to his sister; a change that both children are perfectly happy with. While Limelight had stayed in Fillydelphia for a couple of years after Winter left, she had moved to Manehatten just under a year ago to take on a new job, which her family is very curious about.

“Well, there’s a lot of shows going on in Manehatten lately,” Limelight explains. “Plays, fashion shows, music performances… that’s just the kind of city it is, really.”

“Oh, are you an actor now?” Perma asks, smiling proudly. “Or a model? I always imagined you’d be great at that!”

Her daughter shakes her head. “No… I help run the technical equipment. Lights, special effects… just stuff that goes on behind the scenes.”

“Aww...” Perma pouts. “They don’t see your true talent, then.”

“Well, it’s still a very important job,” Bulwark interjects, kissing Limelight on the forehead. “I’m proud of you.”

Winter watches with mild interest. It’s not like he doesn’t care about his sister, but he already learned most of this from her letters. Guess she didn’t write to mom and dad as much…

“Winter? Helloooo?” A turquoise hoof waves in front of the unicorn’s face, and he snaps out of his thoughts, looking to his sister curiously. “What about you?”

He blinks. “I missed it. What was the question?”

She sighs. “I asked all of you if and when you wanted to meet my new boyfriend.”

...why do I suddenly feel like I should be angry? “Uh… depends on who and where he is?”

“He’s one of her fellow workers in Manehatten,” Bulwark explains. “You must have really zoned out, huh?”

Winter looks away, nodding. “Sorry.”

Perma frowns. “You need to pay better attention. How would you like it if Lime tuned you out when you were talking about your job?”

“Tuned me out? Mom, I deliberately avoid telling stories about my job to Lime.” He notices his sister glaring at him. “Trust me, most of it is boring ‘same old same old’ and the rest is pretty graphic.” He smirks. “But, if you really want to hear about the time I got stabbed in the lung, happy to oblige. I woke up one Thursday morning-”

“Never mind!” Limelight cries, flattening her ears against her head.

Perma and Bulwark look at their son in surprise, and his mother speaks up first. “I don’t think either of us heard that story...”

Winter glances at Lime, who shakes her head rapidly. “Uh… I’ll tell it to you later.”

“How often does that sort of thing happen?” Perma asks. “You getting hurt, and such?”

Bulwark chuckles. “Dear, it just comes with the job.”

“But in Ponyville?” The mother shakes her head. “I just find it hard to believe protecting such a peaceful little town could be so dangerous.”

“Well, for one thing, it’s right by the Everfree Forest,” Winter points out. “And for another thing, most of my injuries come from missions that take me away from the town. Backing up the guards somewhere nearby, or venturing into some other territory for whatever reason. Usually those end up being for peaceful negotiations that turn sour, and then we’re battling for a few days until one side surrenders and gives the others something in exchange for backing off.” He shrugs. “Even griffons will give up an even fight if you offer them a few dozen eclairs. They seem to have a thing for baked goods.”

Bulwark nods. “At least you’re not getting involved with any actual wars.”

Winter shudders. His history lessons taught him of only two actual wars in Equestria’s past, not counting battles to overthrow corrupt rulers such as Discord. The first one was between the three pony races before winter hit, and they were forced to work together, though obviously that hadn’t lasted long. The second, more recently, was a war lasting several years between ponies and changelings that only ended when the latter seemed to go into hiding, planning for eventual sneak attacks. Of course, that simply led to an eventual surrender and offer of a peace treaty, which was another story altogether…

“Who would we go to war with, anyway?” Limelight chimes in. “I mean, I know there’s some fights every now and again, but from what I know, we’re mostly at peace with griffons and changelings, and the dragons don’t bother us if we don’t bother them...”

“Maybe zebras?” Bulwark suggests jokingly. “Who knows? Maybe we’ll have a huge war with them in the future. Over coal or something like that.”

“Let’s not tempt fate,” Winter suggests.

After a few more hours, the growling of stomachs indicate it’s about time to head off to dinner. Since the weather outside is still rather warm, none of them bother wrapping themselves up, and instead just head right out the door.

Perma leads the way, being the one who knows where the restaurant they have in mind is, while her husband walks beside her. Limelight trots along just a little bit behind them, and Winter brings up the rear, letting both his eyes and his mind wander as he walks through a city that feels familiar yet new to him. Just about everything he looks at brings about a sense of nostalgia.

