Your Family and You

For a moment I stared down at the stallion before leaning back and opening the door to the medical room again. Never taking my eyes off him, I called back over my shoulder. “Hey, Prim. Got a question for you.”

“W-what… oh, yeah? What is it?” came the reply.

“Do you know who this guy is?” I asked, stepping to the side so she could get a better look. It was a shot in the dark, but I figured it was worth an attempt.

She was silent for a few seconds before answering. “Yeah, I believe so. If I recall correctly, he’s one of the members of the Coming Dawn. Avera’s old crew. That’s their emblem on his cap. Stack’em or something like that.”

“Ma’am,” the stallion called into the room, nodding his head and tipping his cap.

“Cool, cool,” I said. “Hey, listen. I’m gonna go with him for a bit, so if I go missing, he’s the one you need to hunt down and interrogate, okay?” This earned me a confused look from the stallion.

“Can do, chief.”

“Awesome.” With that, I closed the door again. Turning to the stallion—Stacker—I tapped the tip of my cane on the floor, the rubber stopper sticking slightly to the marble. “Alright then. I guess the next question is where are we going and who are we seeing, exactly?”

“Just follow me, sir,” he said with a roll of his eyes, yet I could see the corners of his mouth twitching upwards. “It won’t take long, and I’m sure she’ll be over the moon to see, er… that is to say, meet you again. Come on, I’ll show you the way.” With that, he trotted off down the hall, the small package still under his wing.

I hesitated for just a moment before limping after him.

We moved through the corridors of the palace, occasionally running into maids or patrolling guards. They paid us no mind—the maids continued their cleaning while the guards just nodded to Stacker as they passed.

At first, I thought that perhaps Stacker was leading me to the barracks or even to the castle’s apartments. It wasn’t until we reached the main hall that I realized we were actually going to be leaving the castle entirely.

Stopping on the threshold of the massive golden doors, I shook my head. “Um, no. I think not.”

Stacker paused, already starting down the steps towards the gates to the city. Blinking, he stared up at me. “What’s wrong?”

“We’re leaving the palace grounds?” I asked. When he nodded, I continued. “Why are we leaving the palace grounds? I’m not sure I’m entirely comfortable with that, given what happened last time.”

“We aren’t going that far, sir,” Stacker said. Turning, he pointed at a group of buildings off in the distance, just barely visible above a small grove of trees. “That there’s an apartment complex where many of the older guards live. It lets us have private lives outside of work away from the palace, but also lets us be close enough in case of emergencies. It’s about a five-minute walk.” He eyed my cane. “Give or take.”

I eyed the buildings before looking at the guard standing on the left side of the door. “Is that true? Those are guards’ apartments?”

The guard nodded. “Yes, sir. Mostly higher-ranking members, but anypony can request an apartment there. Well, besides new recruits. They need to stay on palace grounds during training.”

Chewing on the inside of my check, I eventually sighed and nodded my head. “Alright, fine. I’ll go. I’m still not one-hundred percent sure you aren’t just going to harvest my organs, but whatever.”

“You’re a strange individual,” Stacker said with a shake of his head, “but I can see why Avera likes you. And no, I’m not going to harvest your organs. I think my current roommate would murder me if I harvested your organs.”

“That makes me feel only… slightly better,” I huffed. “And you still haven’t told me who I’m going to see.”

Stacker just smiled before heading off down the stairs.

The trip did take a little longer than five minutes, but that was mostly due to the fact that the road wasn’t a straight line. It twisted and curved around a small, natural park that was located next to the apartment complex. I didn’t have much trouble walking it, mostly because we were going down a small incline, so gravity helped me along. Going back to the castle would be an issue, but that was Future Max’s issue.

The main problem came when we reached Stacker’s building. His apartment was located on the fourth floor, with only a stairwell to reach it. Well, there was a balcony entrance to the apartment itself, something that pegasi could use to come and go from the upper apartments. Stacker offered to carry me up, but I declined, choosing instead to take my time climbing the steps. I had to stop twice to rest my leg, but it was really no different than climbing the stairs back at the library.

Stacker was waiting patiently for me at the top of the stairs. Motioning with his head, he led me down the hall to the last door on the right. Apparently, the door wasn’t locked, as he just pushed it open and entered, calling as he did so. “Hey, it’s me. I’m back from the palace.”

“Welcome back,” came a voice from inside the apartment. “Did you get the eye drops? My eyes are getting a little itchy again.”

“Eeyup,” Stacker nodded. “Got your medicine right here. Also, I brought a guest with me!”

“Oh? A guest? Is it somepony I might know?”

Wait… I know that voice! Perking up, I quickly followed Stacker inside the apartment. It didn’t take long to find the speaker—she was camped out on the couch, sitting in a patch of sunlight with a blanket across her lap. I opened my mouth to call out to her, a smile on my face, only for it to vanish when I managed to get a closer look at her. Instead, I could only whisper out a hoarse, “Jesus Christ… what happened to you?”

