Chapter 5

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Home. It was strange to think every day to come, that word would refer to some faraway place. Not somewhere you could go to every night, where ponies you knew were waiting for you. Where there would be a roof over your head and a soft bed to sleep in.

The sun was low enough then to cast long shadows over everypony’s home, mine included. The evening wind had cooled the air considerably. I stretched out my wings, enjoying the sensation, even though I wanted nothing more to fold them and face plant into the nearest cloud for a nap. It was a refreshing last flight, one I almost wished could go on forever. Maybe if I hadn’t been wearing my barding, I would have just kept flying and never stopped. But reality needed handling, and I was ready for it as I could have been.

Swooping out of my glide, I alighted in the alley where I had stowed my saddlebag. I laid my shiny new blade next it, counting on nopony waltzing through anytime soon. Then it was back to struggling with my armor again, biting at the straps and pulling if off piece by piece. I was beginning to think barding was more trouble than it was worth. At least it would have been without Silverglow.

I shook myself, dissipating the mental image of my friend. It was the right decision not to tell her, I thought, stuffing my armor into the saddlebag. But then there was the matter of the Paladins. What if they are preparing to do exactly what Roanheart wants to? It was a long shot, but perhaps I could still talk him out of his crazy scheme.

Raised voices were coming from the house. My father and Roanheart by the sound of it. I couldn’t help but smile a little. Some things never changed.

Shrugging on my bag, I trotted out of the alley and around the corner to my home.

“It doesn’t matter when you saw her,” My father was saying. “She should have been here hours ago!”

I walked into the doorway, but nopony noticed. Father was at the table where I had left him. Mother had her flank to me, seemingly waiting to get a word in on my behalf, or maybe Roanheart’s.

My brother had his ears flat against his head, and stood halfway in the kitchen and half in the hall.

“Dawnfire knows how to handle herself,” he said, without much conviction.

Gee, thanks.

“He’s right, dear,” Mother said. “We shouldn’t worry... yet.”

My Father huffed and shoved a hoof at a partially filled bowl on the table. “She needs to eat, doesn’t she? Where’s she going to get food, or a decent bed? The Paladins won’t accept a half-starved, half-asleep pony.”

“Probably not,” I said, dumping my saddlebag in the corner.

“Dawnfire!” My Mother whinnied and came rushing at me.

Goddess save me.

She embraced me, her hoof running over my back and her cheek nuzzled against mine. I could feel the sticky warmth on her face from recent tears.

I met Roanheart’s eyes across the room and conveyed another of my looks. This one I hoped said something like; “You think they’re a mess now? Just wait until we leave.”

He gave me a subtle nod. I don’t think he got that one.

“Where have you been?” Mother sobbed, finally stepping away.

“Out,” I said, in my usual charm.

Father stood from the table. “It had better been for a good reason.”

I rubbed at my assaulted cheek. “Yeah, I was with the Paladins.” A half-truth is still half honest, right?

He contemplated that, as if I still needed scolding but couldn’t think for what.

Mother shoved me towards the table. “Eat honey, you have to be hungry.”

The whole truth be told, I was famished. I sat obediently and shoved my face in the bowl. Oats, they weren’t the tastiest of foods. I wasn’t even sure the Goddess had intended them for consumption, but it was all we had.

“You final training day is next week,” Father said. “Are you ready?”

Well, father, you see, I’m running away to fight in the war with Roanheart. I’ll probably never see you or the Paladins again, so it doesn’t really matter if I’m ready or not.

I kept my mouth shut. Or rather, full of oats.

“Leave her alone, dear,” Mother came to my rescue. “She’s had a long day.”

“I can see that, you nag,” he snapped. “I’m just trying to understand what’s going on in my own daughter’s life.”

“You could do it without being cruel,” Mother said. “The last thing...”

