This one didn’t want to come back to Freeport.
Well, it wasn’t that it didn’t want to go back. This one knew Mom and Dad were worried about it after everything that had happened in the North, not to mention that even if Equestria was a lot warmer than the North had been, it was still snowing. This one would be perfectly happy to never have to see snow again. This one had never seen snow in Freeport, and the only time it had been to Northmarch before had been in the summer. It thought that when it finally got to see snow that it would be fun and magical, but instead it was just cold.
Still, this one would’ve dealt with all the cold in the North if it meant staying by the Shimmer-mare. This one was her apprentice, and it was supposed to be by her side. Especially after everything she’d gone through. She’d lost one of her legs, and now she doubted whether she’d ever get to become an alicorn. She needed this one to be there for her, but instead it had to go all the way back to Freeport. Other than the White Pony, the only one who’d be there for her would be the Heartstrings-mare. This one might have moved past some of the bad things she’d done to it and the Shimmer-mare, but it still didn’t think she was the best choice to offer emotional support.
However, this one’s parents had pretty much demanded it return home as soon as possible, and it had barely managed to persuade everyone to let it stay until the Shimmer-mare left hospital. This one wasn’t a grub anymore, it was almost thirteen years old! Its parents shouldn’t get to tell it what to do and have everyone just go along with that without even considering what this one wanted!
The entire trip back to Freeport was just uncomfortable. This one didn’t want to be there, and Puzzle was the only one it knew on the entire ship. Normally he was pleasant enough to talk to, but he was really distracted worrying about all his business interests back in Freeport. Besides, while this one liked him it didn’t really know what it could say to him. Talking about how it wanted to be back in Equestria helping the Shimmer-mare would’ve just lead to another one of those really annoying lectures about how this one needed to think of Mom and Dad, and the Shimmer-mare would be fine without it. As if this one was just a stupid little grub that never could’ve thought of those things itself.
The ship got into port in the middle of a big Freeport rainstorm. Normally this one wasn’t a big fan of the rain, but at least this time the water falling from the sky was in liquid form. Besides, this felt like a day that should be rainy. This one sat out on the deck with its rain cloak halfway up, letting the rain fall on its face as it looked out over the harbor. Freeport looked very grey through the veil of rain covering it. The city was usually bright and colorful, but whenever the rains came they dulled everything, and everyone stayed inside.
Well, perhaps not everyone. Mom and Dad were waiting for it on the docks. They looked happy to see this one. It tried to wave over at them, but this one’s heart wasn’t in it. It was hard to pretend that this one was happy to see them. Well, it wasn’t unhappy to see them, just ... a lot of things had happened.
This one slowly trudged down the gangplank, its travel bag thumping along the ground behind it. It was a good thing Dad insisted on getting this one a waterproof bag. It would’ve been smarter to carry it properly instead of dragging the bag, but ... meh.
The instant this one had a hoof on ... well not exactly dry land with all the rain, but close enough, Mom came rushing over and hugged it. It was one of those big tight Mom hugs that always happen when she’s really missed this one. It knew it probably should hug her back, but it was just too tired to do any of that.
Dad cleared his throat, placing a hoof on this one’s shoulder to get its attention. “Kukri, are you okay?”
This one shrugged as best it could manage while Mom had it captured in a death grip. “This one’s fine.”
Mom squeezed this one again, as if she was afraid this one would slip out of her grasp. Though at this rate, she was more likely to end up squeezing this one to death. “Yes you are, you’re okay. You’re okay, baby, Mommy’s here.” She started rubbing this one’s back, as if it was a scared little grub that would start crying at any moment.
Kunai stepped up and ran a hoof through this one’s borrowed mane. It always felt weird when this one had hair instead of the headcrest that came with this one’s natural form. Still, it was the thought that counted. “Yeah grub, you’re oka—” She frowned and shook her head. “Actually, nah, this one can't really call you 'grub' anymore, can it?”
“Not a grub,” this one grumbled, though it was hard to put much enthusiasm into it. Normally it would have argued with Kunai over that for hours, but right now it was just ... hard to care about silly little things like that.
Kunai let out a weak little laugh, then turned this one’s hug with Mom into a group hug. “Nah, I guess you're not anymore. All the crazy horseapples you went through up north is the kind of stuff that makes you grow up pretty quick.”
Mom sighed and frowned at her. “Language.”
Kunai chuckled and shrugged. “Sorry, Mom.”
“Thank you.” Mom shot her one last look to make sure she’d gotten her point across, then turned her attention back to this one. She frowned at it, tipping its head up so she could look this one in the eye. “Are you okay, honey? You look like you might be coming down with something.”
This one shrugged again. “This one’s fine.”
Dad cleared his throat and pointedly adjusted his cloak. “Speaking of catching a cold, maybe we should finish the rest of the reunion at home? It’s raining cats and dogs out here.” He smiled down at this one. “I bet Kukri is probably tired from the trip too. Not to mention ready for a good home-cooked meal after a couple weeks of eating ship food.”
Mom smiled. “I picked up some fresh shrimp and haybacon from the market when we heard your ship would be getting in today. I thought you’d appreciate getting a bit of a treat after everything you’ve been through.”
Normally this one would’ve been very happy to hear there would be bacon-wrapped shrimp for dinner, but it was hard to care about little things like that. How would all the dead and homeless ponies and caribou from Coldharbor feel about this one sitting safe at home, eating fancy food? This one sighed and shook its head. “This one’s not hungry.”
Mom and Dad traded a look that they probably thought this one didn’t notice. Probably thinking there was something wrong with this one if it didn’t want to eat its favorite food. Parents are so dumb sometimes. There wasn’t anything wrong, this one just wasn’t hungry. It didn’t matter how good the food was if this one didn’t want to eat.
This one’s parents didn’t get that. After a couple seconds Dad cleared his throat and gently squeezed this one’s shoulder. “Anything you would like to talk about?”
This one shrugged. “Nah.”
Mom and Dad looked at each other again. “That's okay,” Mom answered this time. “Let's go home. We can talk about it later.”
“Nothing to talk about,” this one mumbled under its breath.
This one started walking towards home, and its parents and Kunai quickly started following it. The four of us walked along in merciful silence, until Kunai cleared her throat. “Um ... so, how was your trip?”
“It was fine.” As this one walked along its cloak shifted about on top of it. When it shrugged, this one’s hood wound up falling off, exposing its face to the rain. This one didn’t mind the rain. It was cold and wet, but compared to everything else it really didn’t seem worth making a fuss over. At least this one had a nice warm waterproof cloak. There were a lot of refugees in Northmarch who weren’t that lucky.
Dad trotted up to this one’s side and tugged its hood back up with a quick bit of magic. “You don't want to catch a cold, Kukri.”
“Oh. Right.” It was hard not to laugh at him. Did he really think this one could catch a cold in Freeport? Freeport’s winter rain felt warm and pleasant compared to the snow and ice storms of Northmarch, and even Equestrian winters were a lot worse. What did anyone in Freeport know about the bone-deep chill of a Northmarch winter—the cold stabbing into this one’s heart like a dagger of solid ice. This one had to cover its eyes so they wouldn’t freeze into its skull. If this one hadn’t caught a cold after going through that, there was nothing Freeport could do to it. Still, he would keep bothering this one if it didn’t fix its cloak, so it humored him.
The four of us slowly trudged down Freeport’s wet streets, taking in the lovely sights and smells of the city in the middle of a rainstorm. The rains always did a good job of wiping away the dead fish stink of the harbor, but this one knew from past experience that the smell would return three times stronger once the rain stopped. Especially since this one could see all the little bits of garbage that normally littered Freeport’s streets flowing into the gutters, and all of Freeport’s sewers ultimately emptied out into the ocean.
Dad cleared his throat. “So ... business has been good. The Zebrican market is a bit shaky right now, but Equestria and Westmarch are making up for it.”
“Dad!” Kunai hissed under her breath. “Is now really the time?”
Dad shrugged. “I thought she might want to know what we’ve all been up to while she was away. It's been months since we've all been together. We all have a lot of catching up to do.”
This one shrugged. “That's nice.” Honestly, business talk was a lot better than most of the things we could have discussed. At least it meant they weren’t going to keep asking this one if it felt alright and how it was doing. “Though it might be a while before there's much business from Northmarch. Then again, once they start rebuilding, this one imagines there will be plenty of demand for books along with everything else. And they’ll probably want to write books about what the Shimmer-mare did.”
The books would get it all wrong though. This one had read adventure stories, where friendship and love triumphed over evil and darkness. None of those stories had entire cities burning down and countless innocents burning alive. The monsters in those stories got killed off by the heroes with a single sword stroke and a witty remark—not like the real world, where this one had to watch the hero get beaten half to death, barely manage to survive, and then throw herself back into the fray despite being crippled. Storybook heroes got rewarded and finally achieved their dreams, real ones lost everything.
Storybooks were stupid, just like all the stories about Torch Charger. For a long time this one had believed he was a great and noble hero who sacrificed himself to free the slaves and overthrow the Necrocrats. That sounded a lot better than saying that Torch got killed and the Freeport he’d fought for was a corrupt mess. Sure, the Council was better than the Necrocrats, but being better than the Necrocrats at their most horrible and corrupt was a really low bar to set.