There’s the hoofball field our school always used… and never won a single game in, as far as I can remember. He smirks. There’s that one ice cream place Lime always dragged me to… there’s Tempest’s old apartment… and there’s the place Tal- His eyes widen and he quickly looks away, trying to immediately focus on something else. No no no no no no no…

“Winter?” The unicorn jumps as Limelight nudges him, concerned. “Something wrong?”

He rapidly shakes his head, doing nothing but ensuring something is indeed wrong. But before his sister can continue questioning, their mother speaks up. “We’re here!”

Sighing in relief, Winter trots ahead of Limelight and next to his parents, hoping to avoid continuing the discussion as Perma leads them inside. The four are taken to their reserved table, and within minutes are scanning their menus.

“So, what’s it like being in the city again, Winter?” Bulwark asks with a chuckle as he looks through his menu. “Ponyville isn’t much of an urban place, if you don’t mind me saying. Does the sudden change of scenery feel weird?”

His son shrugs. “It’d probably feel weirder if it was someplace I hadn’t grown up in.”

“Fair enough.”

The small talk continues on for a few minutes as they figure out their orders, laying down their menus as they decide. When the waitress comes by, they each go in turn giving her their orders.

“I’ll take the sea salad with rose petal garnish and light oat sauce,” Perma requests, passing in her menu. The waitress nods, looking to her husband.

“Spiced wheat noodles with sliced tomato topping,” Bulwark says, giving in his own as well.

“Um… grilled veggie-stuffed squash, hold the lettuce.” Limelight passes her menu in next, grinning a little sheepishly.

This leaves Winter, who just shrugs. “...two hayburgers.” He notices the others looking at him funny. “Hey, I like hayburgers. Why fix what isn’t broken?” He glances to the waitress as he hands his menu in last, before doing a double take.

The waitress is a stark black pegasus, with a long flowing snow white mane and tail. Her bright red eyes have locked with Winter’s, and an uncomfortably large smile has taken place on her muzzle. While her outfit covers her flank, the unicorn has a feeling he knows exactly what cutie mark would be on it: a plastic pouch of white powder, almost like salt.

“Well, hello again, Winter Solstice.” She giggles knowingly. “I haven’t seen you in years.”

“Oh? You know my son?” Perma asks, smiling. “Old friends?”

Before Winter can respond, the waitress giggles again and nods. “You could say that. We were very close back in school, weren’t we?” She glances off to the side, then smirks back at the family. “So sorry to cut this short, but I must get back to work. I’ll be back with your meals very soon!”

With a final, spine-chilling giggle, she trots off back to the kitchen. Limelight turns to her brother, grinning. “Soooo, who was that? One of your ex-girlfriends?”

“Talcum Powder,” he grunts, glaring at the floor. “I don’t want to talk about her.”

“Yep, ex-girlfriend,” Limelight declares with a snicker.

Perma and Bulwark, meanwhile, don’t seem to see the humour that their daughter does. “Is something wrong, dear?” the mare asks.

Winter hesitates before shaking his head. “...everything’s fine. Just fine.”

Though his reassurance is weak, it’s at least enough for the others to hold off on pressing the issue until they can get back home. Instead, they resume their previous table conversations, only minus one unicorn who just sits in silence.

The rest of the building’s sounds are drowned out as thoughts rush through Winter’s mind at a rapid pace. Even when the all-too familiar waitress returns with their food, he refuses to acknowledge her presence, just going right to eating and avoiding eye contact. Not just with her, but with the rest of his family as well.

Soon, his silence begins to worry the others even more, and the dinner grows more and more awkward before they’ve eventually all gone quiet. When Talcum comes by to check on them, she quickly notices something off, and approaches with a large smile. “Is everything okay here?”

Bulwark nods. “Yes, miss. Thank you.”

“Are you sure? You were all very talkative before.” She glances at Winter. “Is his attitude growing contagious?”

“Is that really any of your business?” Limelight asks, sounding a little irritated.

Talcum coughs. “Oh, I do apologize for intruding. I’m just very sensitive to sudden mood changes; it’s a part of my special talent.”

Horseapples, Winter thinks to himself. Your special talent is in cosmetics. You told me so yourself…

“Everything’s fine, dear,” Perma insists with a weak smile. “I’m sure he’ll tell us sooner or later what the problem is...”

