Chapter 9:

Life Goes On

What was it that Whirl said before he died?

“Gotta clean up the mess now. Then we can start rebuilding, and life will go on…”

That’s exactly what happened. I had adopted Amber Heart and Scorch into my life, and helped the town clean up after the dragon attack. I officially quit being a guard the instant that the last of the ashes had been cleared away. Nowadays, I was a fairly skilled carpenter. My only stipulation for whatever jobs I was given was that I worked during the nights.

Whenever they asked me why, I would always tell them, “Because I need to spend the day with my family.”

My family…It was strange to say that. Sure, I had helped others before with raising a child, but I had never been the actual father figure. More like a grandpa, or favorite uncle. But there was no denying that a father was what I was now. Heh, I remember the first time Scorch and I needed to change Amber’s diaper.

It was a horrendous experience that I refuse to tell any of you about. I have a reputation to keep up!

Amber continued to grow over the years…

Look, before I go onto the flashback sequences, I just want to say something. I have existed for well over thousands of years. I’ve seen kingdoms rise, and fall. I’ve survived hundreds of wars, fights, and come out stronger for it. There are so many memories and experiences that I’ve had, that it would take far too long to tell all of them. So why am I saying all of this?

Because those years I spent raising my daughter…Ye Gods and Goddesses, those were some of the best years in my eternal life.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

“Ga-ga!” Amber cooed as she crawled around the floor of the living room. Her horn flashed a bright topaz color, the same shade as her eyes. The next thing I knew, I was magically magnetized to the ceiling.

“AH!” I shouted in surprise. “Cripes! Someone get me down from here!”

The giggles of the filly sitting on the floor let me know who was responsible for that. That’s one mystery solved. If I remember right, unicorn magic is extremely powerful and unpredictable when they’re newborns.

Next on the agenda: GET DOWN.

“Okay Amber, very funny,” I chuckled lightly from where I was stuck. “Now put me down now. Please?”

She just giggled even harder and started clapping her tiny little hooves together. Barely even half a year old, and she’s already a master troll.

I’m so proud!

Scorch walked into the room then, her arms laden with pouches filled with herbs from her garden. Apparently, even though Quartz was an extreme asshole to her, the one good thing he had done was teach her how to read. So when I had shown her some of the books Gentle had on how to grow medicinal herbs, she had devoured them in an instant. She now helped us make a living by selling whatever she could spare.

“Hiya Scorch!” I quipped from my place on the ceiling. “How’s your day been?”

The dragon’s jaw dropped as she took in the whole scene before her. “How are you…?”

“Oh, Amber’s magic is starting to develop,” I said nonchalantly, examining my claws. “She decided it’d be funny to stick me up here.”

Scorch gave off a tiny smile, and said, “Well, um, it is kind of funny.”

I rolled my eyes, but nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it is. I’m sure ten minutes from now, I’ll be laughing with all of you.”

“Why ten minutes?” the dragon asked as she started storing her herbs in the kitchen.

You can tell this is a normal occurrence for folks like us.

I glanced at the clock that sat on the mantelpiece of the fire, and scratched my chin. “Normally, that’s the time she falls asleep for her nap,” I mused. “Unless her magic usage makes her tire out moRAAAAAAAA!”

My face smacked into the hardwood floor. Groaning quietly to myself, I wobbled onto my feet to see that Amber was sound asleep in front of me, gently suckling on her hoof.

“D’aw,” I sighed. “I can’t get mad at that face.”

Carefully, I picked her up in my arms and carried her to her room. As I went to set her down in her crib, she rolled over in her sleep, and grabbed onto my arm. Her face nestled into my fur as she made herself comfortable, a small yawn escaping her lips.

I shook my head at that. Ah well. I didn’t have anything I needed to do for a while. Trying to make as little noise as possible, I sat down in an old rocking chair that rested beside her crib, and rocked her back and forth in my arms.

Scorch offered to move her into the crib for me, but I declined. I was holding my daughter in my arms. There’s no greater feeling than that.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” Scorch said for the third time.

“Nonsense!” I replied, lowering a pair of welding goggles over my eyes. “This time it’s BOUND to work!”

“You said that last time though…” Scorch muttered under her breath.

I chose to ignore her lack of faith in my abilities to get Amber to eat her food without making a serious mess. “Cover me, I’m going in!” I commanded, pulling out a spoon in one hand, and a bowl filled with mashed potatoes in the other.

The dragon hesitated slightly, before opening the door to the cabin to let me in. