In the Eyes of Death

Being a messenger of death is never fun. It sucks even more when the one who answers the door is a young child. Those big innocent eyes as they look upon the face of a man in uniform and completely clueless about what was about to occur. When they switch to look at the three stallions in uniform standing at attention behind you just doing their best not to break down themselves. This was hurting them just as much as it was going to hurt the widow who’d just come down to check on who’d shown up.

“Lieutenant Guilty Spark, what’s going on here?” the mare inquired as her eyes met the face of the stallion behind me on my left, wrapping a forehoof around her child. “Is everything alright?”

“Ma’am, my name is Soren Mercer, ex-captain from my home world’s military. I have been requested by the guardsmen behind me to bring you some news regarding your husband.” I began automatically. “May I suggest sending your child inside?”

“What’s wrong? Is Blaze okay? Where is he?” the mare stared at me in confusion, switching between me and the ponies.

“Ma’am, it is my duty to inform you that at approximately eight-thirty last night, an explosion occurred at the Ponyville bank. It is unknown at this time if anypony was injured in the explosion. Guards and myself responded to the incident and did our best to put out the fires and save a handful of ponies trapped by debris on the second floor.” I explained, remaining perfectly still at attention while the stallions behind me threatened to break down. “It is my deepest regret to inform you that your husband gave his life in the line of duty trying to rescue to ponies trapped.”

The mare before me completely broke down, exploding into waterworks while her child looked up at her mother in confusion. A couple of sniffles from behind me told me that Guilty Spark had also broken down, probably due to having a friendly relation with the deceased.

“His sacrifice was not in vain as we not only put out the fires but saved the lives of eleven ponies trapped within. It is my understanding that not only did he die quickly and painlessly, but that a formal investigation is currently underway, lead by government officials from Canterlot.” Having given my speech, I stepped back from the door and let the Lieutenant approach and offer a shoulder to cry on before heading inside with the broken family with his superiors approval.

One down, one to go.

“Come on, let’s get this last one over with.” I announced and let the captain direct me towards the next unfortunate family.

A smaller house, looked to be at most two bedroom and maybe one bathroom, as though someone had taken an apartment suit and plopped it down on the side of the street and said “Fuck it!”

“I… I can’t do it, Captain… I can’t destroy her… Not again…” the second subordinate behind me announced, his voice shaking in fear at what he was about to be a part of. “I won’t be there to tell her her father’s also dead… I won’t do it again.”

“I don’t blame you lieutenant, I don’t want to be here at this filly’s house either.” the captain sighed as we stepped up onto the porch to gather ourselves. “But we can’t tell her nothing.”

“If you’d both like, I can do this myself. I don’t have any connection to whoever I'm about to destroy so I can do it cold, quickly and without breaking down.” I announced calmly, turning to address both ponies. “I will need the Captain here, however. A familiar face will help ease the pain.”

“I understand.” The Captain hauled in a deep breath before letting it go slowly and dismissing the second lieutenant. I stepped up to the door and pressed a finger to the buzzer before standing back with hands clasped behind my back.

The door opened and another filly appeared. Orange fur, short purple hair and no butt print. This one looked less clueless about what was going to happen when she saw our uniforms, but still remained silent.

“Morning miss. Is your mother home?” I asked as calmly as I could.

“No, it’s just me and my dad. Mom died a few years back.” the small pegasus with tiny wings replied, looking concerned as her eyes switched targets from me to the captain beside me. “Hey Captain.”

“Heya back Scootaloo.” The captain tried to offer a warm smile but ultimately failed in masking the pain in his voice. “Can we come in? We’d like to talk with you.”

Leaning down to whisper to only the captain, “You didn't tell me we were about to orphan a little girl…”

“You didn’t ask.” The Captain bit back bitterly before recomposing himself to address the small girl named Scootaloo.

“If you’re looking for my dad, he’s not back from his shift yet, but sure. You can wait in the living room.” Scootaloo backpedalled into the hallways of the small building and allowed us entrance.

“We’re not here for your father, we’re here for you.” I announced in a low tone and crouched down to get closer to face to face with the small pony while the Captain closed the door behind us.

“Why?” Scootaloo asked slowly, looking concerned ever more the longer she looked at us. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Scootaloo,” the Captain began, but I held him off with a raised hand.

“Late last night at approximately eight-thirty in the evening, an explosion went off at the Ponyville bank. Local guards and I responded immediately and began attempts to put the fires out and rescue eleven trapped ponies on the second floor.” I began but paused to take a deep breath. “Your father was one of the ponies stationed near the bank last night when the explosion went off.”