Mom wrapped one of her wings around this one and pulled it closer to her. “Come on baby, let’s go home. Things got a bit messy up north, but that's not important right now. You’re home, and you’re okay.” She took a moment to squeeze this one, then cleared her throat. “So ... well, we saw Puzzle get off the ship in one piece, but what about the others?”
“The Shimmer-mare and the Heartstrings-mare are fine.” There really wasn’t anything worth saying about the Heartstrings-mare, and this one didn’t want to talk about what had happened to the Shimmer-mare. It really wasn’t any of their business what the Shimmer-mare was going through anyway. Besides, she was fine. Crippled for life and missing out on her destiny, but it was fine. She was fine.
Kunai glanced at this one out of the corner of her eye. “So ... um, you ... wanna talk about anything you might wanna ... just—y'know, to talk?”
“Oh.” This one shrugged. What was there to talk about? “This one's fine.”
Mom tightened her wing-grip on this one. It didn’t know why she was doing that. It was getting her wing soaked in all the rain. “Okay. That's okay, we can talk about things later.” She nuzzled this one, which just got her even wetter. Hadn’t they been complaining about this one getting wet? Parents made no sense sometimes. “You know you can always talk to me, right?”
This one shrugged. “Yeah.”
“Me too,” Dad added in.
“And this one,” Kunai chimed in.
This one shrugged again. It didn’t know why they were bothering to tell it that. Of course it could talk to them; they were right there. The second shrug knocked this one’s hood off again, though all of Mom’s hugging and nuzzling probably hadn’t helped it stay in place. It knew it should probably put the hood back up before Dad complained, but it really wasn’t worth the effort. “This one will talk if it needs to.”
Mom pulled this one’s hood back up. “Okay. Whenever you’re ready, we’ll be here. We’ll always be here for you, sweetie.”
“I'm sure you’ll feel a lot better after a good night’s sleep in your own bed,” Dad said, though this one wasn’t sure why he felt the need to say it, especially since he seemed to be looking at Kunai and Mom a lot more than this one.
Still, sleeping didn’t sound bad. While this one was used to sleeping in shipboard conditions after serving on the Venture, no ship bunk could match the comforts of a proper bed. And to be honest, this one was starting to feel kinda tired. “That sounds good.”
We got home a little bit later. Once everyone had their rain cloaks put up, Mom turned to this one. “Kukri? Do ... you want to talk about what happened up there?”
“Nah.” This one started trudging up the staircase to its bedroom. It hadn’t felt tired on the walk over, but now this one wanted nothing more than to go to bed. If nothing else, it would give this one a moment’s peace from all the nagging questions. Why did everyone keep asking this one if it wanted to talk and if everything was okay? It told them it was fine. That should be the end of the conversation.
Dad cleared his throat. “Alright. Sleep well, honey. We’ll see you in the morning. If you need anything, just let us know.”
“Sure.” This one headed into its room, closing and locking the door behind it. It flopped down onto its bed, staring out the window at the cold night sky as the rain poured down. At least this one finally had a little peace and quiet.
Alone. By itself.
Just like it wanted.
It was well into the morning when this one woke up. Normally after waking up this one would’ve gotten out of bed and gotten started with the day, but what day was there for this one to start? The Shimmer-mare wouldn’t be back for who knows how long, assuming the White Pony didn’t talk her into staying in Equestria indefinitely. The Shimmer-mare had been pretty sure about coming back to Freeport when this one left, but what if the White Pony changed her mind?
Aside from lessons with the Shimmer-mare, what did this one even have to do? Go back to the same old normal school lessons? This one was probably going to fail all its classes on account of losing its homework. It had a note from the Shimmer-mare explaining everything, but it didn’t know if that would be good enough. ‘A dragon burned this one’s homework’ was the kind of excuse its teachers might not believe unless the Shimmer-mare personally testified to it, and even if they believed her this one would still be months behind its classmates.
Besides, if the Shimmer-mare opened her school, it wouldn’t really matter what this one did at its old school. Really, the only reason it was still taking those classes was to pick up things like algebra and writing skills that the Shimmer-mare didn’t have time to teach this one. It was a waste of her time to teach this one things it could learn from an ordinary teacher, and this one would much rather learn magic from her than how to find out what ‘X’ equaled. Still, she had tutored this one a few times to help it out, so it had wasted her time after all.
So what was the point of even getting out of bed? It would just mean sitting around bored in the house, and probably having Mom and Dad ask it more questions. Why did they keep acting like something was wrong? This one was fine.
This one didn’t really bother keeping track of time, but eventually Mom knocked on this one’s bedroom door. “Kukri? Are you up?”
“Yes,” this one answered on pure instinct. A second later it realized it should’ve kept its mouth shut. Mom and Dad would probably leave this one alone if they thought it was still asleep.
“Okay,” she answered. “I’m going to get started on breakfast then. We still have shrimp and haybacon leftover from last night, so I was going to make all that into an omelet. Does that sound good to you?”
“Sure.”
Mom waited for a couple more seconds, probably expecting this one to come rushing out for food. However, it still really wasn’t all that hungry. When it didn’t open the door after a while, she spoke through it one more time. “Okay. Come down whenever you’re ready, or … I can let you know when it’s done.” This one let out a relieved sigh when she started to walk away, but then she came back. “Are you feeling okay, sweetie?”
This one rolled it’s eyes. “This one’s fine, Mom.”
“Alright then.” Mom walked away again, and thankfully this time she didn’t come back. This one really didn’t want to deal with her right now. It was too busy thinking about things.
Eventually this one got out of bed and walked over to the window. When it opened the blinds it saw another grey cloudy Freeport day. It wasn’t raining at the moment, but from the looks of the clouds it could start again at any moment. In other words, a pretty typical Freeport day. Just like this one had predicted, the humid stink of Freeport was already coming back twice as strong now that it wasn’t raining. Hopefully more rain would come to get rid of it, at least temporarily.
This one had never realized how ugly Freeport could be. Most of the houses in this part of the city had dark grey slate roof tiles that looked especially hideous against the dark grey clouds hanging over the city. While this was one of the better parts of town and most of the houses had nice paint jobs to brighten them up, how fresh that paint was varied considerably. All the rain in Freeport ended up washing out a lot of the colors, or encouraging the local plant life to take over.
While this one would’ve been perfectly happy to stay in its room all day, it hadn’t accounted for Mom’s sneaky plans. As she started cooking breakfast, several wonderful smells wafted up from the kitchen, and soon this one’s stomach felt the need to remind it that it had skipped dinner and now it was quite a bit later in the day than it normally had breakfast. With a sigh, this one pulled itself away from the window and reluctantly walked to its door. It was hungry after all, and what was the point of staying away from food? This one still needed to eat.
This one quietly opened and closed its door, and began to make its way downstairs. As it approached, it heard Mom and Dad’s voices from the kitchen, and instinctively went still. That proved to be the right decision, because a moment later this one realized that Mom and Dad were talking about it.
“... really worried about her, Codex,” Mom said over the sizzling of haybacon. I could tell from the tension in her voice and the rapid-fire smacking of a kitchen knife against the cutting board that she was in one of her Mom Moods, where she makes a big deal out of things that really don’t matter. As if that hadn’t been obvious before now. “I’ve never seen her like this before. If half the rumors coming out of Northmarch are true, she’s seen things no child her age should go through. Do you think we should talk to someone?”
“And what would we say?” Dad answered, sounding a lot calmer. “That our teenage daughter is acting sullen and moody, and refuses to talk to us? This one is sure you know exactly how anyone would respond to those concerns.”
Mom’s knife smacked the cutting board a lot harder than usual. “We’ve already raised one teenager, Codex. I know the difference between a bad mood and when there’s something seriously bothering her.”
“This one didn’t say otherwise,” Dad responded. “Merely that it would be the first thing any professional would say if you brought your concerns to them. This one agrees that something’s bothering Kukri. However, perhaps it would be best if we gave her a few days to adjust to being home and open up to us before we do anything extreme.”
“And how long just sit back and wait?” Mom shot back testily. “Our daughter needs help. You can’t seriously expect me to just sit back and do nothing!”
“This one suggested no such thing.” Dad was starting to sound a bit annoyed. He usually kept his emotions under a bit more control than Mom, but when he got mad he was a lot scarier. “It merely thinks the right course of action for the moment is to let Kukri have a few days to adjust to being home, and create an environment that makes her feel safe and comfortable until she’s ready to talk to us. Putting too much pressure on her right away will probably just make her clamp up on us completely.”
“Or it could make things worse.” Mom resumed chopping vegetables, using enough force that she’d probably need to sharpen the kitchen knives again once she was done. “The longer we let whatever’s bothering her fester, the more it could set in. We need to do something about this.”
“And this one thinks we shouldn’t be in such a rush to take action that we do the wrong thing,” Dad answered. He was definitely sounding a bit testy by now. “Let’s at least give her a few days to let things get back to normal before we take extreme action. For all we know she could just be exhausted after everything she’s gone through, and all she needs is a few days of relaxing with her family to bounce back.”
“That’s a very optimistic assumption,” Mom grumbled. She sighed and stopped chopping for a bit. “We never should’ve let her go on that trip to begin with. I knew it was a mistake to let her go all the way to Northmarch. You know I haven’t been happy about this whole apprenticeship with Magus Shimmer. We had a plan, Codex. She was going to get a nice, safe, respectable job like being a merchant or a sailor. Now she’s running around in warzones and—”
“Kukri loves being the Shimmer-mare’s apprentice.” This one heard Dad moving around in the kitchen, but it couldn’t see what he was doing without getting closer and giving itself away. “Not to mention that if half the stories coming out of Northmarch are true, having her be the Shimmer-mare’s apprentice could be huge for us and her. I know Pater Vigil has been very happy with how being connected with the Shimmer-mare has helped the clan politically.”