Sunny Breeze blinked her dull violet eyes, the sightless orbs staring blankly out at the world. Her once vibrant irises were dull and faded, and the pupils were just mere pinpricks. The flesh around the sockets was scarred, the fur sparse and brittle. The entire left side of her face was covered in a thin layer of fuzz—a clear indication that it had been recently shaved. And to wrap it all up, her once-frizzy, yellow mane was now limp and cut extremely short.

At my whisper, her ears twitched and swiveled to face the source of the sound. She turned her head in my general direction before smiling weakly. “Oh, um… h-hello. I don’t, um… think we’ve met before. Are you in the guard as well?” Her eyes darted back and forth uselessly, trying and failing to see who she was talking to.

I glanced over at Stacker, who just nodded towards Sunny before heading into the adjacent kitchen with the package. The sound of rustling paper came a moment later.

“Errr, I… uh….” I chewed on the inside of my cheek before slowly moving further into the room. “No, I’m not in the guard. And we have definitely met before. Several times, in fact.”

Sunny’s muzzle scrunched up and her brow furrowed. “R-really? Are… are you sure? I don’t recognize your voice at all, and I’m usually good at remembering things like that.”

“Yeah, well…” I smirked as I glanced aside. “I wasn’t much of a talker for a while, so it’s understandable you don’t remember. Here, this might help.” Moving to stand in front of the couch, I considered her for a moment before crouching down. There was something I wanted to try—something I had read once back on Earth. Reaching out, I gently picked up one of her forelegs in my hand. She flinched at my touch, but relaxed, a curious look flashing across her sightless eyes.

Lifting her hoof, I placed the sensitive frog against my left cheek.

“What are you… wait, a human?” Sunny’s face scrunched up again. “I don’t understand. What are you getting… at…?” As she spoke, her hoof brushed over my face. She trailed off as she found the beginning of my scar. Slowly, her frog traced the line across my face, over my nose, and up to my right eye. I closed my eyelid as her hoof stopped over it.

For a moment, she was still, but then all of a sudden she gasped. “M-Max?!”

“Hey there, Sunny-Buns,” I said with a smile. “How’s it going, little mare—gah!” I almost fell backward onto my ass as she lunged forward suddenly, wrapping her forelegs around my neck in a crushing hug.

“H’ohmygosh!” she squealed, burying her face in my shoulder. “H’ohmygosh! What are you doing here? How have you been? When did you start talking?! What happened to you!? H’ohmygosh!”

“What happened to me?” I asked as I returned the hug. “What happened to you?” Leaning back, I rubbed my thumb against the left side of her face. “Your poor eyes. Your face. What the hell happened to you?”

Blinking her blind eyes, Sunny’s smile faded for a moment before returning in full force. “I’ll tell you what I’ve been up to if you tell me what you’ve been up to.”

“Deal,” I said. “Now, move over. Need to get comfy.” Collapsing down onto the couch, I began to make myself comfortable, only for Sunny to suddenly flop bodily into my lap. She snuggled up against me, her back resting against my stomach.

“Who’s going first?” she asked as Stacker walked back into the room. He paused upon seeing where Sunny was, only for a smirk to cross his muzzle a moment later. Shaking his head, he walked up to me and silently handed me a small eye drop bottle before taking a spot on a recliner in the corner.

As I turned the bottle about in my hands to read the directions, I hummed. “Hmmm, how about you go first? What have you been up to since I saw you at the beginning of estrus?” Uncapping the spout, I held the bottle over her right eye and gently squeezed the sides.

“Well, after we met in Canterlot and you and Princess Celestia left to talk about Darkflar—oh! Oh, that’s cold! Cold cold cold!” She blinked rapidly as the medicine pooled in the corner of her eye. “You could have warned me before you did that!”

“Oh, don’t be a baby,” I chided. “It’s just eye drops. Now, you were saying?” Hovering the bottle over her other eye, I waited for her to stop blinking.

“Anyways,” Sunny continued, “after we left you and the Princess, Stacker and I went to—gah! Cold! Why is it cold?!” After promising her that I was done putting drops in her eyes, Sunny began to regale me with her story. She filled me in on everything that had happened to her to the best of her ability, with Stacker chiming in every now and then to help clarify some points.

I lost track of time as Sunny spoke about stopping two assassins that had apparently been sent to off me, to finding out where Darkflare had been hiding, to her and the Coming Dawn finding Riddick’s old lab deep inside the mountain. After she reached the part about the explosion that took her vision from her, Stacker took over the storytelling.

At some point during their tale, a haggard-looking human male wandered into the room. Patches of his hair had fallen out and he was covered in various scars. Giving me a quick glance, he then settled down on the carpet right in the middle of the patch of sunlight. Soon, his gurgling snores provided background noise as we talked.

“Wow,” I whistled as Stacker wrapped up their tale. “You guys have been busy.”

“You could say that,” Stacker said with a grin. “From what I’ve heard from the rumor mill though, you’ve been busy as well, sir.”

“Yeah, come on!” Sunny chimed in from her place in my lap. “Tell us why you’re talking and stuff! Last I checked, you were mute and using hoof-language. What happened?!”

“Oh boy!” Shaking my head, I tightened my hold around Sunny’s stomach, pulling her closer against my chest. “Hold onto your butts. Have I got a weird story for you!”