Talcum giggles. “I do hope so. I just can’t imagine what it could be.”

The young unicorn grits his teeth. You are either the biggest liar or the biggest idiot of the century…

“Well, I’ll let you get back to your meals,” the waitress finally says, her smile not faltering even a bit. “I do apologize for intruding.”

“Not a problem, miss,” Bulwark responds with a grateful nod. “You were just worried. It’s understandable.”

A giggle escapes the mare’s lips once more. “Please enjoy the rest of the evening together. After all...” She grins before turning to head off, playfully tickling under Winter's chin with a hoof as she walks. “...this is a night for fun.”

The unicorn’s eyes widen. His body tenses up, and his horn begins glowing brightly. But before anypony at his table can take notice, he whips around with a shout and practically throws himself out of his seat, nearly landing in front of another waiter. As soon as he touches the ground, he goes running, headed straight for the door outside.

“Winter, wait!” Perma yells after him, but her words fall on deaf ears. He’s already out of sight before she can even finish. “Limelight, go after him! Get him back home!”

Nodding, her daughter stands up and starts running for the door as well, abandoning her food. Bulwark turns to his wife, looking concerned. “Should we go too?”

“No need.” Perma shakes her head. “That was just a knee-jerk reaction of his. He won’t go too far before calming down, but I don’t think he’ll want to come back here. I’m sure he and Lime will be back home soon.”

“Then what do we do?” Bulwark asks incredulously. “I don’t have much of an appetite anymore.”

“Then you get the bill and take care of it.” She stands up, eyeing their waitress, who still seems a little stunned. “I think I need to go have a talk with somepony.”

Chapter 6: Once Again Hope I Died for the Last Time

Unlike her brother, who was back in Fillydelphia for the first time in three years, Limelight still has fresh memory of where everything in the city is. Trying to think like her brother, her first idea is to find the nearest place where a pony could be alone and undisturbed, and so she starts galloping to the nearest park.

In Fillydelphia, parks are only ever used as a place for young colts and fillies to play in during the day, or a quiet location for couples to go on a date in the evenings. Currently, it is void of both, leaving her with what appears to be a still, empty area of grass and trees surrounded by tall buildings.

“Winter?” she calls, looking around carefully. No movement. “Winter, stop hiding like a baby and get out here!” The goading doesn’t help. Sighing, she tries one more time. “Fine! I’m walking away now, and leaving you out here alone all night!”

When silence is still all that responds to her, she shakes her head, deciding he probably isn’t nearby after all. She turns to go looking for him elsewhere, only to feel a hoof on her shoulder as soon as she’s facing the other way. Startled, she whirls around again, finding herself face to face with her brother.

“Where did you come from?!” she exclaims, quickly being quieted as he puts a hoof to her lips. She pushes it away and tries again, now almost whispering. “I literally looked away not even a full second ago.”

“I had my camo shield up. I was right beside you.” He looks around before meeting her eyes again. “What’s wrong?”

“I came to ask you that.” Noticing a bench nearby, she trots over and sits down, the unicorn following. “Why did you just run out like that?”

Winter tilts his head. “What do you mean?”

His sister narrows her eyes. “You know exactly what I mean. At the restaurant. The waitress was talking to us and suddenly you were out the door like a cannonball.”

The unicorn pauses for a couple seconds before replying. “I have no idea what you’re-”

“Just shut up and tell me!” Limelight snaps, ignoring the oxymoron in that statement. “You scared all of us! Why won’t you at least say why?!”

“Why won’t you mind your own business?” Winter fires back. “Apparently three years wasn’t enough time apart for you to reach a more suitable level of maturity, huh? You’re still sticking your muzzle in places it doesn’t belong.”

The earth pony actually pauses for a moment. This isn’t like him… what’s going on? Like all siblings, the two had been subject to their arguments in the past; however, while she’d never admit it out loud, all of them had been her own fault. Winter only retaliated. So why did it seem like, this time, he was trying to get her riled up?

Winter continues to stare her down, waiting for a response. She sighs. I could back down, but… then he’ll never tell me. All I can do is keep pushing until he gives up.

“Considering I’m your sister, Winter Solstice, I’d think that you running away from our mother’s birthday dinner would constitute as at least partially my business,” she finally replies. “What happened to you in there? Did you remember something?”