“I don’t give a damn about clan politics!” Mom snapped. “We’re talking about our daughter’s safety and happiness. If even a quarter of the stories from Northmarch are true, she was anything but safe for the last couple months! Sunset promised us this would just be a once-in-a-lifetime field trip to meet an ancient dragon, and instead she gets caught in Coldharbor while it’s burning down to the ground and being attacked by mutated monsters.”
This one wanted to go out and tell Mom that she was wrong about Shimmer-mare and what happened in the North, but would she even believe this one? Mom would probably just say that it was in denial or something. Perhaps it could—
A foreleg wrapped around this one’s barrel, and a second later the attacker whispered into this one’s ear. “Busted.”
All the training this one had gone through with the Shimmer-mare and Mom kicked in. This one quickly fired off a directional thunderflash spell aimed behind itself. This one still caught a bit of the blast, but nowhere close to what its attacker suffered. It then rammed an elbow into its attacker’s gut, knocking the wind out of them and sending them staggering backwards as it whirled around.
Then this one realized that the attacker was actually its sister. Kunai sat on her rump, blinking owlishly as she tried to shake off the effects of getting hit with a point blank thunderflash. After a couple seconds, she groaned and rubbed her eyes. “Okay. Ow. This one supposes it should be proud of you for having moves like that. Also, did it mention ow? Because that was not fun.”
Before this one could apologize, Mom and Dad came running up the stairs. Mom had one of the kitchen knives at the ready, and Dad while was a bit calmer, it wasn’t by much. “What in Tartarus was that?!”
“Oh. Um...” This one shuffled in place, not quite sure what to say. In hindsight, Kunai had clearly just been playing one of her usual little pranks on this one, and now it had caused a big messy scene. “Um ... Kunai snuck up behind this one and ... um ... well she startled this one, and the Shimmer-mare taught it to defend itself in those situations.”
Kunai held up one hoof, rubbing at her eyes with the other. “Sorry Dad, this one’s bad. It was sneaking up on Kukri and forgot she stopped being a little grub who’d yeep like a parrot when it did that.”
Mom frowned at this one. “Startled or not, you shouldn’t use spells on your sister, Kukri. Was that a thunderflash?” This one nodded, and Mom’s frown turned into a full-on scowl. “Do you have any idea how bad a thunderflash at point- blank range in an enclosed space can be? You could have blown her eardrums out!”
Kunai cut in before this one could try to explain. “Seriously, the whole thing is this one's fault. It should’ve known better than to scare an apprentice magus. This one is lucky she didn’t set it on fire or something.”
Kunai smiled like that was a joke, but there was nothing funny about it. This one had seen what fire could do when Coldharbor burned to the ground. It had seen the wounded being treated in the hospital while it waited to learn what had happened to the Shimmer-mare. Not to mention after it had learned that she’d lost...
None of that mattered. It was in the past, and it was fine. In any case, Mom was right that the Shimmer-mare wouldn’t want this one using spells on family. It sighed and hung its head. “Sorry. Shimmer-mare taught this one to use that spell if it ever got attacked and ... um ... you know about stuff like training until it’s an instinct.”
“Yeah, it’s something any soldier does,” Kunai agreed. She gave this one a pat on the back. “Hey, it's fine. That was actually really impressive. This one didn’t know you were good enough to do that kinda drop-of-the-hat spellcasting.”
“To be honest, this one didn’t either.” That was closest this one had ever come to trying to cast a spell in combat. It had wanted to help out in the North, but everyone insisted this one stay far away from the actual fighting. This one ... well it hated not being there to help out, but it also knew it was nowhere near as good of a fighter as the others. And even though the Shimmer-mare was probably far better than this one could ever hope to be, she’d still...
Dad sighed and shook his head. “Alright, fine. Kukri try to be more mindful about how you handle those reactions in the future. Kunai, no more pranking your sister. Now, how about we sit down and eat breakfast?”
This one sighed and nodded. “Yeah, okay.” It trudged over to the breakfast table and flopped down into its usual seat. Kunai sat across from this one, while Mom and Dad headed back into the kitchen to finish up the food.
As the excitement from Kunai’s ambush wore off, this one slowly slumped down into its seat. When it didn’t say anything more, Kunai tried to fill the silence. “So, what other cool spells has the Shimmer-mare taught you?”
This one shrugged. “Lotta things.” Most of it had just been basic concepts and principles. From what she’d told this one, it needed to build up a solid foundation before it could grasp all the really advanced spellcasting the Shimmer-mare used.
Kunai smirked at this one.. “Ah yes, the famous ‘lotta things’ spell. Isn’t that the one Ushabti used to help push the Zebrican Empire out of Freeport? This one’s suitably impressed.” She snickered and rubbed this one’s head crest. “But seriously, show it something cool. It wants to be able to brag about how strong its little sister’s gotten.” She leaned across the table and whispered. “And you know it can’t share the story about how you thunderflashed this one and knocked it on its rump. It has professional pride, and all the other assassins would make fun of this one if it got out that it lost a fight with a grub.”
Normally this one would have objected to being called a grub, but what was the point? After all, Kunai only ever did it to get a rise out of this one. So instead it just shrugged. “Maybe later.” Hopefully she would forget about seeing any spells after breakfast.
Dad called out from the kitchen. “Since Kukri was a bit too tired for a welcome home dinner, we thought we’d make a big breakfast instead.”
Mom called out after him. “The omelets are almost ready. Did you want the shrimp and haybacon on the side, inside the omelet, or a little bit of both? Any other last requests?”
Kunai snickered. “Maybe just prep a fire extinguisher. You know this one likes its food extra-spicy, and the last time Kukri tried some of mine...”
This one heard Mom and Dad chuckling from the kitchen. “This one remembers Kukri chugging an entire glass of water in about two seconds, then stealing this one’s glass and doing the same to it.” Dad poked his head from the kitchen. “Speaking of, did you need anything to drink, Kukri?”
This one shrugged. “No.”
Dad headed back into the kitchen and whispered something to Mom, then came out and took a seat at the table. Judging by the way he was looking at this one, he and Mom were still worried about it. “So, feeling better after getting some sleep?”
This one sighed and rubbed the last bits of sleep out of its eyes. “Sure.”
Dad waited for a second, and when it was clear this one had no more to say, he tried to keep the conversation going. “Anything you’d like to do now that you’re back in Freeport?”
This one thought about it for a second. “Nah, not really.”
Dad cleared his throat. “We could go to the clanhold. Maybe you'd like to see some family?”
This one shrugged again. It didn’t bother saying anything more.
Kunai cleared her throat “Dad, maybe we could hold off on that a bit? You got the right idea, just ... maybe give it a few days?”
Dad nodded, but despite that, he didn’t seem to be taking the hint. “Do you just want to stay in today? We could always pull out a couple games and just relax. Especially since it doesn’t look like the rain is going to be letting up anytime soon.”
Kunai cut in before this one could answer. “Yeah, having a day in sounds perfect. We can do some catching up.” She turned to this one. “So, this one knows we’ve kinda all been dancing around the elephant in the room. Mom and this one both saw a lot of things on active duty so we know when someone’s come home from a rough tour. They’ve got the same thousand-yard stare and walking around like a zombie thing that you’re doing right now. So ... point is that shit happens, and you need to talk about it.”
Dad sighed. “Try to keep the soldier language out of the house, Kuani.”
Kunai rolled her eyes. “This one’ll put a ducat in the swear jar once we’re done.” She turned her attention back to this one. “But ... it happens. The world's an ugly, cruel place with ugly, cruel things that happen to people that deserve better.”
This one grunted and nodded. At least Kunai seemed to get it.
Dad frowned at Kunai, but she either didn’t notice or didn’t care. “So yeah, bad things happen, and a lot of the time, there's not a lot you can do about it. It sucks—believe this one, it sucks to be on the wrong side of that, but things happen. People get hurt and worse, and if you can't let go of it it'll eat you alive.” She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. “That doesn't mean you should forgive them or anything—do not ever forgive anyone for crossing you, but sometimes things happen that you can't ever fix. Sometimes things break and people die. You gotta tell yourself not to care about that kind of thing, or else it’ll drive you nuts.”
Dad cleared his throat. “Perhaps we can leave the philosophical discussions for someplace other than the breakfast table? This one doesn’t like to discuss moral philosophy before it has had its morning coffee.”
Kunai scoffed. “That's just reality, Dad. Pretending it’s not is just asking for trouble.”
This one wanted to argue the point. Shimmer-mare always tried to save everyone, even after she’d lost her leg to Blackfyre. It was why she was a hero. But ... well what would be the point of arguing about it? Dad said he didn’t want to hear about it, and this one really didn’t want to get into a fight with its sister. Far easier to just let her say whatever she wanted.
Dad looked pretty annoyed with Kunai, and this one suspected he might have tried lecturing her if not for Mom showing up a moment later with several plates balanced on her wings. “Food’s ready, get it while it’s hot.”
She set the plates down, and for a while this one didn’t have to put up with anyone trying to start a conversation with it. Hard to talk when your mouth is busy eating. The food was good too, but before long this one wasn’t hungry anymore. It wasn’t like it needed to eat that much when it hadn’t really done anything all day.