I tuned out the rest. It had become surprisingly easy to do over the moons. For a few moments the only sound was the crunching of oats, until I hit the bottom of the wooden bowl. I swallowed the last bit of sustenance and left the table, walking right past Mother.

Roanheart was standing in front of my room, watching me closely.

“How did it go?” He asked quietly.

Like they can hear us anyway. “Good enough,” I said, thinking once again of the chaos happening at the Keep. “I think the Paladins are joining it.”

That caught him by the tail. “The war? On whose side?”

No, the oat festival. I rolled my eyes. “I don’t know. It’s not like I’m friends with the Commander, but don’t you think it’s worth waiting for? What if we fought with them, we could do so much more-”

“Like killing ponies?” he said, stomping a hoof. “That’s not what we’re going down there for. I want to stop the killing, not add to it. Besides, they would never let me rejoin, even now.”

“And you would still go without me,” I sighed. “Alright fine, but when all this goes horribly wrong, don’t say I didn’t try to talk you out of it.”

I went on into my room, leaving him behind to chew on that thought.

“I’ll wake you up when it’s time to leave,” he said.

I waved a hoof, letting him know I heard, then waited until his hoofsteps retreated down the hall.

My window still streamed in the last remnants of sunlight, golden and purple hues that streaked across the sky.

What a day.

I dragged my hooves to the cloud bed, loyally waiting for me where it always was. Falling into it was like the Goddess herself holding me. I spread my wings and legs, stretching all the aches out of me from that day. The next one was like a bad dream waiting to happen, but sleep didn’t give a crap, and neither did I.

Bring it on, I thought, groggily.

“Honey?” It was Mother’s voice.

Now I was the pony wanting to cry. “What,” I moaned.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t think you were sleeping already,” she said. “But, it’s just... you should really get a bath. I don’t mean to be rude, but you really need it.”

I didn’t move. Thanks Mother, love you too. Now get lost.

“Alright honey, well, sweet dreams,” she whispered. “I love you.”

I slowly turned my head around, but she was already gone. I rolled onto my side and curled my legs in, letting out a deep breath.

Yeah, okay... I’ll miss you. I’ll miss all of this. Goddess knows I’ll miss it.

-----

“Dee,” Roanheart’s voice disturbed me like the night before, only this time it came with a prodding hoof in the side.

“Dee, it’s time,” he said.

My eyelids fluttered open, revealing the face of my brother veiled in shadows. I wasn’t even that tired anymore, almost as if I had become accustomed to waking up in the middle of the night. My body, on the other hoof, was still aching from all the fun activities I had exhausted it on during the day.

“You’re sure you want to do this?” I asked him. It was as hopeless a question as any, but I wasn’t giving up without a fight.

He turned away from my bed and carefully picked his way to the door, not even gracing me with an answer.

I stretched out my hooves, letting out an exasperated yawn, and earning a glare from Roanheart. Or, at least what I assumed was one, when all I could see was the faintest glint of light in his eyes.

Standing, I became level with my window, and it seemed appropriate to look out it one last time. The night was filled with stars, a multitude of twinkling lights, covered only by the occasional cloud that blotched them out. At least I would still be able to see them from the ground.

I started across the room when my hoof bumped into one of the several brushes that never left my floor. Perhaps it was a vague sense of loss that made me stop; or perhaps the subconscious knowledge that I still hadn’t bathed and might not for a while. Lowering my head, I plucked the brush from the floor, and continued my way out.

I paused again in the doorway, even though my brother had long since passed it. I wanted to look back, just one last glance, but I couldn’t. I promised myself right then, that I would see it again. That I would see my parents again, and Silverglow. I lied.

Crossing the hall I could hear Father snoring as usual, but looking down it there was only darkness. Not even the faintest outline of their doorway.

It’s going to break their hearts. I knew it for a fact.

In the kitchen, Roanheart was waiting by the door, a saddlebag on his back, and mine by his hoof where I had left it before. The room was eerily still. The cabinets and table sat waiting to be used. There were no arguments being had, no errands to be run. All that was left was to leave.

