Soul Bound

I sit and wait at the castle grounds with all of the other ponies. Taking a look around, I can see that the majority of the ponies here are about my age. I would assume that the children were told to hide while their parents went to try to protect them. Their are a few mares around. Unsurprisingly, no stallions.

Taking in my surroundings, I notice one of the fillies walk over. This particular filly is one of my friends from school. Her name is Dandy Daisy and you can expect by her name that she's usually pretty happy. From the look on her face, I can tell that she is definitely not happy. She probably looks sadder than I do.

"Hey soul bound, what happened to you?" She asked my very tiredly.

"My dad was killed by one of those bandits. I can still see the look on his face. One of pure joy. How can anypony be so happy about commiting murder? What kind of sick soul would feel that way?" I ask knowing that she wouldn't have an answer.

"I know, it doesn't make any sense. I was hiding in my room. When it was over, I came downstairs to see my mother and father impaled by one sword. I will never be able to forget that image." She says to me as she breaks down in front of me.

I walk over to her and hug her. "Don't worry. Everything is going to be fine. Hey! Guess who's birthday it is today?"

"Who's?" She says coming out of her tears. Does she seriously not know it's my birthday?

"Mine!" I exclaim. "And I got my very own hoofbow."

"Really? That's so cool." She says, coming completely out of her sadness. Distractions are working.

"Yeah. Tell you what, if you come over to my house tomorrow, I'll let you see it and I'll take you out hunting. Does that sound cool?" I tell her. I really have no plans for tomorrow. I don't usually have plans on sundays.

"Yeah! I'll see you tomorrow. I'm going to go check on the others. Have a better day!" She says before scrambling off.

See dad, I won't let this change me. And you owe me a hunting day, but I think I'll swap it out for a day with her.

"Soul Bound!" I hear a voice call over the croud. I look over the croud to see a guard looking around. I raise my hand and he beckons me forward. "Princess Celestia would like to speak with you."

He turns around and begins to walk into the castle. He takes me down a hall and into an office. Sitting behind a desk is the princess of the sun awaiting my entrance. The gaurd shoves me inside and closes the door behind me. I walk over to the desk and sit at a chair in front of her.

"Hello there Soul Bound." She says to me with quite a comforting voice. "I understand that you have lost your father to the bandit attack. It's absolutely terrible. He was a very skillful smith and he had done many services for our gaurd. He had even designed a few sets for my sister's battle armor. It is a shame that he had to die, but let us not remember him by his death. Let us remember him by the deeds he has made for the world. Now, onto official business. In his will, he has given pretty much everything to you. I know that this may seem a bit overwelming, but know that you do not hold much responsibility. The house has been completely payed off, he was in no debt whatsoever. The only thing that you really need to worry about is the money he left and it seems that he has been saving up for quite some time. In total, you now are in ownership of the house, all his possessions, and about 200,000 bits. On top of that, until you have reached stallionhood, your food and clothing will be paid for by the palace."

She finally finishes with everything she had to say. By that time, my jaw is at the floor. Did she say 200,000 bits?!? Even without that care from the palace, I could live off that for well over ten years. Even after death, my dad is still surprising me.

She looks down at me and notices my astonishment. "Onto the business of your father's funeral. It says in his will that he would like to be burried at his forge with hammer in hand. Interesting. I will have a service sent over tomorrow for the burrial."

Oh crap, I'm sopposed to go hunting with dandy tomorrow. "Um, could we hold the funeral until monday, I'm a bit busy tomorrow?"

"If that is what you would like, then the funeral can be postponed. If there is not any further question, then you may leave." She finishes, pointing to the door.

I get up from my chair and make my way out of the room. On my way out of the castle, I pass by dandy who looks completely sad again. I don't think there's truly a way to help somepony get passed this. Got to give me credit for trying.

I walk out of the castle and make my way past the gathered croud. On my walk back home, I can see the over all damage to the city. Near the city entrance, houses are in complete ashes and rubble. As you keep comintg further into the city, less houses are destroyed. Even then though, nopony could have been ready for this kind of attack. Looking back, I can see that even a few wall on the  castle had been broken. There must have been hundreds of bandits. That only begs the question though. Where did they all come from and how did they get so organized? Coming by several house, I can see blood stains. Even further on, there seems to be a house that was crushed by a fallen water tower. Another hard thing to understand is how fast they were in and out. That must have been a total of an hour.

Finally, I have made my way back to my house. My father's body is gone but the blood stain of where he was stabbed is still there. I step inside to find a deafening silence. Memories flashing by of all the time we were together. I slump myself onto the couch and lay down. I don't know how long it took but I fell asleep.