Mom cleared her throat. “How’s your omelet?”
“It’s fine.”
Dad set his fork down for a moment. “So it seems like you’ve been picking up quite a few spells from your time with the Shimmer-mare. Anything you’d like to show us after breakfast?”
This one shrugged, but didn’t say anything. Kunai filled the silence. “This one thinks she’s saving them for the next time this one spooks her.” She tried to smirk playfully at this one, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes.
Mom frowned at her. “Let’s hope not. I also hope she’s learning more than just combat magic, there’s more to life than being a soldier.”
This one poked at its food and said nothing. Really, what was there to even say? It’s not like showing them a couple basic spells like freezing a glass of water would impress them. Not to mention this one really didn’t want to see any more ice after Northmarch.
Kunai wouldn’t be deterred. “You can show us later maybe. This one’s got a few knife tricks to show you now that you’re back. We can do it after breakfast, or whenever you're up for it
.”Dad smiled hopefully at this one. “It’d be nice for you two to get to spend some time together. You never know when another job might pull Kunai away.”
This one shrugged. It knew that was true, but if Kunai left she’d just come back later. Or maybe she wouldn’t. That was just life. Like Kunai just said, this one couldn’t let itself get too bothered over things like that.
Mom frowned and traded a look with Dad. “You okay, honey?”
It shrugged again. “This one is fine.”
Author's Note
As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.
Click here if you want to join the list of awesome people who support my writing.
Aidan Hall
Alt Grendel
Anon3mous1
Batbrony
Benjamin McLaren
BikerDash
Borg Lord
Brion Wauters
Charles M. Hagmaier
ColdSilverD
Combine
Comma-Kazie
Creideiki
Cyanhyde
DaB.
Darkarma
Deep Cover
Dixie Daley
djthomp
dkia
Edmon Star
Emily Hartsay
Errant
FallenAngelXy
Forderz
Guldane
Jessica T
Peter Coulthard
Ponibius
Rowan Yote
Shank
Sweet Gale
Sylvain Colinet
Trinary
waritah
Zennyth
Nothing really interesting happened for the next couple days, unless the rain counted. Apparently there was some big storm sweeping through the islands. The out-islands were probably getting the worst of it, since it was only clipping the edges of the city. For us, all it meant was a whole lot of rain.
Freeport was pretty used to dealing with big storms since we didn’t have a full-fledged weather corps like Equestria. Freeport’s weather service didn’t have the numbers or infrastructure of the Equestrians, and even if we did, it wouldn’t be practical to stop the megastorms from forming over open water hundreds or thousands of miles away from the islands. All they could really do is help make sure the storms didn’t wreck anything too valuable.
This one spent most of its time in its room. This one probably should’ve spent the time catching up on sleep, but sleeping meant dreaming. Instead it just dozed a lot. That was a lot safer. Not that interesting, but else was there to do? The Shimmer-mare was still back in Equestria. Besides, with it raining almost constantly, there wasn’t much incentive to go out and do anything. With how often the rains came, Freeport hardly shut down just because of a little water, but nobody was in a hurry to go outside if they didn’t have to.
Unfortunately, this one’s parents weren’t feeling especially reasonable. They wanted to meet up with some friends and weren’t about to let some weather stop them. Worse, they seemed to think that this one would want to come along.
Mom called up from downstairs. “Kukri, are you ready to go?”
This one sighed as it slowly pulled itself out of bed. It could swear that sometimes its parents went out of their way to cause this one trouble and inconvenience. Had they always been this annoying? It trotted to the bottom of the stairs, then let out a second, louder sigh for their benefit. “This one still doesn’t know why it has to come.”
Mom and Dad traded another one of those looks that seemed to happen whenever this one opened its mouth. Then Dad answered. “We don't want to leave you home alone.”
This one rolled its eyes. “This one can stay home on its own, it’s not a little grub anymore. It can even make its own lunch and dinner if you stay out late.” Shimmer-mare had insisted on teaching this one how to cook along with its pyromancy training. Supposedly that was good for teaching one fine control with heat, though this one privately suspected she also did it to save herself the trouble of making a lot of meals. “Besides, the job Kunai’s out doing is still in the city. If you’re that worried, you can always have her stop by for a bit.”
Mom refused to see reason. “We'd like you to come. You’ve been cooped up in your room for days, it’ll do you good to get outside for a bit.”
“Yes, this one can enjoy the sun and the great outdoors.” This one pointedly looked out the window and the rain pouring down outside.
Dad shrugged. “Yes, it’s been raining. To be honest, your mother and this one have been getting a little bit of cabin fever, and it would have to imagine you are too. If nothing else, you must be getting bored of hanging out in your room and reading over your old books and practicing magic. A change of pace will do you good.”
Then Mom went in for the kill. “Of course, if you want to stay home you could always get a start on making up all that schoolwork you missed. Even if a dragon burned your homework, they still want you to be caught up with the rest of your class.”
This one let out a long-suffering sigh at the utter unfairness of the world, and the many indignities its parents forced it to endure. Why couldn’t they just leave this one alone like it wanted? “Fiiiiiine.”
Mom chuckled and wrapped a wing around this one. “I promise, it won’t be that bad. Who knows, maybe if you try hard enough to have some fun you’ll actually end up enjoying yourself. It has to be better than sitting up in your room all day.”
Dad smiled at this one. “If nothing else, it will be nice to get out of the house for a bit. What’s the worst that could happen?”
“An evil dragon could swoop down from the sky and burn the entire city to the ground before murdering all who resisted and mutating the rest into horrible monsters that are a crime against nature and sanity,” this one answered. “Although if that happened, it's not like staying home would keep us safe anyway.”
Neither of its parents knew quite what to say to that. This one felt an odd sort of thrill at finally getting both of them to shut up. They thought they knew everything, but they hadn’t been in Northmarch. They had no idea.
Mom cleared her throat and took a seat on the living room sofa, waving for this one to join her. “Yes ... well ... did you want to talk about what happened in Northmarch? We’re always here if you need us to listen.” She took a deep breath. “We can tell it’s bothering you. Please just talk to us about what’s wrong.”
This one rolled its eyes. Again with this. “This one is fine.” Maybe if this one kept repeating the obvious truth they’d eventually listen to it.
Mom and Dad traded another one of those looks. This one was getting really sick of that—like they thought something was wrong with this one. That it had come back from the North as some sad little broken thing. This one. Was. Fine.
This one headed for the door. “Weren’t we leaving?”
Dad sighed. “Make sure to put on your raincoat. It's still raining outside.”
“Yeah, sure.” This one grabbed its raincoat and tossed it on.
Mom looked this one over like it was a little grub that couldn’t dress itself. Then she let out a loud sniff and frowned at this one. “When was the last time you took a shower, Kukri?”
This one shrugged. “Yesterday.” Or maybe it had been the day before. Or maybe further back. This one was pretty sure it had at least had one since getting back to Freeport. It wasn’t like that kind of thing mattered when this one was just staying in its room all day.
Mom sighed. “Doesn’t smell like yesterday. If we weren’t going to be late...”
This one rolled its eyes. “If this one’s smell is so offensive, you could always leave it behind instead of dragging it out to something it doesn’t even want to go to. Or it could just go out in the rain and leave its raincoat behind.”
“Don’t tempt me,” Mom grumbled. She headed into her room, and came back a moment later with a bottle of perfume. Much to this one’s annoyance she sprayed it a few times, then sniffed it again. “Not perfect, but it’ll do.”
This one sniffed itself and groaned. “This one doesn’t want to smell like limes!”
Mom answered it with a flat look. “Trust me, it’s a massive improvement on how you smelled before. If it bothers you that much, you can take a nice long shower to get rid of it once we get back home.”
“Seriously?” This one groaned and tried to bundle itself up to contain the smell. “Ugh, let’s just get this over with already. Who are we supposed to be meeting up with anyway?”
Dad finally hopped back into the conversation. “This one is meeting up with a couple booksellers it has a long-running business arrangement with. Your mother is taking advantage of the opportunity to reconnect with a couple old friends from the Free Companions as long as we’re in the area. This one thought a larger group and festive atmosphere would make negotiations a bit more relaxed.” He grinned at me. “Which is also why you’re coming along.”
So this one was just a prop for his business negotiations? Wonderful. It sighed once more. “Well if this one has to come...”
Dad chuckled and gave this one a pat on the back. “It won’t be that bad, this one promises.”
“Fine.” This one trudged out into the rain, swapping into its usual disguise as it did so. The one everyone always said looked like this one was trying to pretend it was the Shimmer-mare’s little sister. Though really, after everything she’d been through she could probably use some family time. Too bad this one was stuck back in Freeport. Sure, she had the White Pony, but this one could do things the White Pony couldn’t.
Oh well. There was nothing this one could do, except just keep existing in Freeport. What was even the point of that? The only thing it had left to hope for was that the rain would at least wash away some of the stinky lime perfume Mom doused this one with. It followed along behind Mom and Dad, letting them lead the way to wherever it was we were supposed to be going.
Freeport’s streets were still pretty busy despite all the rain. Things still needed to get done even if the weather wasn’t pleasant. Instead of the usual hubbub of people walking all over and chatting with one another, it was all small clusters taking cover under awnings and umbrellas as they quickly headed for their destinations. The streets might be just as busy as they were when the weather was decent, but it they weren’t anywhere near as alive. Everyone was just existing, doing what they needed to do to survive one more miserable day.