He growls. “No, but I am now starting to remember why I left home in the first place.”

That hits her hard. All aggression quickly dissipates in favour of sadness, but it returns in full force, the two negative emotions mixing together. “And I’m starting to wonder why I missed you!”

“Maybe because you’re such a drama queen?” He rolls his eyes. “With how little you cared about me, I would’ve expected you to just call dibs on my room and be done with it.”

“I do care!” she yells. In the back of her mind, she thanks Celestia for the complete lack of any other civilians within earshot. “That’s why I came out here to look for you, you idiot! You had a freakout, and now you won’t tell me why! I’m just trying to help!”

“Well you’re certainly failing on that front!”

“You mean like how you failed at being a brother?!” Noticing his guard slip, she presses on. “Couldn’t even tell me yourself what was going on, could you? All I hear is that you’re off to Canterlot for work, and the next thing I know, you’re gone for three years! I didn’t even know what your work was until dad finally told me! I thought you were gonna die!” She shoves him, pools of tears beginning to form at the bottoms of her eyes. “You have no idea what it’s like; for your older brother to just be there one day and then possibly gone forever the next!”

“Yes I do!” he shouts back, pushing her harder and nearly knocking her off the bench. Growling, she shoves him again, completely onto his back, and stands over him. She looks like she’s saying something else, but he doesn’t hear; he only sees. And what he sees is, for all of half a second, a new pony take her place.

Her coat turns black. Her mane and tail turn white. Fully erect wings sprout from her sides. Her cutie mark changes from a spotlight to a bag of salty powder. And her angry expression becomes a half-lidded gaze of desire.

And then she’s in the air, held aloft by light blue magic, struggling desperately.

“Winter! Stop! Please! I’m sorry!” she cries, her body returning instantly to the one he recognizes as his sister’s. “I didn’t mean it! I’m sorry! Please put me down!”

Taking a sudden deep breath, Winter nearly cancels his magic, but catches himself just in time. Instead, he gently levitates his sister back over to the bench, sitting her on it and pulling her into a hug.

“Winter…?” she gasps, surprised by the sudden switch of moods. She goes silent for a moment when she hears him whimpering quietly, and slowly returns the hug. “Wh-what… what happened…?”

For several moments, neither of them speak. The unicorn just continues to sob into her fur, while she holds him in a comforting manner that she’s more used to being on the receiving end of. Eventually, his whimpering quiets down to deep breathing, and he begins to speak again.

“Y-You were right...” he breathes out, catching her attention. “T-Talcum… she is my ex-girlfriend...”

Limelight frowns. “Did… did something happen?”

He nods, pulling back from the hug so he can look her in the face. “We… we were together for only a couple of weeks...” He shuts his eyes, starting to breathe faster, until he forces himself to regain control. “She...”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Secondary school is a rather interesting period of time for students. Interesting, that is, in a rather awkward way. It is typically around this time when thoughts of romance begin to develop, as well as deeper hormonal urges. Some suppress the latter of these as much as they can, while others decide to ignore what is considered ‘common sense’ and just dive right in.

A couple consisting of a stallion from the first side and a mare from the second side was bound to cause problems. But nopony really thought it’d cause as much trouble as it did.

Talcum Powder first caught Winter’s eye during an extracurricular chemistry course. He took it out of boredom and a desire to try something new, while she took it simply because she needed some extra credits to pass. Nevertheless, he found himself looking at her, and she found herself enjoying the attention. (The fact that puberty had been rather kind to Winter, as opposed to the voice cracks and facial breakouts it granted most other stallions, may have helped.)

She had taken the initiative and asked him out; a strange inversion of the usual process, but as they say, to each their own. They went on a few casual dates, warming up to one another quickly. In fact, it only took three weeks for Talcum to decide things could speed up a little.

The evening of what was supposed to be another dinner date saw Winter knocking on Talcum’s door and waiting patiently. Despite the occasion, he only wore a light blue vest, though his mane was brushed in a much neater fashion than usual. However, when Talcum opened the door, he saw that she was even less prepared; she had nothing on at all, and judging by the half-combed state her mane was in, she was still in the middle of getting ready.

“Oh, Winter? You’re early,” she pointed out, a slight purr in her voice. She opened the door completely. “Come on in. I’m just deciding what to wear.”

