Goodbye
The mare gave a drill-like shout to her students. “File up, one-two one-two, into your places! Y'all have your duties, and crush me under an alicorn's hooves if I do any of you a pleasantry.”
In an early morning, the empty courtyard filled by the sounds of one voice. Ruminka Wings, drillsmare of the twenty-third guards, a regiment held up in Pegasopolis since the day they were drafted.
Haresplink, one of the twenty-third, heard rumour that they would be going to Canterlot. Ponies she knew had whispered delight at the prospect; the idea of royal Canterlot butlers serving them popular wine and fine ciders; the guards and lancers dropping their spears for magic steel, and legendary tales from travellers that a pairs of wings do less service than a horn under the bedsheets. Ponies from Pegasopolis were sheltered, but curious of the outside world.
Ruminka walked close after giving orders to the rest of the line. Her shining gold helmet made her all too easy to recognise. “Splink,” Ruminka cut her off. “I've already heard about the cave thieves: caught by Teal's squad, were they?”
Teal's squad were in North Estate, while Splink was told to guard South Estate, west of the barracks. It turned out to be an enterprise of nothingness for the entire night. “Yes ma'am,” she replied.
Ruminka nodded with brevity. “Yu'll be back on the list for standard duty. In fact, anypony else that participated in the cave thief fiasco last night can stand aside,” she said, pointing her hoof to a patch of grass. Clinking metal and dull hooves on dirt followed, none of them daring to fly while the drillsmare was present.
Splink left her place. Once the orders were given out to all of the twenty-third guards, Ruminka spoke where she'd usually tell them to leave. “I don't miscount. Our regiment is small enough as it is, small for a pegasus one at least, and we're missing one of our number... Dirri. The smog-grey stallion that likes to think he's silver. Where is he?” No one said a word. “Well? I'm giving y'all an order, if you hadn't noticed.” Ruminka walked up to a blue mare in the line. “Bell, report.”
“No disrespect, ma'am, but I really don't know the stallion,” Bell replied nervously.
Ruminka spat. “You've spent half a year in the same regiment and you don't know him? I learned the names of every one you by the first week, and I bet you can hardly tell me twenty. A mare in arms should know every pony in her group if she's ever going to rely on them.” She turned her head to the barracks roof behind the regiment. “I'll split the groups tomorrow.”
You learned so you would know the right names to holler at, Splink thought. “Ma'am, I could find him.” Dirri's bunk was opposite hers inside the barracks, and she was one of the few friends she knew he had. She wanted to know where he was, too.
Ruminka looked at her. “Make sure you do. I'll expect you and him to report back to me by noon. No sooner.” Ruminka then nodded, and dismissed herself from the courtyard at a trot. The others split, most of them going to their respective duties, while some of them followed Ruminka to the barracks.
Knowing roll call was over, Splink jumped off the ground and raised her wings to fly. Where would Dirri be? He was a quiet, submissive soul, not the type to skip out on duty. She saw his bunk empty once she woke up, assuming he had left before her for what should have been a normal day.
She stopped her hovering in thought, landing her hooves on the fine grass and walked to the barracks. There were other bunks in her room, and she remembered that another colleague, Weir, was absent from her bunk. She found Weir quickly, looking at the duty poster in the barracks front room. Weir sported the typical sky blue uniform over her pistachio fur, and was in front of the line to check the poster. Once Weir had left, Splink called her over.
“Pretty sure you were up before me. Any chance you saw Dirri?”
Weir looked at her sleepily. “I'd have spoke out if I knew. The baker's boy never got to his bunk. He was absent last night.” Splink looked on, astonished at herself. She didn't realise he wasn't there in the first place... how?
“I don't blame you for asking. You were dead tired yesterday, and I doubt you remember half the threats you gave Lethna when she tried to wake you up for volunteer work.”
“I remember that much, Splink muttered. As if the mare could force me to fix the fences broken by that thief, damn her. She focused on Weir. “Where do you think he's gone? He's never been this sort of stallion. Stupid buck... he'll get us on Rumi's bad side soon enough.”
Weir yawned. “Sorry Splink... but I won't be taking the blame for him, neither should you. It's his fault, and you shouldn't worry yourself about it.”
“I feel like I have to care. He's a friend, you know? Besides, I told Rumi that I'd find him. I thought you might have known more.”
Weir smirked. “Don't try to get me feeling sorry. I'm too tired for that. Off the top of my head... well, he's got parents here, hasn't he? He takes time off at his parent's house at any chance he gets.”
“Do you think something important cropped up? He might have been told to stay extra hours by his father,” Plink asked.
“What, at the bakery?” Weir said, and shook her head in adamant disagreement. “I wouldn't say so. His father would have mentioned it to Lord Arrow. I suppose there's a chance, but it's unlikely. Still, I guess there's no harm in checking over there.”
“Yeah, you're right,” Splink said. “I'll check it. When I'm done finding him, d'you wanna head out to the bar for ciders?”
“For break? Heh, what am I saying... Sure, I'll meet you here at twelve. Good luck.” Weir then walked out the building, and Splink followed her. In a few moments, she saw Weir fly to the Lantern district in the east, and she herself flew to North Estate where Dirri's parents lived.
The new day was warm, wet, and visibly problematic. Vapour from the surrounding forest rose to the sky, making a fog-lookalike. Splink knew that misinformed passer-bys said that the pollution was similar to Manehatten's. Canterlot was still on her mind, and she brought herself to think about the air in Canterlot: crisp, clean and magical, much like the inhabitants.
She arrived at the Dirri's house shortly, knowing the location from a conversation with the stallion the first time they met. Their home was on the second floor, the first occupied by the bakery. Once she arrived, she noticed that the doorsign had been turned to the 'closed' side, and the windows gave her a view of a dark, empty shop. It was neither open, nor was he there. She noticed there were none of the usual elderly that stayed outside the building, usually begging scraps from passers-by.
Splink couldn't make a clue of it, but she decided to carry on searching for her friend. She investigated for what she felt was at least a half hour in the nearby area looking through shops, and she decided, after no success, to scale the wall. It was her last idea, starting from the north and working her way down. On the top, she could see everything that side of the Estates, great houses of wealthy mares that were built on much higher ground. The Estates had their own side of wall that was much taller, given access to the lower level by way of stairwell or flight. It was common to have walls that connected to both low and high ground in Pegasopolis as the walls were round to encircle the city, and the land it was built upon was a valley, underneath tall towering islands of rock. The smaller of the islands were fit with towers to watch over the city, and the larger were used to build extravagant manors and the castle, accessed on hoof by a short stone bridge, that kept the rulers of the city safe above all others.
Once she was up on the south side of the Estate walls, she could clearly see figures on the valley walls below her. On closer inspection the group were visitors from Cloudsdale, easily identified by their lack of frills clothing and accents. Further away there was a single stallion, silent and looking over the walls, a stallion who she couldn't mistake had a dirty grey coat. Splink glided down to meet him, and he noticed her seconds before she touched the weather-torn walls.
Dirri turned a smile briefly, before his expression became astonishment. “Morning roll call was on today. I missed it, didn't I?”
She nodded. “Aye. What are you doing here? How could you've forgotten something you've done for six months?”
He exhaled as he scrunched up his eyes before looking back at her. “That's really not what I wanted to hear right now.” Dirri was silent for a moment. “What do you think Ruminka will say?” he responded solemnly, sitting on a cracked section of the wall's walkway.
To say Splink wasn't pleased would be honest. “I can tell you what happened to everypony else that's been late before. Do you want to have a full lunch today, or would you prefer to sit here? Come on Dirri, I know you're not a big fan of her but you've got to get a move on. And I was told to find you. I really don't want any of us to get into trouble for being late... do you?”
He stayed seated, to her displeasure. His figure and expression was of a defeated stallion, and he looked at the floor, moving a few outlying pebbles. When she sat next to him, she noticed the wall was damp, from the rainfall the night before. It really was a grisly time to watch over the walls that night.
She brought herself back to Dirri. “Do you want to talk?” she whispered.
He stopped moving pebbles. “How long do you have?” he said.
“Long enough. I'm worrying more that it's your time that's running out,” Splink replied.
He nodded as if he were thoughtful for a moment. “Yeah, I've come to terms with that. Father passed recently.”
“...I'm sorry,” she said. Splink decided, for better or worse, not to press herself on the matter.
Dirri shook his head. “We've known, me, my grandparents, and Cherry, for a while. At....at least he had a good life, y'know? He had a dream and he stuck to it. And I love him for that.” Dirri didn't cry, and he kept his composure as he sat still. Splink had never seen him cry. He was very shy at the barracks. “He passed two days ago. I've had enough time to think, and well, I had a lot to think about last night. My grandmother was talking me through what had to happen now. She said my father was a successful stallion, one of the most successful in all the city.” Splink would not deny it; there were fifty rich mares to the stallion, a home-certified fact. “She said he was really the leader of the bakery here. Of course I knew, I've lived in my family long enough. But she was driving the point that since he is gone, and Cherry is too young, I'm now in the legal position, his own will, to own the entire building, bakery. I know at least thirty weekly regulars, and now I have to serve them myself. That's really daunting, isn't it?”