This one’s parents led it to one of the nicer-looking taverns near the waterfront. This one had always liked going to the waterfront back when it was young. It was Freeport’s ... family-friendly entertainment district, though plenty of sailors fresh into port still liked coming here too. Contrary to their reputation, not every sailor immediately went to whatever dive bar that had the cheap booze and cheaper companionship. Some of them wanted a high-quality meal in clean surroundings, or cheap and delicious but very unhealthy street food. After the food the waterfront had plenty of carnival games, plays and sports matches at the amphitheater, rides, and even a full-sized roller coaster.
The tavern itself looked entirely too festive, done up in bright green and red for Hearthswarming. It was technically an Equestrian holiday, but plenty of places in Freeport observed it ... especially when there were ducats to be made by doing so. After its recent experiences with winter weather, this one could certainly understand why the Equestrians put so much emphasis on a holiday that involved being far away from the cold.
This one had to wonder why its parents were meeting up with friends and business partners here. It didn’t look like the kind of place some of Mom’s old mercenary friends would want to go to, or a suitable place for a business meeting. It was just too ... festive.
Mom looked around the room and going by her smile she must’ve spot whoever she was looking for. “Regal, Penumbra, there you are!” She trotted over to a unicorn and a zunicorn who looked a bit too nicely dressed for a place where the main menu items were hayburgers and fish and chips. Then again, the Free Companions had a reputation for being fancy dressers.
However, the far more interesting thing to this one was that they had a daughter who seemed to be about the same age as it. A unicorn like her father, with a light blue coat and a short-cut purple mane. She didn’t have a big fancy hat, but the raincoat she was in the middle of taking off was a deep shade of purple and looked like someone spent far too many ducats on it. The body underneath that coat looked slim, but with the long-limbed awkwardness of teenagerhood. As she put up the coat, this one noticed it included a sword belt with an intricately decorated scabbard.
This one’s eyes instinctively went to the weapon. A smallsword: Mom always said they were better fashion accessories than weapons. Then again, it could still do plenty of damage if she stabbed this one with it. Not that it had any reason to suspect she would, but this one hadn’t been expecting to have our inn blown up by the Glimmer-mare. Or for Blackfyre to burn down an entire city while this one was in it. Or for...
This one relaxed a bit as she stepped away from the weapon, but what it wasn’t expecting was for her to approach this one. She politely extended her hoof. “Sunny Flare. It’s a pleasure.”
This one took the hoof. “Uh, Kukri. Kukri Doo. Likewise.”
This one could swear that it saw its parents watching the two of us, but when it looked over at them to confirm they seemed to be busy talking to Sunny’s parents. Nothing too interesting, just the usual small-talk and catching up. Before anything too interesting could happen, Dad looked over in the direction of the door and waved. Must be Dad’s friends.
This one looked over and spotted a pegasus and hippogryph coming up to the table. More importantly, it spotted their daughter: a pegasus with a messy blue mane and a tan coat. She looked like she was right around the same age as this one, even if she was still a bit on the short side compared to itself and Sunny. Once could be a coincidence, but twice ... “Mom, Dad, can this one talk to you for a moment?”
The three of us stepped out of earshot, and Dad sighed. “Kukri, remember to watch your ‘this ones’. There’s no reason to give away that you’re a Free Mind.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, what is it?”
This one sat down and crossed its forelegs over its chest. “You both meet old friends this one hasn’t seen before, and they both just happen to have daughters the same age as this one? This one doesn’t believe in coincidences like that.”
Mom sighed and shook her head. “Kukri, aside from Sunset how many friends do you have right now? Your teachers say you don’t socialize with anyone, and you dropped out of any extracurricular activities so you could spend all your spare time at Sunset’s tower. Not that I’m complaining about you being passionate about learning magic, but don’t you think you ought to have at least a couple friends your own age?”
This one tried to come up with a good answer. “Um ... but that's not ... did you set this one up on a play-date?! This one’s not a grub, it can make its own friends!”
“You can,” Mom agreed, “but you haven’t been. We’re just trying to give you a helpful little nudge in the right direction. It has to be better than spending all day locked up in your room.”
Dad nodded. “Having friends is important for a gru—changeling your age. Or any age, really. This one doesn’t think it’s healthy to spend all day with the Shimmer-mare to the point of not spending any time elsewhere.”
This one groaned and rolled its eyes. What was even the point of having friends? The Shimmer-mare was way more interesting than kids, and she needed this one. What would this one even talk to other kids about? They’d probably still be going on about school and boys and whatever it was they had to deal with. Was this one supposed to talk about its lessons with the Shimmer-mare, or maybe it could tell them about all the monsters in Northmarch, or when it got hunted by the Primal Changeling. Maybe we could have a nice talk about how this one still had nightmares about that, and needed a night light for months after ... and how it started using one again after Northmarch.
Mom cleared her throat. “What's wrong with making friends?”
This one wanted to explain it to them, but it knew they wouldn’t listen. They never listened to this one before, why would they start now? It sighed and accepted its defeat. “Nothing, just... Fine, this one’ll try.” It never said it would try very hard.
Dad gave this one some ducats. “This one thinks you'll like them. Give them a chance. Besides, you’ve got money and the whole waterfront to play around with. Go and enjoy yourselves for a bit. This one thinks the three of you will be fine without adult supervision.”
This one took the money and quickly counted it out. Fifty ducats was ... this one could probably do something fun with that. And if the parents were leaving it alone maybe it wouldn’t be that bad. This one could always just ditch the other two if they bothered it.
This one walked over to the two of them, trying to figure out the best way to break the ice. It really didn’t want to hang out with two strangers just because its parents thought it needed to socialize more, but the two of them were probably in the same boat as this one. Besides, the Shimmer-mare always said this one should be nice to others: you never know when a little kindness might pay off, or you might regret being rude to someone years later. “So ... um, apparently our parents think we should hang out together while they’re catching up.”
Sunny shrugged. “That’s pretty much what they told me. No harm in doing a little networking, and once Dad starts going on about his old stories he won’t stop for hours. Not that his stories about things like the time he negotiated directly with the Westmarch ruling council are bad, but I’ve heard them so many times...”
The pegasus grinned. “Besides, we’ve got ducats to burn and the entire waterfront to work with. We’d have to be trying to not have a good time.” She turned to this one. “Oh right, introductions. It’d be weird to just call each other ‘hey you’ the whole time. Indigo Zap.” She offered her hoof.
“Kukri Doo.” Judging by the hoofshake that followed, Indigo was the type who liked to turn hoofshakes into a contest of strength. That, or attempting to dislocate this one’s shoulder was her idea of an enthusiastic and friendly hello. Probably the latter, judging by her smile. This one wasn’t quite sure what to make of that.
Both of them seemed to be looking at this one expectantly, so it broke the silence. “This one—” It immediately cut itself of, trying to remember Dad’s advice. “Er, I think my parents set this up. It’s a bit too much of a coincidence otherwise.”
Sunny shrugged. “Pretty sure all of our parents were in it together. Though honestly, there are worse ways to spend the afternoon than hanging out at the waterfront. As long as neither of you are weirdos or something, it just makes sense to stick together.” She tapped her sword belt. “I can take care of myself, and I know the condottieri keep the waterfront pretty safe, but I can look out for you two and there’s strength in numbers.”
Indigo snorted. “Yeah, you got a fancy little sword, but I can take care of myself just fine.”
“I never said you couldn’t,” Sunny answered levelly. “But Kukri and I are both from military families. Training and experience go a long way.” She turned to this one. “If you don’t mind me asking, where does your family rank within the clan?”
“Um...” It took this one a while to remember. We didn’t really get mixed up in clan politics, but we were certainly full-fledged members of the clan with all the usual centuries-long pedigree. Not to mention that if what Mom and Dad had said the other day was true, we were moving a bit up the ranks due to this one being the Shimmer-mare’s apprentice. Not that this one had ever really paid much attention to that kind of thing. “Kind of middle-ranked, I guess?”
Sunny cocked her head to the side. “Huh. Interesting.” This one couldn’t tell what her opinion about that was, but it suspected she’d wanted this one to be from the clan elite. “My family’s served in the Free Companions since before we helped Torch overthrow the Necrocrats. My father is the chief contract negotiator for the entire organization. Naturally I’ll be following his hoofsteps, though if I have anything to say about it, I’ll be climbing a bit higher. Where do you plan on going in your clan?”
This one shrugged. “Um, this one hasn’t really been training to join the clan’s military branch.” It quickly realized its mistake and tried to fix its pronouns. “I’m Sunset Shimmer’s apprentice, so I’ve mostly been learning magic from her.”
“Oh.” Judging by the way Sunny’s eyes lit up, something must have fallen into place for her. Evidently she agreed with this one’s parents that being the Shimmer-mare’s apprentice was good for the family’s status in the clan. While this one didn’t really like to think of things that way, it probably did get a bit of reflected glory from the Shimmer-mare. The more impressive her accomplishments, the more it meant for this one to be her apprentice. Once everyone found out she killed one of the biggest and evilest dragons in the world...
A cold breeze must’ve come in through an open door or something, because this one shivered. Strange. After the bitter cold of Northmarch, this one never would’ve thought it anything in Freeport could chill it.