The unicorn chuckled. “I’m only two minutes early, Talcum.” Nevertheless, he stepped inside, glancing around. “Anypony else home?”

“Not right now. My dad is working late tonight, and my mom is visiting her sisters in Appleloosa.” She giggled. “It’s just the two of us.”

Something about the way she said that made Winter a little nervous, but he shrugged it off. “Alright then. So, how long until you’re ready?”

“Oh, I’ve been ready for a while now.” She kicked the door closed and locked it. “The question is if you’re ready.”

The unicorn blinked. “Um… yes? But… didn’t you say-”

He didn’t finish. She tackled him to the ground, shoving their lips together. Winter’s blue face went a bright red, but the new sensation was just too pleasurable to pass up. It went on for a surprising length of time before Talcum pulled away, stroking the side of his cheek with a hoof.

“Want to come on up to my room?” she asked, the purr in her voice much more noticeable. “I imagine the floor down here isn’t very comfy...”

Winter just nodded, not quite sure what was going on. His brain was abandoning him; his heart was beating faster than ever; and certain other parts of his body were begging him to just go along with his girlfriend’s desires.

And that’s how he found himself being tossed onto a soft mattress, a pegasus using her mouth to unzip his vest as though opening a Hearth’s Warming present. Around this time, his mind finally regained control and began flashing very loud warning sirens.

“T-Talcum?” he asked nervously. “What… what are we d-doing?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” She giggled, flinging his vest to the side. “Each other.”

The warning sirens grew louder. “...I-I think I need to go now...”

“Why?” she purred, standing up over him with an insistent look of desire etched onto her face. “You had no problems coming up here with me.”

Push her off… Winter’s mind tried to give him instructions. No, she might get hurt… levitate her? No, magic’s not strong enough… just run? She isn’t moving… oh Celestia what is she doing, help, help, get me out of here help don’t touch me no go away…

And so he just stayed perfectly still as she began to lower herself closer to him. She was practically laying on top of him, licking along his neck as their lower regions just start to make contact.

“I don’t see why you would want to leave… after all...” Talcum grins, tickling his chin with a hoof. “...this is a night for fun.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Limelight just sits there, blinking. When Winter finishes his story, he slumps over, looking like he’s ready to freak out again. He holds onto his sister, as if she’s the only thing keeping him from doing so; which, in fact, is entirely likely.

The earth pony finally speaks. “...that… is the most fu-”

“-n?! You thought it would be fun?!”

Talcum blinks. “...Mrs. Frost, I’m not sure I understand your-” She gets silenced when the dark turquoise mare leans in close.

“Then listen better,” Perma hisses. Talcum swallows nervously, looking around for a distraction. However, since they had moved to the back of the restaurant out of the public eye, there wasn’t much she could do. “Let me clarify. You went out with my son for a few weeks, and then, when you were both underage, forced him into having sex with you when your parents were away?”

The pegasus shrugs. “I don’t like to think I ‘forced’ him into anything. He could have just left.”

“From the way you told the story, it sounded like he certainly tried,” the mother says through gritted teeth. “What did you expect him to do? Throw you against the wall to get you off him? Even if he was the kind of child who’d hurt a filly, you would’ve just turned around and played the victim because ‘he hurt you’.”

Talcum scoffs. “I would not! I am always honest!”

“Then why is this the first time I’ve heard of you raping my son?!”

“It wasn’t really rape,” the pegasus replies, sounding annoyed now.

Perma raises an eyebrow. “Oh? Why not? Because he didn’t say no? Because you were already in a relationship? Because you were never caught?” She slams a hoof on the floor as she leans in dangerously close, causing Talcum to lean back. “Any excuse, hun. Pick any you can think of. But if I don’t like it, it will be what I write on your grave!”

There’s a knock on the door, and in steps a dark green earth pony stallion. He looks to the two. “Is there a problem, Miss Powder?”

Perma smiles. “Oh, are you this young lady’s manager?”

“Yes, I am,” he says calmly. “And you are keeping her from her work, if I might add.”

“I do apologize. I was just on my way out.” The mother nods before heading for the door. “Oh, but before I go… may I make a recommendation?”

The manager tilts his head. “What might that be?”

Perma smiles. “Ask your employee here to tell you the story about how she raped my son back when they were in secondary school. It’s a gem, I assure you.” With one final dark glare to the pegasus, she storms out of the room.