The Hoof That Heals No More
Manehattan
The bright, shining sun, the cold morning breeze, today was certainly a peaceful day; except for Bandage Hoof and his father. Bandage Hoof is a well built, grey pegasus stallion with a black mane that has white spiky tips, amber eyes with an orange outline, and a white bandage gauze for a cutie mark, and his father, Mystery Hoof is a light brown-maned, green-eyed, blue unicorn whose cutie mark is a golden padlock but an iron question mark is in the place of the shackle.
Bandage brought his luggage to the hallway. He had spent 20 minutes packing his belongings: photos, momentous, some clothes, training equipment and 3 days worth of rations.
Then Mystery knocked at his door. "Are you finished packing, Bandage?" His father asked as he peeked into the door way.
"Yeah, just gonna grab some bits then I'm ready to go." He replied with a low voice.
"Ok. Do you need anything else?"
"Not really." With that, Bandage goes to the living room collecting a pile of bits on top of the table.
Out of the corner of his eye, Mystery finds a photo on top of the table beside him; it was a picture of him and Bandage Hoof when he was younger. The photo and his horn are covered in a pale green aura as Mystery levitates the photo towards him.
A small smile comes across his face as he remembers the time he and Bandage Hoof played catch together; the time when Bandage was on top of his back, laughing and screaming in joy whenever he would run on the yard as fast as he could. Those are the days Mystery considered one of the best in his entire life.
While his father was reminiscing in the past, Bandage Hoof proceeded to take his luggage next to his bag, after taking his bits, outside of the house. When his father finally snapped out of his thoughts, he went over to Bandage and said, "Goodbye Bandage, I just hope you can visit me whenever you have the time," he said with a happy tone and a smile.
"I will. Goodbye" he replied with his usual low tone. Though he may not have shown it, he was happy. His father moved forward to hug him, he hugged him back.
Afterwards, Bandage made his way to the door. His hoof made contact with the doorknob, but he saw at his peripheral vision, his favorite jacket on the coat rack; it was the last thing his mother gave to him and one of the last few things he'll remember her by, that's why he cherished it very dearly. The jacket was black and had a white Sackers Gothic text printed on it saying: GIVING UP. NOT MY OPTION. Bandage took it off the coat rack and wore it.
After opening the door, he was about to go through the doorway when a hoof made contact to his shoulder. Turning around, a face of sympathy with saddened green eyes looked backed at him. With a low voice, Mystery said, "I know you still blame yourself for what happened before but i just want you to know it wasn't your fault. None of it was."
At this, Bandage Hoof heart rate increased. The whole room was silent; the kind of silence where you could hear a pin drop. He knew what his father was talking about, and it angered him.
He looked at his father with no emotion and moved his hoof away from his own shoulder. Goodbye was the last thing he said, but his voice held no emotion on it. He left without uttering another sound, closing the door as gently as he could in his current state. Now in the hallway alone, Mystery felt devastation rise up within him, gripping him with so much pain; pain that felt like a knife had gone through his chest. As he lowered his head, he felt the silent tears stream down his face.
Manehattan Train Station
3 Hours later. . .
Golden rays of the glorious sunset setted down a pale tint of orange light upon Manehattan's Train Station. The station was slightly messy with some puddles on the floor, papers lying about, but, nevertheless, it was tolerable.
It took a while to get there, but Bandage finally reached his destination. The platform was a little bit dirty, and there was barely anypony, just around 3. Looking around, the pegasus found the ticket booth. After making a quick purchase, Bandage sat down on a nearby bench. His thoughts went back to his conversation with his father, but all he could think about is a certain memory...
I'm sorry! . . . I'm sorry.
I-It's okay, it's not . . . your fault.
HISSS! SCREEEECH!
Bandage's thoughts were cut off as the sound of the Friendship Express' brakes screeching can be heard and slowing down to a stop when it's at the station. When it arrived, the doors to the train opened up.
"All Aboard!" The Conductor, Train Track, shouted, indicating to the ponies to get in. Train Track was an orange Earth pony wearing a conductor's hat and clothing, having train tracks as his cutie mark. Bandage and a few others stood up and walked towards the conductor to hoof over their tickets. While Train Track was collecting their ticket, Bandage was trying to get those thoughts earlier away, but he couldn't and it made him even more angry.
Why did he have to remind me about IT. About the Past.
"Excuse me Sir? Your Ticket?"
Bandage Hoof stopped thinking for a moment and looked up to see that Train Track, who was waiting for Bandage to give to him his ticket and looking slightly annoyed, holding out his hoof.
"Oh. Sorry." He gave the conductor his ticket, who rolled his eyes once he had collected it, and boarded the train. Once everyone was inside, the conductor stepped inside and started the pink locomotive. Bandage picked the cabin that was at the far end in hopes to avoid other ponies that were also inside the train.
Friendship Express
Fortunately for him, there wasn't anypony around. After placing his luggage and bag on top of the rack, he chose the seat on the left side and sat. Just as he was about to relax, a knock on the door of the cabin disrupted him from doing so. Now what? He thought, very annoyed. The door to cabin slid open, and a green earth pony stallion with a brown mane, carrying a bag, and stepped in. His cutie mark is a hoof, and next to it was a muted volume icon.
