Upheaval: Reckoning

Chapter 7: Divided Feelings

To walk the halls of FangBreaker Fortress again felt like a triumph in itself for Vanguard Clash. It didn't matter that many of the walls were still covered in wolven graffiti. This was his home. More so than the house he was born in back at Bastion City. He hoped that his quarters had not been heavily vandalized. He remembered seeing the look on one Infantry Captain's face when his quarters turned out to have been converted into a latrine.

Vanguard's destination wasn't his room for now, however. He descended the stairs to the dungeons, one of the first few sections of the fortress that the Legion had operational after reclaiming the fort. The battle to secure FangBreaker had concluded quickly after Nightmare Moon's disappearance. The sight of their "Moon-Shadow" being blasted by light so soon after their army had been decimated by a similar spell all but crushed the wolven defenders' morale. What followed was more of a slaughter than a proper battle. The Legion smashed the wolven resistance into isolated pockets within the fort and then systematically crushed those pockets. Vanguard kept his new squad out of most of the fighting. When Twilight Sparkle disappeared and their jewelry shattered, most of the fight had been knocked out of them anyway. He had them busy searching for their missing friend. A fruitless search in the end.

A pair of guards stood in front of the main entrance to the dungeons. They were the first of the several pairs assigned to guard the two prisoners that the Legion made during FangBreaker's reclamation. Both saluted when Vanguard approached. "I want to talk with the prisoner," he told them.

"Of course, Captain Vanguard Clash," one of the guards replied. He opened the door and stepped aside.

Echoing the same principle behind Bastion City's prison, FangBreaker's dungeons were small for the population they housed. Vanguard walked through the torch-lit corridor, passing by four more guards as he did so. At the second corridor, he finally came upon the cell of one of the fort's two prisoners. Two more guards stood by the cell. He looked at these ones closely, taking note of the dents on their plated barding. One guard's champron was severely dented inward. Vanguard could see some blood from beneath the plating. The other guard's chest plate was badly dented as well. "How's the prisoner?" he asked.

"Still alive, sir," the other guard replied. The way he spoke only confirmed what Vanguard had guessed. The guard mumbled painfully, likely the result of a badly swollen cheek.

"I want to speak to her alone." Vanguard said.

The two guards looked at each other hesitantly. "I don't know, sir, she was a member of your-"

"The two of you have already taken some liberties with the pony who almost burned my face off," Vanguard said. "I'm sure you can grant me that opportunity as well."

Both guards blanched at his hardened stare. "Just a few minutes," one guard said. Both of them left the hall and closed the door behind them. Once they were gone, Vanguard stepped closer and peered between the tempered steel bars.

After she surrendered to the same scouts that had found Twilight Sparkle, Pyre Valor had been thrown into the dungeons to await punishment. There was no doubting the sort of penalty she was going to get. Indeed, the only reason why she was still alive was because she was to be executed before the prince.

"Come to gloat?" Pyre Valor asked in a weak and ragged voice. It was difficult to make her out in the flickering light, but Vanguard saw the heavy shackles that bound her front and rear legs. She dragged herself closer to the cell's door, letting him get a better view of her. Her left eye had swollen shut while her right was only a little better. She was bleeding from her nose, from a split lower lip and from a long gash across her forehead. A steel band, a horn-lock, had been wrapped around her horn. Embedded into the metal was a small, glowing stone of pink.

Though it hardly mattered, Vanguard felt a little glad that they had a horn-lock in supply. Disruptor crystals, even ones so small, were rare. The crystal canceled out magic that came within a few inches of it, making it invaluable for keeping unicorns from using their spells. Without it, the Legion would have been forced to saw Pyre Valor's horn off. "Why should I gloat?" he asked. "You got everything you wanted, Pyre. The barrier is down and the chosen are being drafted. Oh, and hundreds of ponies are dead. Just as you planned. I'm surprised you're not dancing in your cell."

