Burned Bridges

by suijin228

Chapter 1

Burned Bridges
By Suijin228

Chapter 1

“Get up maggot!” shouted a harsh voice through the darkness as a pair of purple black eyes opened up sharply. Judging by the bloodshot look to them, the person behind those eyes hadn’t slept much, nor gotten much rest.

“Front and center!” came the voice once again as the individual promptly slid himself out of his bed. As his hoofs hit the floor, he sent a mild glare towards the person he unfortunately was forced to call a teacher. The old Pegasus was a dark green color, the coat being lined with multiple scars. He had a buzz cut style for his white mane, and a pony doing pushups for a cutie mark. This individual was Core Builder, a retired canterlot guard captain and now the so called ‘maggot’s’ guardian.

The other pony was a young unicorn, his disheveled coat being a pale blue. His cutie mark depicted what appeared to be the shadow of a bird in flight. Oddly enough, it had come when he’d landed his first punch against his teacher in a sparring match. Now what drew attention to this pony were two things, the first was his white hair. The pureness of it was almost blinding and attention drawing. The second was his red eyes. At times a bit frightening, the eyes seemed to hold sadness in them underneath the glare that he was currently sending at his tutor.

“Alright Maggot, today’s Thursday, and you know what that means!” As the older pony said this, he got right up in the pale pony’s face, a sadistic grin on on his face as he tried to get some sort of emotion out of his student. Nodding at his student’s stone face, he led his student out of his house and towards one of the open farm fields around his house.

As the student was lead outside, he took a moment to look across the endless fields for any sign of life. Every day for the past eight years he’d looked out, hoping for anyone to come to him and bring news from him parents. He’d given up long ago, but still, every day he let himself hope, only to feel distraught and depressed.

Feeling a hoof on his shoulder, he looked back to see Core Builder giving him a face that almost seemed full of… warmth? Pity? Sadness? There were too many emotions and far too many questions correspond to them. “Come on kid; let’s get this out of the way.” Nodding, the student followed his teacher with a small smile on his face.
……

Two hours later, the student crawled back into the house, his body singed in places and his muscles screaming for relief. Thursdays were lightning training. The goal was to dodge lightning strikes implemented by Core Builder. But even after five years, he still couldn’t go for the full hour and a half the lesson was before getting hit.

‘And once you get hit, it only goes down from there.’ He thought as he finally reached his bed and somehow managed to pull himself up. Usually between training exercises he’d have a two hour break to rest and recover before being thrown through the ringer again.

Sighing as he laid back in his bed, he looked up at the ceiling. Years ago he’d counted the knots in the wood, the small cracks, the colors, and every detail he’d looked over and memorized or of boredom. And yet somehow he’d still find himself looking at it, as if expecting it to change.

“Danm, I really need something to take my mind off of things.” Sadly, there was little to do around the land without it involving some sort of sick sadistic training. All that was usually left was for him to walk around the area and explore; but when there’s little but fields, you still tend to get bored. However there was a small forest about five miles out, but aside from a small pond, it didn’t hole much anything else.

Thinking about the pond did bring a small smile to his face as he thought about it. Harmony Pond, as he’d named it, was his little get away. When training was finished, and everything was done for the day, he’d find himself just sitting there, levitating rocks and skipping them across the pond. During winter, he’d even skate on his bare hoofs, further decreasing his boredom. Even at night, as Celestia set the sun, he’d be there watching fireflies dance above the water, as if performing a ballet.

Yes Harmony pond was probably his best friend, his only friend for about 99% of the time what with Core Builder showing his kinder side every once and a while. But Harmony Pond didn’t hurt him; Harmony Pond didn’t yell or put him through training. Harmony Pond just sat there, innocent and pure.

As his mind continued to think about his friend, he slowly fell into sleeps calm and loving embrace.

……

“WAKE UP MAGGOT!” Came a familiar shout as the student let out a groan. ‘Honestly, does he have to call me that every time he wakes me up?’ Sliding out of his bed for the second time that day, he followed his teacher out of the house and out into the fields for another of his ‘training exercises.’

……

“765”

“One more”

“766”

“One More”

“767”

“One More”

“YOU’VE BEEN SAYING THAT FOR FIVE MINUTES!”

“And I keep telling you. One More!”

“768!” the student shouted as he rolled over, sliding Core Builder off his back and laying on the ground, panting from exhaustion. “There, you happy?”

“I’m never happy?” Came Core Builder’s gruff reply as he brushed some grass out of his coat. Somehow, the student actually didn’t find that hard to believe. He’d never seen the stallion smile, not once in all his years with him.

“So *pant* am I done?” There wasn’t much else he could give, his muscles were straining and he felt like he’d pass out if he had to do just one more pushup. Seeing the nod from his teacher, the student rolled onto him stomach and climbed to his feet. As he began to walk inside, he heard one last reply from his teacher. “By the way, take the rest of the day off, I’ve got business.” At once, the student stopped short, his eyes wide. Core Builder never had other business, he was his business.

Instantly several scenarios came to mind about what that could mean. Out of all of them, surprisingly few actually seemed bad. Life at this point could only go up for him ‘I should probably follow him.’ Turning to look to see where the old pony was going, he let out a curse as he watched his teacher fly off into the distance.

