Light as a feather

Amber tossed uncomfortably beneath the silken sheets, sweat beading across his entire body. He was stuck in a nightmare, a vivid dream he couldn’t escape from. Slurred words left his lips as he fought against bitter memories.

The focus of his nightmares was his father, Honey Glaze, who before Amber was born, had been a part of Celestia’s personal guard. He was a decorated general in fact, but he didn’t wear his armor proudly. He wore his armor like an anchor. The dark chocolate brown stallion was a massive force more akin to a bull than a pony in more than just size. He had a temper to match and the stamina and endurance to back it up.

On a dull winters night, when the moonlight was obscured by cloud cover there came a knock at the door of a small unassuming cottage on the outskirts of Ponyville. The cottage was in disrepair, no pony brave enough to live so near the mythical Everfree forest, none but a disgraced ex-guard. Honey Glaze had thought to live down his dishonor, drowning his sorrows in hard cider and sugar cubes, but fate had other plans. His deeds were not so easily escaped or forgotten.

The foal was swaddled in a blanket so as to protect him from the bitter winter chill. The stallion leaned down and nudged the bundle with his muzzle, frowning as he was rewarded with a faint squeak.

“You don’t talk much do you?” He snorted sarcastically as he gripped the bundle callously in his teeth and carried it inside. He placed it on the floor amid a pile of discarded cider bottles. After several minutes of nothing the stallion nudged the foal with his hoof. “Do something will you?”

The foal struggled to free itself from the bundle. After several minutes of useless wriggling the stallion sighed and pulled on the cloth dumping the tiny pony into the pile of bottles. A slip of parchment fell alongside him. The massive pony flicked his eyes over the writing, which was hasty and near illegible, as if the pony writing it had been in a hurry.

He is your son - of this I have no doubts.
Raise him as I cannot.

Honey Glaze stared blankly at the foal for a long time after that, his mind void of emotions. He felt no joy at the discovery he had a son, nor was he angry that its mother was unable to raise it. What was he supposed to feel?

“I suppose you’ll need a name then?” The stallion muttered after a moment more of staring. The tiny colt was wriggling among the scattered cider bottles, sucking on their tips in need of nourishment, a need which his father ignored in his hunt for something to call the foal.

The stallion lifted the foal up from the floor turning him so he could see into his eyes, deep blue eyes that left no doubt as to his heritage. They matched the chocolate brown stallions own eyes perfectly. An indifferent smirk touched the edge of his lips as he looked between the foal and the bottles he had been trying to nurse. “You seem to like those bottles…” The stallion said as he placed the baby pony back on the floor. “Amber…”

--

The rusty orange colt woke to weight on his chest and hooves crushing his windpipe. A well placed, and lucky buck, sent his assailant into the opposite wall. Sucking in a lungful of air Amber quickly recovered bracing for a second attack as the pony charged him.

The pair fell in a tangled heap of flailing hooves. After a minute of struggling Amber managed to buck the stallion away again, this time not waiting for the attack that followed. Instead he tackled the pony. Together they crashed through the bathroom door, the strange pony crying out in pain as his back slammed against the edge of the counter. Mercilessly Amber pounded on him with his hooves, managing to land more blows than his attacker.

The pony wobbled on his legs, as Amber’s fury gave no openings, before he collapsed near unconscious on the bathroom tiles. Amber grabbed the stallion’s neck in his teeth and dragged him to the shower dropping him into it. The winded colt turned the water on, its icy stream snapping the woozy stallion into wakefulness.

The pony had some sort of metallic contraption around his muzzle, keeping his jaw shut tight. But the fury in the stallion’s eyes spoke more than words ever could, and given that Amber had apparently broken his jaw during their previous meeting the pony couldn’t speak at all.

“I could kill you for what you did to Vinyl.” Amber said quietly watching the pony’s reaction as his eyes wavered between holding onto his anger and giving into his rising fear. A shiver ran across the rusty colt’s spine as he remembered how it had made him feel the first time he’d nearly beat the stallion to death.
A choking sound, which Amber quickly realized was meant to be a laugh, came from the pony’s throat. “Something funny?”