Pyre dragged herself to her hooves and walked closer. "Those deaths were a necessary sacrifice, Vanguard," she replied. "I didn't want them and I certainly didn't plan them."

"But they're there aren't they?" Vanguard snapped. He removed his champron and moved closer until his head was touching the bars of the cell. "What do you do with that fact now that your 'cause' is over?"

"I'm going to die, Vanguard!" Pyre Valor snarled as she pressed her face against the bars. It was as close as she could get to bring her head against his. "I'm going to hang in front of the Legion and die! What else do you want from me?"

"How about regret? Or fear? Anything besides your high and mighty, inconsolable, self-righteous anger!"

The two of them fell silent and stared at each other. With their faces so close together, Vanguard did not doubt that Pyre could see the burn that marred one side of his face. Some fur was beginning to grow on the spot again, but the area was still discolored. In return, Vanguard could pick out each bruise on Pyre's face. He could smell blood whenever she exhaled.

A minute passed and it was Pyre who finally broke the silence. "I don't feel any regret over turning FangBreaker over to the wolven," she said resolutely. "Maybe responsibility, but not regret. I'd do it all over again if I have to."

"Then you're already dead, Pyre," Vanguard growled. "Your execution's just a formality. Your cause killed and ate you long before the guards dragged you into this cell." He was about to turn away, but the sudden softening in Pyre's gaze held him fast. She raised a hoof to touch his face and he let her.

"That's almost true," Pyre said softly, "but, I do regret something." She ran her hoof across Vanguard's burn. "I should have never struck you, Vanguard. I'm sorry."

Vanguard closed his eyes. For a moment, he was a colt again, sitting in an alley and tending to his bruises while the local gang of bullies dragged themselves out of sight. There was Pyre Valor right in front of him, grinning ear to ear and pressing a damp handkerchief to his face. Two against six and they still came out winners. Then, he opened his eyes, and he was a legionnaire once more; standing inside FangBreaker's dungeons and talking to a condemned criminal. It was just the two of them here and they had both come out losers. He held Pyre's hoof briefly and then set it aside. "The burn will heal, Pyre. Soon, I'll look in a mirror and find it gone, but you'll still be dead."

Pyre smiled wryly, stepped away from the bars and lay on the floor. "True," she said. "But, you'll have others with you by then, Vanguard. You already do now, right?"

There wasn't anything else to say. Vanguard watched Pyre Valor settle down for a moment longer and then turned around. 'Goodbye, Pyre," he said softly as he began to walk way.

"Goodbye, Vanguard," was the faint reply.

Vanguard opened the door that led out of that wing of the dungeon. As the two guards walked in, he grabbed the both of them by their chest plates. "If I see any new injuries on her by morning, I will murder the both of you in your sleep," he growled. "You won't be the first ones." He shoved them aside and left the dungeon. The dark, dreary atmosphere was starting to bear heavily down on him. He needed something to stave off the awful mood. He had considered going over to visit Blademane, but he changed his mind. The stallion had nothing to say to him and, truth be told, he had nothing to say to that stallion either.

It was still dark when Vanguard made it to the courtyard. Before he had done so, he had made a quick stop to his old quarters and removed his barding. It had been only a couple of hours since the scouts found Twilight and Pyre and brought them back to the fortress, making it close to midnight. Rather than sleep, the forces that reclaimed FangBreaker were still out celebrating. Several bonfires burned brightly while groups of ponies danced away around them. Vanguard scanned the crowd and quickly found Scarlet Rabbit, who was shouting over the crowd and waving a bottle in one hoof. The red pegasus noticed him as well and flew over.

"Hey, Captain, ready to join the party now?" Scarlet asked. "They found a bunch of barrels of booze that the wolven hadn't touched! Can you believe it?" He guzzled the bottle he was holding and let out and excited yell towards the celebrations.