“Don’t say it.” Scootaloo’s eyes went narrow and she began making passes at backing away from me however tripped on a rug and ended up on her rump. “Don’t…”

“Your father died giving his life to save the ponies trapped on the second floor before I could clear out the fire. Thanks to his sacrifice, the eleven ponies are all alive and well and in the hospital.” I announced as the filly’s eyes burst into rivers of liquid pain. She collapsed where she sat and curled up into a small little ball of orange and purple. “Our deepest sympathies for your loss.” I stood and let the Captain take the task of comforting the pony, however she merely pushed him away and demanded he get out.

“Get out of here!” She screamed all while slamming her hooves onto the guard's armour to push us out. “Leave me alone!”

Getting ourselves out of there before either of us could sustain injury, we ended up on the doorstep and the door slammed shut behind us. I was about to say something when the sound of numerous glass objects inside were consecutively shattered against other things, accompanied by the wailings of the newly orphaned child.

Leaving the building grounds with the guard, we both let out sighs though they meant different things to us. The Captain’s was more mournful while mine was more exasperation. I was mostly just glad to be over this now.

“Well, with that over… We should get back to work.” I was already aimed back towards Twilight’s for a change of attire and the guard caught up quickly after realizing I had already left.

“Hey, thanks. For doing what we couldn’t. I know that it was my duty to break the news, since I was the commanding officer of the guards who’d lost their lives, but I didn’t have the courage to break the news. You did it so… heartlessly, tactlessly that I’m almost jealous.”

“Don’t be. Being heartless about telling someone that their loved one is never coming back isn’t something to be proud of.” I halted my advancement and turned to stare down at the guard. “I didn’t care that those parents were never coming back, because I’d never met those ponies and never achieved a level of familiarity like you guards did. You disappoint me that you asked me to fill in for you. You should have been the one to tell them.” And with that, I continued on my way, launching myself into the air with a burst of jet power to leave the pony behind.

~~~

“I do not envy you soldier types, having to play that messenger of death shit like that.” Rose sighed as she worked on sharpening a sword edge with me working on a second blade next to her. “I don’t know how you do it, able to go to a family and just utterly destroy them like that.”

“It’s not like we enjoy doing it,” I retorted and lifted the blade to check on how sharp I was making it by scraping my finger along its edge. “It’s a necessary evil when it comes to the military, of any world. Police officers have to do the same thing. I find it gets mildly easier by having a prepared speech beforehand, remaining completely professional and just getting it over with.”

“Sounds cold to me…” Rose muttered back and sighed while taking a moment to apply more grinding oil to our whetstones to keep the blades cool. “Do you remember how many times you’ve played the role on your world?”

“No, but we were at war. Stuff like that would have been done by correspondence during the war, or after when the left over officers had the duty to do it.” I explained and drew the straight sword back over the stone, slowly and carefully to ensure correct angle of grinding. “I remember doing it… at least twice before I ended up here.”

“Fucking sucks, all of it…” Crescent Rose lifted her blade to get another look at her handiwork before deciding it was acceptable and turned to examine my work. “You may need work in your forge welding techniques, but you’ve got sharpening and grinding down to a science, it seems.” she commended me on my craftsmanship as she took the blade in her hooves by the tang to stare down it’s length. “Well done, but I think we’re done for the day.”

“Excellent, my back is starting to stiffen up on me from sitting down so long.” I smirked and retrieved my project to set into storage for the time being before beginning the shop cleanup with the boss.

“Can I suggest getting a massage then?” Rose smirked back as I rolled my eyes.

“Would love to, but I'm broke as shit right now and I'm not confident in the ability of pony hooves to safely work my back.” I announced as I pulled off my apron to hang it on the hook next to the door into the display room.

“The masseurs do have specially designed soft sole shoes that they can wear. Just get them to use those and you’ll be fine!” Crescent strode alongside me and gave a casual nudge with her massive shoulder.

“I’ll think about it. I imagine that I'd be aiming for the spa across town, right?” I shrugged back and stepped out into the cool evening air. With Rose’s nod, “Thanks for the tip, I’ll keep it in mind when I get paid.”

“You’ll get paid end of next week, as agreed.” Crescent reminded as she waved me off then shut the door behind her and the sound of a heavy lock told me she’d gone.

Figuring I had nothing else left to do for tonight, I’d just head home to Twilight’s place and crash till tomorrow for the weekend.

~~~

Those plans about simply crashing for the night and taking it easy for tomorrow? Yeah, those went out the window as soon as I entered into the door into darkness. That darkness only lasted until the lights came on and nothing less than a hundred ponies all shouted “Surprise!”

I was seriously considering turning around and leaving to wander the town until daybreak, but something in my head was nagging me to stay despite hating parties and pretend to be sociable.

Notably visible in the forefront of the collection of pony bodies was those of Twilight and friends, including a still bandaged Fluttershy and Amethyst Star. The pink one with curly pink hair bouncing on her hooves with a massive smile looked ready to explode at any second and I was already making notes to refrain from interacting with her as much as possible.