The edges of the pony’s lips tweaked into a smile and suddenly Amber wished he hadn’t broken his jaw. That smile, a scornful mocking smile, left Amber unsettled. “Did you do something to her?” He shouted angrily grabbing the stallion by the mane and slamming his head into the tile. “I swear to Celesta if you’ve done something to hurt her…!”

A second voice, coming from the other room pulled Ambers attention away from the twice battered pony. With a frown he crept to the doorway, listening, his ear pressed up against the cracked and leaning door. He was rewarded as a soft female voice called out a name he didn’t recognize. A quick glance at the water logged stallion in the shower however confirmed his suspicions.

“You can’t talk,” Amber said with a crooked smile, “but she can…”
Within moments Amber had the female pony, the same that had been with the stallion when he’d attacked Vinyl, in the bathroom. She glanced between the two males, concern and fear fighting for control of her expression.

“What do you want from me?” She asked her voice quivering slightly.

“Given that you didn’t try to kill me in my sleep? All I want is information.” Amber answered. “If I like what you have to say then maybe I’ll let you go, but if I don’t…”

He let her mind fill in the blanks.

--

The club was near deserted now that nighttime had become late morning. The few ponies that remained were either passed out or to hung-over to even think about moving from where they sat or lay. Barkeep busied himself cleaning the counter top and nearby tables, the bottles and glasses clinking together rather loudly.

A groan came from the white unicorn filly lying in the middle of the stage. She lay on her stomach, her hooves throw across her bare eyes. Sometime during the night she’d again lost her trademark glasses. “Keep it down will ya?” She whined languidly. “…Ow.”

Barkeep rolled his eyes and clanked the bottles together on purpose, as loud as he possibly could without breaking any of them. “Maybe this’ll teach you to have some restraint?”

The mare made a sound with her lips and lazily waved the question away as if it were something she could shoo with a hoof. “Restraint is for mares.”

“You seem to forget you are one.” Barkeep muttered sarcastically under his breath. For once he wished that filly would act like well, a filly. In the months that he had known her she had drunken more stallions under the table than he cared to count and romanced more mares than most of the stallions he knew combined. She wore her bruises like a trophy rather than a reminder of the trouble that caused them.

Though he would never admit it out loud he was worried about her and the train wreck of a lifestyle she lived. The jukebox in the corner kicked on, a melancholic rock ballad breaking the stagnant silence as the stallion disappeared into the kitchen.

Vinyl hummed lazily to herself, occasionally interrupted by the splitting throb of her incessant headache. She rolled to her hooves, whining a bit at the sledgehammer pounding against her skull. Three steps were as far as she got before slamming into a rock hard…pegasus guard? The filly smiled up at him, her ruby red irises nearly hidden beneath her tightly squinted eyelids. “Morning officer…” She quipped cheerfully. “You uh, haven’t seen my shades have you?”

The unicorn stallion’s expression remained stiff even as he spoke. “Are you Vinyl Scratch?”
“That’s DJ Pon3 to you!” The filly chirped proudly offering him a mock salute. The guards expression remained stoic the shimmer of a frown playing on his blank expression so briefly that the filly couldn’t be sure…oh hell she couldn’t be sure of anything, not even the presence of Princess Celestia who at that moment was watching the scene with an amused smirk.
“I will take it from here.” She said stepping forward and releasing the guard from his appointed task. The white alicorn smiled at the suddenly sober filly who was watching her with glazed red eyes. Her drunken inebriation had nearly vanished in matter of moments as the ruler of all Equestria addressed her. “Miss Vinyl Scratch I presume?”
“Oh um yea, I mean yes your holiness!” A chuckle left the alicorn’s mouth as a vibrant red blush covered the DJ’s face. She ran a hoof along the stage floor, her gaze looking everywhere but at the princess. “Am I in trouble?” She asked sheepishly.

“Indirectly yes.” The princess answered.

“It’s not his fault!” Vinyl groaned loudly. “I lied about my age. I told him I was old enough, I have a fake ID to prove it!”
Vinyl quickly trotted to her turntable and shuffled frantically through her saddlebags looking for the card. She grew increasingly frustrated as she searched, littering the stage with odds and ends of junk from her bags all the while pleading with the princess who watched the spectacle in silence. “Please don’t arrest him. He’s a good pony. He would never serve underage ponies on purpose!”
Celestia made a mental note to look into the matter later as she placed a reassuring hoof on the young mare’s shoulder effectively stopping her frantic search.