From her corner of the courtyard, Applejack heard Scarlet's yell and glanced towards his direction. To her delight, she also spotted Vanguard and walked over to talk to him. Surprisingly enough, her captain was out of his barding. He left Scarlet to fly off and party some more and focused his attention on her. "Still up, Applejack?" he asked.

"I didn't want to be a party-pooper and go off to sleep while everypony's so happy," Applejack replied. She looked over to the celebrating crowd. "I mean really happy. A lot of ponies were crying and everything when we started to occupy this place."

"Not surprising," Vanguard said. "This fortress means a lot to the ponies who defend it and not just because of strategic value. How are Twilight and the others?"

"Twilight's gone to sleep in our new quarters. Poor filly looked exhausted when the guards brought her back." Applejack glanced at the party behind her. She didn't mention to Vanguard that all of them were still weighed down by the Elements of Harmony shattering. It was a bleak several hours for them when Twilight was gone and, when she came back it became an unspoken agreement among them to set aside the loss. For now, they should celebrate with the Legion for having defeated Nightmare Moon again and seeing that Twilight was safe. "Rainbow's having fun with her flight, Pinkie's helping out with the food, Fluttershy's asleep in the medical ward and Rarity let Scarlet convince her to try out some of that stuff he's guzzling. She's passed out over there." She pointed towards a quiet section of the courtyard were several legionnaires were sleeping off a combination of exertion, elation and too many drinks.

Vanguard let himself smile a little. "You really did keep tabs on all of them, didn't you?" he asked.

"I figured you'd want to know," Applejack replied with a grin. "We're all fine, Vanguard. You should go and have some fun too." A look of concern dampened her cheery mood. "You're looking under the weather."

Vanguard's fell silent and his expression darkened. He seemed to notice this, however, and forced the smile to stay. Applejack wasn't buying it for a second. "You need to talk about something?" she asked.

Vanguard didn't answer for some time. Eventually, he relented. "Over a drink perhaps," he said.

"Sure! Just not whatever Scarlet's drinking."

The two of them headed over to the stack of barrels that the legionnaires had brought out. One pony was in charge of refilling mugs as they came while a pair was tasked with keeping the more inebriated ponies from making off with entire barrels. "You're in luck," the pony in charge said as he handed both of them a full mug. "This is the last of the 'Good Stuff'. The next pony gets a mug of 'Stormbrew's Passable If You're Wasted Enough Swill'."

With their drinks in hoof, Vanguard and Applejack settled down by one side of the courtyard. "So what's bothering you, Vanguard?" Applejack asked.

Vanguard took a sip from his mug. "I just came from visiting Pyre Valor," he said.

Applejack recognized the name. That was mostly because Twilight had mentioned it several times. All she really knew about Pyre Valor was that she was the pony that Nightmare Moon had possessed, she was once a member of Vanguard's squad and that Twilight really, really didn't like her. As a good friend, Applejack was inclined to share in Twilight's animosity towards the other unicorn. If that wasn't enough of a reason to dislike Pyre Valor, there was also her betrayal of the Legion, beating up Twilight and burning Vanguard's face. Ever since Zecora, Applejack had never disliked a pony before meeting them, but this Pyre Valor was proving more and more to be the exemption. The lack of any anger or hate in Vanguard's tone when referring to the unicorn was a little disconcerting. "So what happened?" she asked.

"Nothing," Vanguard replied. "I don't know what I was even expecting. She wasn't the least bit remorseful for what she had done to the Legion and, even if she was, I wouldn't have been able to forgive her anyway."

"Sounds like the two of you were friends," Applejack remarked. She surprised herself as soon as the words came out and then glanced worriedly at Vanguard. She hoped she hadn't offended him.

"We were. I think we still are and I don't know if that's good or bad." Vanguard took another sip from his drink. "As ridiculous as it seems, she now has me considering things I shouldn't be."

"Ain't a crime to be just thinking of things," Applejack said reassuringly. "What were you thinking about?"