Sighing at not being able to figure out exactly what was going down, the student figured he’d just go out to visit his pond. ‘It’s better than waiting for Core Builder to change his mind.’ Trotting off, ignoring the tiredness in his hoofs, he began to make his way towards the forest.

……

About thirty minutes later, he arrived at the edge of the forest. While it wasn’t as large or as deep as the evergreen forest, it still gave off a small creepy vibe. The vibe was so present that for the first three years, he didn’t enter it for fear of being attacked. However he was glad once he’d entered it and found Harmony Pond instead of danger.

Now entering the forest, he immediately felt something off in the air. Something seemed out of place, almost as if intruding in his forest. This feeling put him on guard as he stealthily entered the forest, his horn giving off a light purple glow as he readies his magic should anything come his way.

As he neared Harmony Pond, he heard small voices break through the silence the forest held.

“See, I told you, there’s nothing to worry about.”

“Yeah well can you blame me, this forest is creepy.”

Hearing a chuckle from the first voice, the student drew closer to the voices. As he neared the clearing that Harmony Pond was in, he finally got a good look at the two voices.

The first was a male unicorn, probably around his age. He was as bit taller than him, but seemed to be slightly less muscular than him. That however didn’t put the student off of his worries, which just meant that the pony before him was strong. He had a white coat which went down to his hoofs and a cyan and dark blue mane. For a cutie mark, he seemed to have some sort of shield, defense specialty perhaps?

Moving from the male unicorn, his eyes scanned over the female. Instantly he noticed she has on some sort of cloak covering her cutie mark. Never the less, her horn clearly gave her away as a unicorn. She had a pink coat and remarkable was as tall as the male unicorn. She was very thin and didn’t seem to have much muscle or fat on her person. Lastly was her mane that drew attention to herself. It was remarkable due to its three colors or purple, white and rose. ‘Most likely a celestia fan,’ he thought as he prepared to approach the two and question them.

As he took his first step forward, he both felt and heard the sound of a twig snapping under his hoof. ‘aw crap,’ he thought as the male turned to look at his direction. Now keep in mind that he was half concealed and all that was clearly visible was his upper body. Honestly his white mane and red eyes probably marked him as some sort of predator. That was why he wasn’t shocked too badly when the male rushed towards him and tackled him.

The two began to tussle on the ground as one tried to attack the monster while the other was trying to defend himself. However both seemed out of their elements as they continued to fight. Suddenly both felt magic take over as they were lifted off the ground and separated by a levitation spell. Blinking, the two looked over at the female amongst them. ‘Ok, weak physically, but strong magically, got it.’

“Enough, “came the female’s voice as she set the white coated unicorn down while leaving the student hoisted up in the air. Trying for a moment to break her magic with his own, he was shocked to find that he couldn’t even get her to budge. ‘Her magic stores must be enormous!’ To not even get a single inch on her must mean he was way out of his league.

Suddenly the male walked forward, beginning what could be called a very blunt interrogation. “Now, explain to us why you were sneaking around here? Are you trying to hurt the princess?” That last part caught the student through a loop as he began to look around for the princes of the sun. ‘Celestia? HERE?’ Not seeing any sign of the alicorn, he turned back to the male.

“I’m sorry, but what princess?” Last he’d checked, Celestia was a glaringly white pony standing well over almost any pony. To hide her in this forest would be like hiding a haystack in a needle, impossible.

As if on cue, a wind blew through the forest, blowing the cloak up and revealing her cutie mark and surprisingly WINGS! Gasping in shock, the student’s mind ran through several ideas as to what this could mean. Being so far out, news never really reached his home, but he’d doubt that the princess giving birth would be little news. Hell, all of equestrian would be notified of their princess’s child. That left only one solution.

“An ancestor of the princess…”

Hearing the tone of both shock and wonder from the unicorn, the alicorn let the student down to the ground. It probably wouldn’t even matter now if he wanted to attack or not. The white unicorn seemed around his level and any magic he would use would be overblown by the princess.

Getting a cough from the white unicorn, he turned to him in question. “Sorry for asking, ut if you’re not here for the princess, why are you out here?” Looking a bit sheepish, he replied. “Well this is where I usually hang out, I had no idea that other ponies were out here.” This caught the two off guard, a pony, living out here? “Why are you out here? There’s nothing for miles and miles?” the student chuckled at the answer, mainly for how true it was. “Well you’re true on that account. I actually live about five miles away in that direction.” Pointing one hoof in his homes relevant direction, he continued. “I just come here to Harmony Pond to relax when I can.”

“Harmony Pond?” the two questioned as the student walked over and took a seat one one of the downed trees around the pond. “Yeah, I found it, therefore I named it.”

The logic was simple enough, as the old saying goes, ‘finders keepers, losers weepers,’

The princess seemed to test the name on her tongue as the male unicorn seemed to realize that he’d basically attacked someone while intruding. Grinning sheepishly, he held out his hoof, “yeah, sorry about the whole, attacking you thing. The name’s Shining Armor.” The student gladly shook the stallions hoof, glad to have this much pony contact after so many years. The princess then held out her hoof, light gleaming off its golden horseshoe. “And I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza… but please, call me Cadence.”

The student blinked owlishly at the princess, to be addresses as such was a real shocker. Never the less, he shook her hoof and smiled at the both of them. “Thank you; it’s a pleasure to meet you. The name is Skylark.”

Chapter End