Indigo snorted and nudged both of us. “Yeah, yeah, you got your big famous families while my parents just sell books. Then again, I don't need to brag about how cool my teacher or my great-some-odd-uncle's brother's cousin's former roommate is. I just get to be amazing all on my own.”
“Right.” Gave her a skeptical once-over. “So what do you do that makes you so amazing?”
Indigo blinked and stumbled over her next words. “Well I ... I mean, I ... well, what do you do? We’re kids, none of us have done anything all that cool. You’ve probably never used that sword of yours for anything but practice.” She turned to me. “And, well, being an apprentice wizard sounds neat, but you probably haven’t learned any of the big crazy spells yet. Gotta work your way up to that.”
She had a point. This one hadn’t used all its magical training to accomplish anything of note in Northmarch. Not to mention what it had seen the Shimmer-mare and the White Pony do showed just how far this one still had to go before it could get anywhere close to them. Maybe if this one had been a better student, the Shimmer-mare wouldn’t have been...
Indigo nudged this one’s shoulder. “Whoa, relax. I was just teasing, no need to start looking like your dog died or something.” She rubbed the back of her neck and smiled nervously. “I mean, I’m sure you can still do way more magic than I can. I’d love to learn magic, but I’ve heard it’s pretty much impossible if you aren’t born with one of these.” She tapped this one’s horn.
“You certainly can’t use traditional unicorn magic,” this one agreed, thinking back to the Shimmer-mare’s lessons. “But since you’re a pegasus, you could always try weather magic or work in another tradition like Zebrican shamanism or Northmarch runecasting. Unicorns have a huge advantage over the other pony breeds, but not an outright monopoly.”
“Makes sense.” Indigo looked this one over. “So ... what’s the coolest spell you’ve learned?” When this one didn’t immediately answer her, she nudged it. “C’mon, what’s the point of being an apprentice magus if you can’t show off any awesome magical powers.”
“We should probably go outside,” this one pointed out. “I don’t think they’d appreciate me showing off in the middle of a crowded restaurant.”
“Good point,” Sunny agreed. “Especially if someone’s going to ask me to show off my sword skills next. It’s a bit of a faux pas to draw a blade on private property without the owner’s permission. Well, as long as there’s not an actual fight going on. Not that swinging a sword around in the streets is a great idea either, but as long as we don’t make anyone think I’m about to stab them it should be fine.”
The three of us headed out into the streets. There were a couple bystanders near the restaurant staying out of the rain, but once we walked a bit we found a slightly damaged awning nobody was taking cover under. This one set itself up near one of the holes where some rain was coming through, then closed its eyes and concentrated. After a couple seconds it could tell it’s tongue was sticking out the side of its mouth, but since the Shimmer-mare and Heartstrings-mare weren’t here to complain, this one didn’t care. Sunny and Indigo didn’t seem to either, or at least neither of them said anything.
After several seconds, this one could feel the spell coming together. It still couldn’t do the spell anywhere near as fast as Shimmer-mare did, not to mention it couldn’t hold a candle to the raw power she could throw out, but it was still replicating one of her signature spells. A small ball of fire slowly came together in this one’s right hoof while the other pulled in some of that rainwater to freeze into a ball of solid ice.
This one opened its eyes, and saw that the other two were watching its display. Sunny spoke up first. “Huh, not bad at all.”
“‘Not bad’?” Indigo nudged her. “I may not have a horn on my head, but I’ve read plenty. She’s pulling off two seperate evocation spells at the same time! Doing more than one spell at a time is something a lot of full-fledged magi struggle with.”
This one couldn’t help smirking a little. “Isn’t it? This one does have a good teacher.” Though Indigo was wrong about this one actually casting two different spells: one of the tricks the Shimmer-mare taught this one was how to move heat around with a single spell to get both fire and ice. But why tell them that? It was a lot more fun if they believed this one was actually doing something way harder.
Sunny snorted. “Okay, that is pretty impressive. It also took her so long to pull off that I could’ve stabbed her a dozen times in a real fight.” She tapped her sword belt. “Fancy magic tricks are nice and all, but General Platinum always tells me that most of the time honest steel is a lot easier to use and a lot more reliable in a fight.”
Indigo chuckled. “Sounds like someone’s jealous. So are we going to stand here and jabber about who’s got a bigger horn or are we going to go do something fun? I dunno about you two, but I don’t want to spend all afternoon standing around when I’ve got fifty ducats to spend on whatever the feather I want to!”
This one shrugged. “Sounds good. Where do we start?”
Sunny offered the first suggestion. “How about getting something to eat? I was expecting to get a late lunch with my parents, but we all know how that worked out.” She waved towards several food stands and carts a little ways down the pier. “Plenty of places to choose from.”
Indigo ginned and pumped a hoof in the air. “Now you’re talking my language!”
The three of us headed over to the food stands. This one was a bit surprised so many of them were still open with the weather, though come to think of it if they couldn’t do business every day it rained they’d be closed half the year. Most of the stands had extra-large awnings, both to protect the food and cooking equipment and to draw in anyone trying to get away from the weather. Just as this one had suspected would be the case, as soon as we stepped into shelter the owner barked at us. “You wanna stay dry, buy something!”
“You could give us a minute to look over the menu first,” Sunny shot back primly.
“Fine,” the grumpy-looking zebra grunted. “But don’t take forever.”
“No wonder his tip jar is empty,” Indigo muttered.
This one quickly scanned the menu, but nothing looked all that enticing. Then a particularly savory and incredibly tempting smell drifted in on the wind. There was nothing else that smelled quite like a deep fryer in the middle of making incredibly delicious and equally unhealthy food. This one promptly turned around and walked out, ignoring the zebra’s offended shout as it departed without buying anything.
Indigo and Sunny promptly joined. “Even if his cooking was amazing, I wouldn’t want it after that appalling lack of manners.”
“Not to mention his place stank,” Indigo chimed in. “No idea what it was, but it was like some of his food went bad and he tried to cover up the smell with lots of lime juice.”
This one suddenly felt rather self-conscious about its body odor, and the perfume Mom had dumped all over it. “Uh, yes. This one is sure that’s what it was. Anyway, this place looks a lot better, let’s check it out!”
This one spotted what it wanted pretty quickly, but gave the others a moment to decide. Sunny frowned at the menu. “Hmm, what should I go with? Sweet or salty?”
Indigo didn’t have any hesitation. “Sugary, I can get salty any time.” She snorted. “No pun intended.” She paused for a moment, then frowned and shook her head. “Not that I do, ‘cause I don't need to, it’s a ... eh, never mind. Don’t you hate when metaphors get away from you?”
“I try not to worry about that kind of thing.” This one put in its order. “One shrimp kebab with peppers, please.”
“Those do look pretty good,” Indigo agreed. “But not as good as the funnel cakes. Come on, everyone knows funnel cakes are life.”
“I thought everyone knew they go straight to your hips,” Sunny shot back. She tried to frown, but couldn’t quite pull it off. “Then again ... it’s been forever since I had one, and half the point of all the exercise I’ve been doing is so I can treat myself every once in a while without ruining my figure. Though I am getting some actual food to go with it.” She stepped up to make her order. “Fish and chips, plus a funnel cake please.”
Indigo sighed. “Yeah, if I just get funnel cake with nothing to go with it I’d probably go into sugar overload mode.” She stepped up to the vendor. “Funnel cake, and half a dozen samosas. Not picky about which type, so just gimme a little bit of everything.”
This one shrugged. “I’ll take a funnel cake too. No sense being left out.”
Sunny chuckled. “At this point if you don’t get one, you’d probably end up staring forlornly at ours once you finished your shrimp.”
“This one would not,” it grumbled. Despite its best efforts to sound sure of that answer, it didn’t even believe its own words. “But ... yes, there’s no harm in getting one for myself.”
With all our orders in, we found some reasonably dry benches and settled in to wait for our food. If nothing else, the fact that it was all being fried up fresh for us was a good sign. It certainly smelled wonderfully delicious and unhealthy.
We all got glasses of water while we waited. Judging by what Sunny said next, she was clearly trying to get this one to do a spit-take. “You know, you don't need to cover up that you're a changeling if you don't want to.”
This one groaned and buried its face in its hooves. “This one was that bad at it, huh?”
Indigo didn’t spare this one’s feelings. “You kinda flubbed it out of the gate, yeah. You were dropping ‘this ones’ all over the place, but I was gonna be nice and pretend it didn't happen since that's apparently a changeling thing.”
Sunny grinned and gave this one a reassuring pat on the back. “For what it’s worth, you're not the first changeling I've met. We’ve got a lot of Free Minds in the Free Companions. Plus Dad told me your family are Free Minds, so I had a pretty unfair advantage.”
They were probably trying to comfort this one, but it wasn’t working. “This one should still be better at disguises.”
The conversation died out for a bit as the food arrived. This one wasted no time sinking its fangs into the shrimp. They were every bit as delicious as this one hoped they would be: the batter was crispy and perfectly spiced, while the shrimp within were wonderfully tender. Not to mention eating them meant this one didn’t have to address any awkward questions.
Sunny restarted the conversation after she’d finished off one of her pieces of fish. “Isn't your changeling parent teaching you how to disguise yourself? Seems like a really important part of your education.”
This one sighed. “Dad tries, but ... you know, parents.” This one felt a bit bad about blaming Dad for its poor disguise skills. He’d been the main one teaching this one, but the Heartstrings-mare and Puzzle has tried to help this one as well. It was hard not to think that this one was just bad at disguising itself.