A note was on the table, a quill lying beside it. I went over to it, causing Roanheart to nicker something I couldn’t hear. Dark as it was, the note was still legible, but I didn’t bother reading it. I thought I knew more or less what it would say, so instead I set down my brush and picked up the quill, singing my name beside Roanheart’s at the bottom.

I would regret not reading that letter.

That’s it then, I thought, retrieving my brush again and crossing over to my brother.

“Grab your pack, and let’s go,” he said, his head pointed toward the hall as if our parents would catch us at any moment.

I stowed the brush inside it first, before sliding the bag on for what seemed like the hundredth time. If I checked, there was probably a bald spot forming under where it sat.

Roanheart huffed, seemingly satisfied, and trotted outside where I followed.

He quickly froze, waiting as a late night flier passed overhead. The glint of his armor in the moonlight marking him as a Paladin.

I had no idea who he was, and he probably didn’t deserve it, but I cast a silent salute to him as he went. There goes the life I could have had.

After a moment, we continued. I fetched my sword from the alley, and then we were skirting along the rows of houses toward the edge of town. I quickened my steps to match Roanheart’s.

“So tell me,” I whispered, but still got a scowl in response. “You are carrying everything we need in that pack, right?”

Roanheart was the thorough type, but not beyond forgetful. The last thing we needed was to go down there without something as basic as food, or some such necessity.

He nodded without taking his eyes off where we were headed. “Oats, water, medicinal supplies, some stuff to trade or sell...”

That seemed satisfactory. At least as far as my muddled mind could think of in the hours before morning.

“Can you believe they actually use currency?” he said, his excited voice betraying the “in-command demeanor” he had been toting. “All this time we have been trading with the Earth ponies, I wonder what they could possibly want from us.”

Water; seemed to be the obvious answer, but I was no diplomat. I knew nothing about them, except from what I heard from others, such as their use of bits. Suddenly, I found myself wishing I had paid more attention to the class lessons when I was a filly. But the opportunity for that had long since vanished. Ahead, down the street, the town ended and the sky began.

We trotted quickly past the final homes, our hoofsteps silent on the clouds as we approached the edge. The wind pick up, rushing in from the expanse beyond and grabbing at my mane.

Above, the stars shed their scattered light around the moon, distantly reflecting the glow from the ground below. The ground, for the first time I had seen it at night, was a blanket of nothingness. Only every so often was it lit up by stars of its own, orange and flickering in tiny clusters, huddled together as if they were afraid to venture out into the dark alone. It was frighteningly beautiful.

“Wow,” was all I could say. You could count on me to really put things into words.

Roanheart smiled beside me, keeping his head high to feel the wind. “I only ever dreamed of doing this until a moon ago,” he admitted. “Just think of how much more there is to see out there.”

Part of me, that stupid part, wanted to agree with him. In that moment, the empty void only steps away, made me feel more alive than I ever had in the training circle. But the voice of reason knew whatever was down there was far less beautiful up close.

“Shall we?” he asked, offering a hoof.

What, you think we’re going to hold hooves as we fly? You know me better, I thought. But it wasn’t the absurdity of his suggestion that stopped me. It was the faint voice fighting against the wind at the edge of my hearing. It wasn’t the voice of reason. No, it was a tangible voice, one that I recognized.

My exhilaration quickly turned to dread. Slowly, painfully, I turned around and looked back the way we had come.

Galloping down the all but empty street, was a single, lightly colored mare.

Goddess, no.

I felt Roanheart turning his back to the sky and following my gaze. I didn’t need to look at him to see the surprise written on his face.

“Dawnfire!” she called again, her voice straining to keep quiet, but loud enough for us to hear.

Silverglow finally slowed when she was a few pony-lengths away. She was panting heavily, as if she had galloped the entire distance, and I didn’t doubt it.