"Before you all came here, Pyre asked me to help her with her plans against the Legion. I refused and she burned me. Now, I can't help but think that I failed her as a friend by not supporting her even if I knew she was wrong."

"If you went and helped her…" Applejack's voice trailed off and she felt her throat go dry. Flustered, she took a large gulp from her mug and winced at the electric shock. She tried to think of what exactly would have happened to her and her friends if Vanguard hadn't been there to meet them during their fateful first night in FangBreaker Fortress. "If you'd done that then I'd be dead. We'd all be dead."

Vanguard lowered his mug and looked at Applejack. "Would things really be that dire?"

"Ya darn tootin' they'd be! That wolven would have torn Twilight's face off and we'd all have followed! None of us would have made it far out here without your help."

"Except that none of you would even be here if it wasn't for me."

Applejack softened her tone as she went on. "I'm no good with these messy friendship troubles. I don't study it day in and day out like Twilight used to do and I wouldn't know what to do if I had to fight any one of my friends like you did yours. I sure as hay can't tell you if you did right as a friend by not helping your friend. But I…" She hesitated, suddenly afraid that she was sounding pretentious.

There was no backing out for her, however. Vanguard was now looking at her curiously. "You what?" he asked.

"I'm just really happy you didn't. We wouldn't have met you if you did. Meeting you…well…" Applejack's voice shrank until it was barely audible. "...it's almost worth getting banished for…" She felt herself shrink to match the mouse-like squeaking that she had used to say those words. Vanguard looked at her as if he didn't even hear a thing. And why would he? The partying was still pretty loud even if it was beginning to wind down.

"Now the both of us are getting sentimental," Vanguard said with a chuckle. "At this rate, we'll be maudlin once we get to the bottom of these mugs."

Embarrassed and eager to move to a new topic, Applejack readily nodded in agreement. She took another gulp, gritting her teeth and shaking her head at the inevitable shock before setting her mug down on the ground. "We should do something fun!" she said cheerily. "Land's sakes, we're at a party and we're acting like sticks in the mud!"

As if to answer Applejack, several ponies suddenly started playing music. She followed the sound and found a group of legionnaires with flutes and a guitar. Vanguard stood next to her, his own mug also on the ground, and listened. The ponies in the courtyard, those not passed out drunk anyway, laughed and nudged each other and then started forming pairs.

"Is that a dance they're starting?" Applejack asked.

Vanguard bobbed his head slightly at the music. "Yes," he answered. "I know this one: Snakedodge. Looks like somepony has a taste for Southern Barrier Land dancing." He looked at Applejack with a smile. "Come on," he said.

The next thing Applejack knew, Vanguard had already grabbed her by one foreleg and was pulling her towards the gathered ponies. "Hey, wait!" she protested. "I don't know that dance!"

"Do you really think I'm letting you use that excuse now?"

Now among the other legionnaires, Applejack could only bob to the music as the dancing started. "Snakedodge" was a fast paced jig of a dance. Some of the more tipsy dancers only got in a few seconds of dancing before falling over and laughing. Applejack concentrated on following Vanguard's movements. Seeing such quick steps from him was a little surprising as she was used to him being ponderous thanks to his armor.

The music began to speed up just as Applejack was starting to get used to the movements. "Snakedodge" suddenly seemed appropriate. The music did have a lively, frantic feel to it. So frantic that she suddenly tripped over her own foreleg, causing her to stumble forward.

"Steady there," Vanguard said as he caught her before she could fall face first to the ground. The music began to wind down afterwards, allowing the ponies still dancing to catch their breath.

"Sorry," Applejack mumbled, suddenly glad that the early morning darkness made it difficult to see her face. Vanguard didn't seem to hear her, however. He stood still and was looking at somepony. Applejack turned around to see what had caught his attention and then quickly noticed a familiar white unicorn with a bedraggled purple mane. She had to stifle a laugh at the sight. "Rarity!" she said with smile. "You up already?"