“It's horrible, is what it is. Especially after, well... yeah. That is awful.”
After a short while of reflection, Dirri turned to look at the now slumped Splink. “D'you think you could help me?”
“W-what with? I don't know...”
Dirri frowned. “It's not what you think. My father's passing is sad but, I can't dwell on it. If I do, I'll find myself in an even worse position. No... I need to think about what I'm doing here. What I need to do. I've only talked to my grandmother about it, and she has her own opinion. I'd... like to hear yours. Really, I don't mind you talking about it, as friends.”
She glanced over. “What was your grandmother's plan?”
“I... think she has a bias. She wants me to be my own father. No, not literally of course. She isn't crazy, but in a... technical sense? I'm not sure. It's to do with family, anyway. She told m-”
Splink stopped him. “How much do you know about the bakery, baking, all that?”
“As much as I cared when he taught me. That's not saying a lot.”
“Ah.”
“I don't like saying it, but... realistically speaking, I could learn. We could make it work. My grandparents always made the cakes before, so we wouldn't be off on a terrible start. But I don't like it. I don't want to run a bakery, I want to be guard, and that's all I've ever dreamt of. Tell me... what's more important? Doing something for your country, and doing it for your own dreams, or doing something for your family, and letting them live happily?”
“Well,” she said standing up, “I'm sorry, but I don't think I can help you. Not the way you want me to. Neither can your grandmother. Look... if I were in your position, I'd go about it like every choice I've given myself time to think about. That is, what is important to you? You're making it into two sides, which makes it easy for us at the moment, even if it does expand later. Think back to alicorns. They made us, and they had a choice to give us these wings. They thought, 'What is more important to us?', and they chose to give them to us. Why? They wanted us to learn and prosper, and you can only learn through experience. That is why they gave us wings, and the unicorns magic. That is how we prospered.”
“So, you're telling me to go with to the guard?” Dirri asked. “It sounds like you're telling me to stay with the guard.”
“If that's what you think, then yes,” Splink replied. “But if that's what you want, you should probably get back to Rumi. As soon as possible. Do you want to come back with me?”
“Not yet,” he said. “No, I need some more time to think. But thank you. I feel I really needed that.”
“I'll wait for you then. I'm not going back empty-hooved.”
She waited for him for as long as he needed and, once he stood up and unfolded his wings, they both flew back to the barracks. It didn't take long before they were on the courtyard. She thought it was a wonder no one had seem them. “You know,” he said walking through the courtyard, “my grandmother has another reason to keep me at the bakery. She didn't say it, but I know. I know the bakery keeps them both, and Cherry, in that house.”
“How so?” Splink asked.
“You don't have a dependant relative, do you? The republic doesn't give out pensions. Without the bakery, they won't be able to live here.”
Splink pushed open the front door. “It sounds like you didn't tell me everything.”
“But I knew it myself,” Dirri said. “And I made my own decision, based on what you told me. Besides, grandmother said I own the deed to the bakery. I'll just give it to them, and they can decide whether they want to keep it or not. Tartarus, they might just hire someone else to work. The business wasn't doing badly when father died, he'd paid the last of his debts last year.”
Splink back-pedalled her first few steps into the front room. “Wait... You gave them the bakery, not only that... you're letting them keep the money?”
Dirri looked back at her. “My own decision. I made it while I was thinking back at the wall. I don't need any of it; the guard pays me now.”
Splink, stunned, watched as Dirri approached the hallway Ruminka was walking towards him in. She shouted “Dirri! What made you think skipping an entire session of roll call was in anyway required? Explain yourself, and save yourself a whipping.”
Dirri nodded. “S-sorry, ma'am. There was commotion at my parent's whether I should a guard or not. I chose to stay a guard... will I?”
Ruminka stood tall and imposing. She snorted, “You have to be dependant on a schedule to stay in the military. If you say this is the last time such an issue happens, you will make it so. Ponies have been on trial for less, and by doing so, you violate not only the laws of the barracks, but the laws of we that guard our country.” She kept solid eye contact with him throughout.
“Understood,” Dirri said, trying to hold face. “The cause of the commotion was that recently, my father passed... I assure you, it won't happen again.”