Roanheart was the first to find his voice, while I just sat there trying to remember what I had said to her earlier, and what might have led her to us.

“What are you doing here?” He snapped, then quickly lowered his voice. “How did you know?”

It might as well have been a rhetorical question.

Silverglow cast me a cautious smile, still breathing heavily. “My only real friend told me.”

My brother had a knack for pitiful, pleading stares. The one he gave me then was not one of those stares.

Thankfully, I was far less susceptible to intimidation than pity. “What did you expect me to do?” I demanded, my adrenaline still pumping. “She’s my best friend. You were asking me to leave without saying goodbye. How could I do that? How could you ask me to do that?”

I wanted to scream at him, to finally let out exactly how I felt about his ridiculous plan and the situation he had put me in. It took every ounce of will just to keep it all at a snarl.

“I didn’t ask any more of you than I did myself,” he said, his expression quickly changing from anger to remorse. “If we were going to make this happen, it had to be done without telling anypony.”

Silverglow stepped between us, her face calm, at least compared to ours. She looked to Roanheart first. “So you were going to leave me behind, wondering where you had went? You could have trusted me, Roanheart.”

“I- I was going to have the messenger pony bring you a letter,” he said. “I didn’t want to put you in danger.”

But it’s okay with me. Just shove Dawnfire right in front of danger and ask her to make nice. No it’s fine, not like I’m sitting right here.

Silverglow put a hoof on his shoulder. “It’s not fair of you to put yourself and Dawnfire in harm’s way, and expect me to stay here and do nothing to help keep you safe.”

My brother tried say something, but ended up flushed and staring at the cloud floor.

Then my friend turned to me, the sympathy and understanding in her eyes practically crushed any argument I had been forming in my head. “Did you really think you could keep me away?”

Yes, I thought, lamely. But what was the point in admitting that? She was there, and we were still going to leave. My throat squeezed shut and I felt stick to my stomach. We were really doing it. There had been no convincing Roanheart otherwise, even with Silverglow showing up, and I was going with them. “How did you find us?”

Silverglow smiled mischievously. “It was simple. I just went to the nearest cloud edge from your house. Where else would you have gone?”

Great, I’m sure being predictable will help us survive. Not to mention I have to look after two ponies now instead of one.

“What did you bring?” Roanheart asked.

If he thought he could talk her out of coming just by what was in her saddlebag, my brother knew nothing about my friend.

She looked at me sheepishly. I actually knew nothing about sheep, but I imagined it was what she looked like then. “Some food and medicinal supplies. Dawnfire can be kind of reckless, so I thought we might need them.”

Goddess forbid I get reckless.

Roanheart nodded, regaining his composure. “Then if you’re sure I can’t change your mind, we better leave now. It won’t be dark for long and we should try to get to the Earth pony village by morning.”

It felt odd to have my brother giving orders. By nature he was more the, sit quietly and listen type; but it made sense. He knew the ground better than us, at least so he claimed, and with him in the lead it made keeping an eye on him that much easier.

Roanheart lifted off, soaring out over the empty expanse, glancing back only once to see if we were following.

Silverglow stood next to me, close enough that I could feel her mane blowing against me in the wind.

“Are you frightened?” she asked, so quiet I almost didn’t hear her. She was looking over the edge, at the lights I had seen not so long ago.

I’m afraid I’ll lose you.

“We’ll be fine,” I said, gently shoving her with a forehoof. “But you can still stay behind if you want.”

She looked at me. For a moment we just sat there, silent. I knew Silverglow, understood her. She wanted to say something, but couldn’t, I could see it in her frost blue eyes.

Before I had time to think about it, I wrapped my hooves around her and held tight. I could feel her shivering. “We’ll be fine,” I whispered in her ear.

She said nothing, but Roanheart’s voice came out to us over the wind. I pulled away and found my brother hovering some distance off, a dark blotch against the sky, much like the clouds.