Rarity answered with a bleary squint from her bloodshot eyes. She stumbled forward, forcing Applejack to step in and hold her steady. "Steady now, partner," Applejack said.

Rarity didn't say a word in response. Instead, she leaned against Applejack with her head low and then vomited.

"Oh for-! Gross! You got it all over my hooves! That's it, no more boozing for you, ever!"

Chuckling, Vanguard stepped aside and let the two of them walked to the sides of the courtyard. "You better take her to your shared quarters, Applejack. In fact, I think it's time we all turned in."

"Sure," Applejack replied. "Goodnight, Vanguard."

"Goodnight."

As Applejack walked away, she noticed Flight Captain Tailwind walk past her and towards Vanguard. "You watch yourself, Captain Vanguard Clash," she heard the pegasus say over all the partying. "There are some nasty situations even my flight can't provide extraction from."

The halls of FangBreaker were eerily quiet compared to the celebrations going on out in the courtyard. Applejack half-dragged and half-carried Rarity through one stone hall after another, looking around to make sure that she hadn't gotten herself lost.

"I saw that," Rarity muttered.

"Saw what?"

"You foaling around with Vanguard Clash."

"We were just dancing, nothing foalish about that."

Rarity planted her hooves on the ground, forcing Applejack to stop. "You know that Twilight likes him, don't you?" she asked seriously. Though she still slurred, her tone brooked no nonsense.

"Of course she does. He's a likeable pony. You like him too don't you? I'm sure, Rainbow, Pinkie and Fluttershy-"

"Oh my stars, how dense can you be? You know what I mean!" Rarity interrupted irritably. "You have a crush on him! You're in love with him! You want to push him to the ground and give him a kiss! And so does she!"

"What? No I don't! And Twilight-!"

"For the Element of Honesty, you have a remarkable talent for deluding yourself, Miss I-can-do-all-the-farmwork-by-myself!"

"Are you picking a fight or something? I'm letting this slide 'cause you're drunk and all but…"

"Oh you don't have to worry about me picking a fight. If there's a brewing fight here, it's between you and Twilight. I'm here trying to nip it in the bud while you pretend that nothing's wrong."

Applejack couldn't respond beyond a confused look. Rarity stepped away from her and gave her a good hard stare. "I'm prying," she said. "I know. I'm sorry. This shouldn't be any of my business but you're making me worry, dear. We're supposed to be in harmony and it will be simply dreadful if Equestria's fate is lost because of a botched love triangle formed by our captain and two of the densest ponies I know."

"That ain't gonna happen!"

"I hope so. You're both my friends, Applejack. Far be it from me to decide who makes a better match for Vanguard, but you should know that it's impossible for this to have any pleasant end. As soon as you stop deluding yourself, you have to realize that one of you has to give way."

"So why are you only telling me? Have you told Twilight?"

"I would. Except that…well…"

"Well what?"

"She's been quite scary lately," Rarity said sheepishly. "Now she has to deal with her teacher losing power, Spike going away, whatever happened to her this afternoon…making her deal with this might cause something bad. I know this is unfair, but you're the more sensible between the two of you, Applejack. You have to step aside while this is still nothing but a passing crush."

Applejack's face hardened. "Unfair is right," she said angrily. "I'm not even sure if what you're saying is true. What do you want me to do, start giving Vanguard the cold shoulder?"

"Just put some distance between the two of you. No more dancing in the moonlight for starters."

"I can't."

Rarity's expression hardened as well. "You mean you won't," she said flatly. "This is only going to get much worse, Applejack. Now, while it's not yet too late-!"

Applejack turned around angrily. Her expression softened as she placed a hoof over her chest. "Besides," she mumbled, "it probably is already." Flustered and more than a little angry, she walked ahead and left Rarity behind. "Since you can walk on your own now, I'll see you in our quarters," she called out. "Get some sleep, Rarity."

"Sleep?" Applejack heard Rarity mutter. "Between the two of you, I think I need another drink."