"Is this seat taken?" the stranger asked; to which Bandage replied, "No."
"Mind if I sit here?" The earth pony asked.
"I do. So go somewhere else." He replied bluntly, in hopes to make the pony outside of the cabin leave. "Thanks, man." The Earth pony said after placing his luggage and sat down, as if he hadn't heard what the pegasus had said, simply choose to ignore it or just didn't care; either way, Bandage wasn't pleased. "Oh! The name's Stealth Step by the way. But my friends call me Step," The Earth pony known as Stealth Step introduced himself. With a friendly smile he held out his hoof, indicating for Bandage that he wants to shake his hoof. "Bandage Hoof" was all the reply he got and nothing else. Step held his hoof up a bit more, thinking Bandage didn't get what Step had meant. It wasn't that he didn't get it, he did, he just didn't care. After a few seconds of complete silence, Step just shrugged his shoulders and placed his hooves behind his head to let himself relax. Bandage Hoof sighed, he had gotten a bit tired from his earlier thoughts and dealing with another this random pony was giving him a slight headache, instead of telling him to find another cabin again, he lied down and tried to get some rest—emphasis on tried.
Step sat up straight and asked. "So, where are you headed?"
"Why do you care?" He replied to him in an annoyed manner. Am I ever gonna get a single break? He thought, getting even more annoyed by this point. Step was thinking for a bit, and then he looked back at Bandage with a smile.
"Hey man! There's more than enough salt for the world already." Step jokingly said, his mouth quivering and his body twitching from trying to contain his composure. Bandage sat up straight and looked at Stealth with a confused look, not getting what he meant by that. A few moments later, he had gotten what the earth pony was saying, and simply rolled his eyes at him. "Whatever." Step couldn't hold it in anymore and laughed pretty hard for a long time.
. . .
Step has a really bad sense of humor, but his jokes are hilarious to him. After the day he had, he wanted a good laugh. After a while Step manages to catch his breath, but he still gave a few giggles every now and then. "C'mon. You know I'm just joking man." He takes on a more normal expression, but he was still smiling. "Seriously though, where are you headed?"
*Sigh* "If you must know I'm headed to Canterlot."
"Really? I'm heading there too!"
"What's you're reason?"
"I'm gonna join the Royal Guard! It's kinda been my childhood dream," he said nonchalantly. Bandage Hoof was surprised that him and Step's goal are the same, but he stopped thinking about it and narrowed his eyes at him. "You, a Royal Guard? With an attitude like yours, I doubt that you'd even be considered." Bandage Hoof doesn't hate the guy, well, he's just annoyed with him but having a happy-go-lucky attitude, Bandage doubts he'll be accepted.
. . . Wow. I'm pretty sure he is the only stallion whose off switch for his bluntness was destroyed and buried to a place nopony can ever find. Step mused to himself.
"You're saying that now but wait till I become the Captain of the Royal Guard!" He exclaimed and posed, with him standing on both hindlegs and his right forehoof pointing upwards. Bandage just stared at the pony blankly. Eventually, he sat back down and looked at Bandage Hoof questioningly. Said pony knew in the back of his mind he had another question. This had better be the last one.
"What's your reason for going to Canterlot?"
He had been expecting this question a little while ago. He thought of telling him to mind his business again, yet he felt like he can tell him, a stranger who he had just met a few minutes. Said stranger told him his goals to somepony he doesn't even know. In the end, Bandage told Step what his plans were to which the latter replied, "Whoa! Can't believe I'd gotten in a cabin with a pony who has the same goal as mine! Weird coincidence but still cool!"
Step didn't know why, but he was confused when Bandage told him about his goal. He couldn't help but be curious, so he decided to look at Bandage questioningly. An action that didn't go unnoticed by the pony in front of him. Looking down, Step noticed Bandage's cutie mark; at first, he thought it was irrelevant, but then he remembered why he was confused about Bandage's goal. After a while, Step asked, "Hey, I know you're annoyed with my questioning and all that. . ."
Well, congratulations. You figured out a fact
". . . but this is the last one I promise."
"If it is, then yes." If this isn't the last one. . . The muscles on his right forehoof had tightened in the middle of his thoughts.
"What's your reason for wanting to be in the Royal Guard? I mean, not judging you or anything, but from your cutie mark, seems like you could be a doctor instead." That question caught him a bit off guard. He hadn't expect him to ask that, though, in hindsight, he probably should have.
"I don't want to talk about it." Bandage said with no emotion on his voice nor his face. Though no emotions were shown or heard from the pegasus, Step felt an underlying emotion of anger.
". . ."
The cabin got eerily silent ever since then.
After a few moments, Step chose to break the silence. ". . . I'm sorry. For what I've asked," he apologized, yet didn't know what he was apologizing for. I think I'll just talk to him about this another time, Step mused. He felt as if he had crossed a line, one that no one knew about.
The pegasus ignored him and stared outside the window. Looking around, he saw the moonlight shine its beautiful rays upon many places, but none stood more brightly then the castle on the top of the mountain.
Almost there, towards my goal. The trip may take a few more hours to get there, so he lied down once more to finally rest.
Author's Note
I just want to say that this is my first story i have made, so please tell me if there is anything i need to correct or add and constructive criticism is welcomed.