“I am not here for that.” The princess said softly.

Vinyl’s face visibly relaxed. “You’re not?”

A vaguely familiar voice shouted angry threats at the unicorn filly from the doorway. The sound sent shivers down her spine and the DJ froze up unconsciously, her eyes locked on the pony struggling to free himself from the guards holding him back. The pony’s voice vanished before he could describe his contempt of Vinyl fully, much to his astonishment and anger. The faint aura around Celestia’s horn vanished at the same time.

“What was that?” Vinyl whispered, shaking visibly. She had been scared of him she realized, truly deeply scared. Her chest ached with the awareness of that fact.

“A mind to voice spell.” The princess answered. “Since he can not speak properly on account of his jaw being wired shut, and you seem to have no clear recollection of meeting him I thought it needed. Forgive me.”

“I don’t understand.” Vinyl murmured falling to her haunches as her legs suddenly gave from beneath her. “Who was he?”

“A very bad pony.” Celestia said sadly.

--

Rays of sunlight fell in through the tall narrow windows of Rarity’s temporary Canterlot boutique. It had not changed in the time since Amber had been there last, unless you were to include the timid yellow pegasus filly sitting in the corner, and his torn suit sitting on the counter. He was a bit curious how it had gotten there, he was under the impression he’d left it strewn about the castle garden.

Fluttershy sat in the far corner looking nervous and flighty. She hadn’t said a word to the rusty red earth pony since he’d arrived, though every so often she’d cast a small glance his way, or at least to the bruises on his neck.

She hadn’t asked about them and he was glad for that. It was all he could do to keep himself in check as it was. Already he’d bucked three windows and threatened to send an unsuspecting pony on the street to the moon for accidentally bumping into him.

“Fluttershy!” Rarity called from behind the red curtain. The yellow pegasus perked up at her friend’s voice and trotted forward disappearing behind the red veil a bit to eagerly. Their voices could be heard from within but Amber paid the pair no mind. His attention was focused on the scroll at his hooves, its ink repeatedly writing a list of names alongside the various bit amounts they had earned for their participation the previous night. His name was not among them.

I served the princess personally! He fumed silently. That deserves something!
He stood abruptly as Twilight emerged in a shimmering aura of purple light. Her jaw dropped a bit as she saw the startled expression cross his face. “Oh? Amber? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I don’t normally teleport great distances but the walk would have taken to long.”

“Oh.” Amber said flatly. He’d nearly bucked her! “If you’re here to see Rarity or Fluttershy they’re behind the curtain…”

“Actually I came to see you.” The unicorn answered matter-of-factly. “Princess Celestia mentioned something about a friend of yours being in trouble…”

“Vinyl!” Amber perked up. “Is she okay?”

“She’s fine, apparently.” Twilight answered. She had no idea who Vinyl was, or why princess Celestia was so vehement that Amber knew as soon as possible about her well being but she’d delivered the message as asked. Amber took a deep breath and sighed falling to his haunches in relief.

Curiosity pulled Rarity and Fluttershy’s attention from behind the veil. The white unicorn looked angrier than she had previously at once again having her work interrupted, even if it was by her own curiosity, but the yellow filly simply looked worried. “Is…Is everything okay?”

The rusty colt smiled appreciating her concern. “It is now.”

“Can I ask you a favor?” Amber asked Twilight as Rarity slunk back behind the curtain pulling the yellow filly alongside.

“A favor?” The purple unicorn inquired uncertainly.

“It’s about my friend, the one the princess sent the message about.” He explained. “I’d like you to look after her.”

“Foalsitting?” Twilight wondered curiously.

“More like ‘hanging out’?” Amber said. “She’s a grown mare but it’s just that she can be a bit reckless, and it’s gotten her into some trouble lately. I know it’s a lot to ask given I only just met you and your friends, but please, I don’t know who else to ask.”

Twilight considered it a moment before nodding, a smile crossing her face. Amber sprang forward, wrapping his hooves around the unicorn’s neck. She fumbled a bit at the unexpected action but slowly gave in and returned the embrace a little uncertainly.