I unfurled my wings, catching the strong breeze and sensing the power of it, the challenge of the flying against it. I was not entirely recuperated, but that wasn’t going to stop me.

“Let’s go be heroes,” I said, winking to my friend. Then, just like at my home, I launched myself forward without looking back.

The empty air swallowed me whole. Miles of nothingness above me, and the mirror of it below. Roanheart turned, his huge wings propelling him forward and downward. I looked to my left where Silverglow had flown up beside me. She was wobbling back and forth in the wind like a pony on ice.

“Keep your head down,” I called to her, grinning. Not every Pegasus was a natural born flier.

Roanheart was already several pony lengths ahead of us, heading steadily toward a cluster of flickering orange lights.

I leaned into a downward glide, pumping my wings now and then so I didn’t fall too quickly. In the blink of an eye the air went still, and for the first in a long time, everything really was completely silent. I could hear myself breathing, the ruffle of my feathers, and my mane swishing about behind me.

Goddess, am I actually liking this?

I was. Never before had I felt so free. Not ever. Living day to day growing up, was an adventure. Learning new things as a filly was fun, but it wasn’t this. My first days of training to be a paladin were thrilling. Becoming a soldier was- had been my dream, but it wasn’t this.

Not knowing what was out there, on the ground, or beyond; diving headlong into danger with the two ponies I cared most about, that was beyond compare.

I sighed, enjoying the sound of it in the open air, the warmth of my breath blowing on my face. Below me, Roanheart was steadily moving closer to the ground, only a dozen stories high or so by then.

I pulled in a wing, throwing myself into a roll, losing altitude. My wings extended, leveling out near my brother. I glanced back to find Silverglow still near the wind stream we had flown earlier. I waved to her, beaming.

“Enjoying yourself?” Roanheart asked over his shoulder.

“That’s none of your business!” I shouted, then immediately cringed when I realized it hadn’t been necessary. “Is that the village?” I asked, referring to the lights.

“Yup,” he said, his wings sweeping to gain a little altitude.

I stared at them, marveling at the way they danced and shuddered, as if alive. But something else quickly caught my eye. More directly below us were other lights, only these flowed in a line like a river. At that distance I imagined I could see the shapes of ponies among them. Shadowy figures with glinting armor.

“Hey, Roanheart,” I called, watching as he turned to look at me.

Something flew between us, a dark line whistling through the air.

What the-?

More whistling sounds followed.

Pain exploded through my right wing. I screamed.

Roanheart was shouting something, but my body was limp, falling, tumbling out of the sky. My saddlebag slipped away as another bolt cut past my side, but it was nothing compared to my wing. I watched droplets of my blood float off above me, past Roanheart, his hooves outstretched toward me, but still so far away.

I continued falling, turning towards the rapidly approaching treetops. Something about seeing the ground snapped me out of it. Made me realize I needed to fly, and fast.

I pumped my wings, and immediately more pain coursed through me. My eyes went to my right wing, the bloody metal tip of an arrow winked at me in the starlight.

My left wing continued to beat, but that only succeeded in spinning me in circles, rotating the world below me as it grew vastly closer.

I wanted to scream, to fly, to go back home, but all I could do was fall. Time went so slowly it consumed me, everything in my mind was of the pain and the falling. Until I hit the trees.

Seconds of needles and bark bashing into me, flipping me over, and tearing my flesh.

One last glimpse of the sky through the evergreens was all I got before I hit the ground.

Author's Note

An actual cliff hanger, what-do-ya-know! This post is coming to you a bit earlier today to make up for last week. (And the obnoxious amount of time between posts.) Thanks again for tagging along so far; all of you, I mean it. I do hope you are still liking the story.

In other news, I'm off to Bronycon next weekend. This will not interfere with the chapter updates, but if you are planning on attending, give me a shout out. I would love to see some of you there. Any-who, hope you all have a fantastic week. Cheers!