Sunny shrugged and ate some of her chips. “Well I’m not a changeling, so it’s probably not my place to tell you how to be a better changeling. Just try to avoid dropping ‘this ones’ when you’re in disguise.”
“Seems kind of dumb to have a verbal tic that tells everyone you’re a changeling,” Indigo chimed in. “Wouldn’t it make more sense if you just talked normally all the time?”
“It would if staying hidden was the only thing we cared about,” this one conceded. “But hiding from the Old Mind is too much like letting her win. We’re Free Minds, and part of being free is not living in fear. We can conceal ourselves if we wish to, but we never have to.”
Sunny and Indigo stared at this one for several seconds before Sunny broke the silence. “I guess that makes sense. I always thought it was just a weird cultural quirk.”
“Yeah, not the weirdest thing I’ve heard about,” Indigo agreed. “So do we wanna keep comparing cultures, or are we gonna go out and have some fun?” She shoved the last of her samosas into her mouth to quickly finish it off.
Sunny did the same with her fish. “Sounds good to me. The food was nice, but we’ve still got a couple hours to kill and plenty of ducats left to spend.”
“Yeah, this one would certainly like to do more.” The three of us got up and started walking along the waterfront, trying to keep out of the rain as much as possible. Thankfully there was plenty of cover, though it meant walking right by all the various games and entertainment booths. It might have been irritating if we didn’t want to do any of that sort of thing, but when we were looking for one to play it worked out pretty well.
Eventually this one found a game that looked like it should make for a good time: a wall full of inflated balloons, with a sign proudly proclaiming that anyone who popped three of them would get a prize. This one stepped up to the stand and paid for three darts of each of us. “Hooves only,” the carnie warned us. “If your horns so much as twinkle, you forfeit your prize with no refunds! Got it ladies?”
“Well there’s a rule that doesn’t matter for me.” Indigo grinned and picked up her darts, carefully balancing each of them in her hooves. “Not that I’d need the help.”
This one was tempted to point out that while the horn lighting up was generally a sign of spellcasting there were plenty of ways to hide it. Then again, most magi with the skills to do that probably wouldn’t bother to apply their talents to ripping off carnival games. Especially when all the various stuffed animals and other prizes probably cost less than what the carnie charged them for their darts.
Indigo looked at the various prizes, then her eyes lit up. “Oooh, nice, a Daring Do pith helmet! It’s practically mine already!” She tossed her first dart and somehow managed to make it land perfectly in between four balloons without popping any of them. Indigo’s face fell, but a moment later shook her head. “Got some dust in my eye. No worries, I can make up for it. Just gotta get two of them in one throw. Besides, this makes is more exciting.”
“It’s tricky, but this one believes in you,” it said.
“Thanks, Kooks.” Indigo tossed her second dart before this one could comment on the less than flattering nickname it had evidently acquired. The throw looked promising at first, but once again it missed popping any balloons.
Indigo muttered something under her breath, her wings flicking in irritation. “Never mind, there's a three-for-one right there in that corner. Just you watch, I got this.”
She did not.
Sunny smirked at her. “Looks like you could stand to improve your aim.”
“Horseapples,” Indigo grunted. “My aim’s fine. I’d bet you the carnie gave us blunt darts, or ones with bent flights or something.”
“I most certainly did not,” the carnie grumbled as he retrieved Indigo’s darts. “Besides...” His wing flicked up to one of the smaller signs adorning his booth, advising patrons to check their darts and report any flaws or damage at once.
“I think someone’s just a bit of a sore loser.” Sunny tossed hers next. She popped one balloon with each of her first two tosses, then just to show off got two with her last one. “See? It’s not that hard when you actually aim.”
Indigo rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah...” She sighed. “I bet it’s not a real officially licensed helmet anyway. Probably one of those cheap knock-offs from Gryphonia that calls itself ‘Sense of Daring Exploration Alliance’ or something.”
Sunny shot her smug smile as she claimed her prize, a massive stuffed bear. “To be fair, I have practice at this type of thing.”
“Being in a military family goes a long way,” this one agreed. This one threw its first two darts and hit the targets without any trouble, but ... well for some reason this one compared the sound of a popping balloon to the sound it heard when the Shimmer-mare put out one of the Glimmer-mare’s eyes. The last dart went wild and wound up making the carnie flinch when it hit the wooden planks of the waterfront a bit too close to his hooves.
Sunny cleared her throat. “Two out of three is still pretty good.”
Indigo snorted. “She really whiffed the last one though. So much for all that clanpony training.”
This one rolled its eyes. “Still got two more than you managed.” Tempting as it was to tease her a bit more, it was probably smarter to give her a chance to salve her pride. “So what game do you want to do next, Indigo?”
Indigo perked back up. “Oooh, we’ve gotta do the good old hammer strength test! You can’t blunt a hammer, and I know I’ve got that in me.” She headed over to it, making a show of flexing her forelegs as she did so. She smirked over her shoulder at Sunny. “Think you can beat this, Laser-Eye?”
Sunny frowned at her. “Definitely.”
Indigo passed some ducats to the hippogryph running the game to cover the three of us. “Big talk. Why don’t you step up and prove it?”
Sunny rolled her eyes. “Oh yes, I’m the one guilty of running her mouth and making claims I can’t back up.” She stepped up and grabbed the hammer, taking a few practice swings before she brought it down. Considering the strength test was meant for full-grown adults, and strong ones at that, she did pretty well sending it over halfway up.
This one stepped up next, and managed to do about as well as she did. Indigo chuckled and shook her head. “Not bad, you two, but let a pro show you how it's done.” She took the hammer and twirled it through a couple of practice swings, then slammed it down onto the lever. The puck immediately shot all the way up to the top, letting out a sharp chime when it hit the bell. Indigo smirked and took a bow. “Thank you, thank you, I’m here all night.”
Sunny tried not to look too annoyed, but from the way her jaw clenched, this one could tell she was miffed. “Not bad...”
This one’s praise was more genuine. “Impressive. How did you do that?”
Indigo handed back the hammer, then walked over to us and wrapped her wings around each of us. From the way she whispered her next words, she clearly seemed to think she was letting us in on a big secret. “Calling the game a strength test is kind of a lie, because beating it’s not really about how much muscle you have. Muscle helps, but it’s way more about hitting the lever just right to transfer maximum force. If you’re accurate enough, you can pretty much just let gravity do all the actual hard work.” She chuckled to herself. “S’why so many big guys mess it up. They just wail away at it as hard as they can without worrying about precision.”
“This one thought it was because a lot of those games are rigged,” it pointed out.
“Not the ones at the waterfront,” Sunny answered. “The local gaming commission takes their professional standards very seriously. One rigged game can ruin the reputation of the entire waterfront, and none of the other businesses want that.” She smirked. “Besides, if they were going to rig it, they’d rig it against Indigo. She was the one with the most to prove who’d keep paying out for a chance to finally win.”
Indigo snorted and rolled her eyes. “And here I was giving you guys pointers on how to get better at the game. You’re welcome.” She trotted back to get her prize, and came back with a very crude foam replica of Chainbreaker. “Hey look, now we both have swords!”
Sunny rolled her eyes. “That’s a toy.”
“No, really?” Indigo poked Sunny’s bear with the foam sword. “Besides, what you’ve got is pretty much just an oversized sewing needle.”
“This one’s mother always said that smallswords made far better fashion accessories than actual weapons,” it agreed. “Though really, isn’t a foam sword just a bit silly?”
Indigo scoffed. “I thought the whole point of this was to be kinda silly and have some fun. I didn’t come out to the waterfront to be all grim and serious.” She gave a few swings of the foam sword. “So, Sunny, who’s the best wielder of Chainbreaker?”
“Torch, obviously,” Sunny answered without a moment’s hesitation. “After all, the Free Companions helped him free the slaves. Not to mention he played a part in getting General Platinum’s sword Dawnfire.”
“Of course it comes back to the Free Companions.” Indigo took a few more swings with her toy sword. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, Torch is cool and all, but I’ve always like Ushabti more. He actually got to run things after he kicked the zebras out.”
Sunny frowned at her. “First off, I’m one-eigth zebra.”
Indigo winced. “Oh right. Um ... can we pretend I said he kicked out the evil imperialist zebras who wanted to annex Freeport and take away our freedom while still being nice and welcoming to all the ones who weren’t bad guys?”
“Better,” Sunny conceded. “I’ve got no love for the Empire. After all, my great-grandmother left because of all the political backstabbing. Moving on, did you forget about how the Necrocrats turned out?”
“Of course not,” Indigo answered. “But it’s not like the Council’s perfect these days, and I don’t see you blaming Torch for that. Just because the whole system he set up went bad after he was dead for a hundred years doesn’t negate everything he did. Nobody can predict what’ll happen that far in the future.”
“It doesn’t take a genius to see that messing around with necromancy is going to end badly,” Sunny countered. “I mean, just look at the historical trends. Everyone who tried to find a good use for dark magic wound up coming to a bad end. Even if Ushabti didn’t turn evil from using necromancy, he should’ve realized it would turn everyone else evil.”
“Actually, dark magic doesn’t work that way,” this one cut in. “It’s not like using one morally questionable spell suddenly flips some kind of mental switch that turns someone from good to evil. It’s more about power, and the kind of people who would want to use those spells in the first place. Warlocks who go around casting torture and mind control spells only do that kind of thing because they think it’s okay to do things like that. The magic didn’t turn them evil, they were just always jerks.”