“Look at him! He’s speechless!” Rarity announced, trying to cover up the slight scornful look I was giving everyone while I thought about walking off.

“That’s not what ah’d call that look, Rarity.” Applejack whispered to her friend, just loud enough that I could hear it. Rarity have a mild knock of shoulder against shoulder to correct Applejack and succeeded in silencing her.

“Well? What’re you waiting for? Come on in! This is a party thrown just for you!” The pink one announced, gaining a choir of cheering and enthusiastic whooping.

With an inward sigh, I reluctantly stepped further into the building and was almost immediately rushed by the entire conglomeration all at once.

“What’s this party for?” I nearly growled the question out, drilling daggers into Twilight since I figured this would have something to do with me being some kind of hero.

“This is our way of saying thank you for saving ponies at the bank! It’s also a Welcome-to-Ponyville party! Hiya! I’m Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie announced enthusiastically, practically bouncing through the ceiling at this point. My gaze switched back to Twilight and returned to a glare before returning to Pinkie.

“Thank you for throwing me this party. I’ll assume that Twilight didn’t tell you I don't like big events in my honour and we’ll just move on.” Swinging past Twilight, I grabbed up some clean clothing and escaped into the bathroom to change before returning to find alcohol. A lot of alcohol.

With a tumbler of whisky in hand, I turned to face the crowd of ponies all milling about in visitation before seven mares all approached me.

“Twilight, why did you go behind my back and get Pinkie to do this for me? I told you no events.” I demanded, the words dropping Pinkie’s ears as she realized how she’d been played by the unicorn and her efforts were unappreciated.

“Look, I understand that, but you’ve been a real grouch since getting here. You need to lighten up!” Twilight retorted while Pinkie recovered almost too quickly to bounce back into the crowd with Applejack and Rarity. “Fluttershy, Amethyst and I all agreed that this was the best way to thank you for saving their lives, even if you didn’t want it. You wouldn’t go to the award ceremony this afternoon, so we brought the ceremony here!”

“If I see even one glimmer from some kind of medal, I’m walking straight out that door.” I growled back, pointing towards the door out to the darkness of night. “I’m a soldier, not a child.”

“We still think that this is best for everypony…” Fluttershy mumbled back over the sound of the crowd around us.

“Fluttershy, I don’t mean to disrespect you or your friends, but I am the last person to deserve any kind of party.” I replied with a glance before aiming towards the front door and taking a leave of absence.

Stepping out into the cold night air, I lit up an engine seal in the palm of my hand for warmth given that I had no heavy clothing and was resigned to being stuck in a cotton t-shirt and jeans. Aiming the jet to the ground and adding the second one, I fired off like a rocket into the sky and got myself high enough that I was able to redirect myself towards the nearby lake and fire another burst to get me moving.

“You know, you’re being really rude to everypony back at Twilight’s right now.” Rainbow announced in a yell over the wind once she’d caught up to me. Her hair, like mine, had been pulled back by the air and looked to threaten to be torn off.

“Did you know that two guards lost their lives in that explosion last night?” I called back, getting closer to be heard. I didn’t have the vocal capabilities that Dash did, so this would have to suffice.

“No, I didn’t know. Is that why you won’t accept the award? Because you don’t feel like a hero?” Rainbow looked up at me as I now sailed directly overhead of her, keeping up with slow burns off my magic.

“That’s not it. I’m a soldier, I already know that there are due to be casualties in events of war or terrorist activities. It’s to be expected. I did my job, I helped save those ponies but I didn’t do it to be rewarded or recognized.” I explained and took a breath of the biting air. “The Guards who were supposed to tell the families came to me because they were cowards and couldn’t do it themselves. I had to the one to tell a mare and her child that their father would never return. I had to tell a pegasus girl that she is now an orphan because her father is dead. I’m no hero, Rainbow Dash. I don’t deserve recognition.”

“Soren, those families knew the risks of getting involved in the guard. They knew that one of them may not return.” Rainbow assured me with a small smile and lead me down to the lake side where we had regained my sight earlier.

“You think that this Scootaloo girl will understand that?” I remarked, sitting down on the sand to stare out at the water glittering under the early moonlight.

“Hold on, did you say Scootaloo?” Rainbow suddenly appeared in my lap, standing to stare me down with worry. “Don’t tell me her dad died…”

“He did, yes. She’ll be put into an orphanage because of my supposed heroics.” I remarked, resting back on my arms while Rainbow jumped to her wings and hovered in the air a bit.

“Dammit, Soren! You should have said something! You can’t just leave a filly like that alone no matter whether or not you know her!” she called out and took off into the air.

“It’s not like I knew you knew the girl!” I called back at the top of my lungs in the direction of Rainbow’s retreating flame.

I just can’t seem to catch a break with this one...