“See?” Indigo slapped this one of the back with a wing. “The apprentice magus agrees with me. There was nothing wrong with Ushabti.”
“Oh really?” Sunny regarded her with a raised eyebrow. “I think you misunderstood her. Ushabti set up a regime of necromancers. Even if he had a strong personal moral code, he had to know what sort of people take an interest in that sort of magic.”
“Ugh.” Indigo turned back to face this one. “Okay, we obviously need a tie-breaker here. Who’s the best pony to ever have Chainbreaker?”
This one wasn’t eager to pick sides. Fortunately, it had an easy way to stay neutral. Especially since it was also a completely honest answer. “The Shimmer-mare.”
A second after this one said that, it realized probably shouldn’t have. Puzzle told this one to not say anything about Chainbreaker. The Council was still trying to keep the fact that the sword had gotten stolen under wraps.
Indigo and Sunny stared at this one with wide eyes, their mouths hanging half-open. After several seconds, Sunny finally broke the silence. “No. Way! Those crazy rumors from Northmarch are actually true?! She’s got Chainbreaker?!”
“What about the rest of the stories?!” Indigo cut in. “Did she really fight a huge mutated warlock monster? What about the massive dragon? I heard Blackfyre finally came out of hiding and burned Coldharbor to the ground, but then Magus Shimmer cut off his tail and sent him running for the hills!”
“That’s ridiculous,” Sunny scoffed. “No offense, Kukri, I know she’s your teacher. It’s just ... no normal pony could beat a monster like Blackfyre. The stories about how she lost an eye and has to wear a huge set of armor just to keep herself alive sound way more realistic.”
Indigo shook her head, then turned back to this one. “Um, why are we even arguing about it when her apprentice is right here? C’mon, give us the inside scoop, Kooks.”
Sunny cut in before this one could say anything. “She probably knows more than most of the crazy rumors, but it’s not like she was there. No way Magus Shimmer would drag a kid into a warzone like Northmarch.”
“Well, she didn’t know!” this one snapped at her. “It was supposed to just be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to visit Argentium the Runescaled. Nobody knew there were going to be warlocks, mutants, and the most horrible evil dragon in the world! Nobody knew that the Glimmer-mare would show up and destroy our inn, or that Blackfyre would burn the whole city to the ground while we were inside it!”
Indigo’s jaw dropped again. “Whoa ... you were there?!”
“Yes,” this one grunted.
Indigo grinned like a kid in a candy store. “That. Is. Awesome!” She grabbed this one’s shoulders. “You got to have your own epic adventure, like something out of Daring Do or Shadow Spade! You have to tell us everything!”
“With all the crazy rumors flying around, I am rather curious to find out what really happened,” Sunny agreed.
This one grunted and did what it could to change the subject. “There’s plenty of official reports that could tell you more than this one could. So what game should we play next?”
Indigo scoffed and stepped closer to this one that it cared for. “Who wants to read a boring official report when we've got you right here and you were there for the whole thing?”
She wasn't there, this one told itself. It repeated those words like a mantra, just to keep her smug, feathering nose intact.
No, that wasn't fair, she just—she just wanted to know. She didn't know better, like this one hadn't when it asked Mom if she'd ever killed anyone.
Endless night...
Sunny stepped in on the other side, all but pinning this one in. “Come on, don't hold out on us. We want to hear everything.”
“Yeah, well, this one doesn’t want to talk about it!” it snapped. So what if they didn't like its tone? Maybe if they could take a hint...
Indigo blinked and took half a step back. “Whoa, chill, Kooks. We just wanna hear all about the amazing adventure you went on. I’m actually kinda jealous.”
Sunny nodded along. “I know I’d love the chance to do something like that. It’s so frustrating being stuck at home all the time, and only getting to use this toy sword for practice.” She tapped a hoof on the hilt of her smallsword. “You’re so lucky to get a chance to go out and do the real thing.”
This one felt something inside itself snap, and it rounded on her. “Lucky? Lucky?! Oh, yeah, you only have a toy sword to only poke at a stuffed dummy? Oh boo-feathering-hoo, princess! Even if—even if—that tin-soldier prawn fork your precious Free Pretenders call a sword was worth a damn in a fight, you wouldn't have the first clue what ‘the real thing’ actually means! You think your cutsey little drills and your thrusts and your parries mean anything against a monster the size of a mountain?! Or maybe his pet warlock that could turn you into paste before you finished drawing your play-toy?”
Sunny stared at this one in shock as it continued. “Or maybe—maybe, even if you survive all of that, you poke the bad guy and make him run away until next time. Oh, you don’t have the first idea of what comes after that. There’s no stupid victory theme while everyone hoof-bumps and plans a big party. There’s just...” This one stared down at the ground as the memories crashed in on it. “Noise. The wind blowing, fires spreading in the rubble, survivors moaning inside the rubble because they’re too hurt to say ‘Help me’, and instead of all the injuries the hero got saving the day being quickly patched up and forgotten, she’s been permanently crippled for the rest of her life and has to give up her dreams just to survive. Then you finally get to come home and ... and ... and then some idiot asks you what it’s like when ... when ... there’s..."
This one shook its head, trying to drive the memories away. “And then you get sent home, ‘cause that's where you need to go. ‘Cause it’ll be better.” This one chuckled to itself, feeling the laugh push a bit too deep and the smile a bit too wide. “It’ll be better when you get home. What a load.”
Indigo swallowed and took a hesitant step towards this one. “Um ... wow. Sounds like a lot happened. Are ... are you okay?”
This one waved a hoof and laughed her off. This one was fine. It was fine, really. It was fine, like the Shimmer-mare. Stuff happened, we laugh it off, it’s all fine in the end. Laugh it off, laugh it off, we had our happy ending and everything was fine.
She was fine. Laugh it off. This one was fine.
We were fine.
It was fine.
Coldharbor was fine. All the refugees were fine. This one’s fine. Everything’s fine.
It’s not fine.
It’s fine. It’s not fine.
It’s fine.
It’s not fine, it’s not fine, it’s not fine, it’s not fine... oh Endless Night, this one was freaking out in front of them, but...
Damn it.
Indigo quickly wrapped a wing around this one to hide its face, and Sunny hustled us into one of the service walkways between all the games and food stands. Then Indigo gave this one a pat on the back, while Sunny awkwardly stood off to the side. “Um ... there there? We’re here for you, Kooks.”
This one did its best not to cry. It wasn't a grub anymore, dammit, it wasn't going to cry! Even if it wanted to just latch on and hug Indigo like the last life vest in a hurricane, it’d just met her, but damn it all... This one glanced at them from the corners of its eyes, but it managed not to cry and started to catch its breath.
Then it started to cry. Stupid grub.
A second later both of them hugged this one. It was weird how nice it felt when this one had only just met them.
After a while, Indigo cleared her throat. “So, um, I know it’s not exactly the same sort of thing, but I kinda get it. I mean, I was really sick as a kid. I got better, but for a long time I had to spend months out of every year in bed. That was why I read through all the adventure stories I could get my hooves on. It was a chance to imagine being somewhere else. Now that I’m finally better, I can't wait to get out there and do all the stuff I read about. But...” She sighed and ran a hoof through her messy blue mane. “Guess I should've known that the stories I read as a kid left out all the bad parts.”
“Yeah.” This one felt like it should say something profound about being careful what she wished for, but it just ... couldn't. It just wanted to go back home and go to bed. Instead, this one blurted out, “‘Happily ever after’ is just a bunch of horseapples.”
Sunny frowned and shook her head. “No it's not.” She grimaced, but didn't stop talking. “Okay, so maybe life’s more complicated than that, but still ... what’s the point of not trying to get a happy ending to our story?”
Indigo nodded along. “Good point. I mean, there were times when I figured I’d just be sick forever, but look at me now!” She slapped a hoof against her chest. “Reminds me of one of my favorite lines in one of my books. ‘Ponies need to believe in things that aren’t true—that doing the right thing always pays off, justice will always prevail, and harmony will be restored. Because unless we believe in those things, we’ll never be able to make them be true.’”
This one grunted and just hugged her. Maybe she was right. This one ... wasn’t fine. But maybe someday it could be fine. It was a nice idea, to think that things could be better just because we wanted them to be. But ... well it wasn’t like this one could just completely forget about everything that happened just because it was in the past.
But ... well maybe this one didn’t need to let the past decide what today would be.
Author's Note
As always, thanks to my pre-reading and editing team for all their hard work. Also, I would like to thank all my dedicated Patreon supporters. You guys are awesome.
Click here if you want to join the list of awesome people who support my writing.
Aidan Hall
Alt Grendel
Anon3mous1
Batbrony
Benjamin McLaren
BikerDash
Borg Lord
Brion Wauters
Charles M. Hagmaier
ColdSilverD
Combine
Comma-Kazie
Creideiki
Cyanhyde
DaB.
Darkarma
Deep Cover
Dixie Daley
djthomp
dkia
Edmon Star
Emily Hartsay
Errant
Exque
FallenAngelXy
Forderz
Guldane
Jessica T
Peter Coulthard
Prator
Ponibius
Rowan Yote
Shank
Sweet Gale
Sylvain Colinet
Trinary
waritah
Zennyth
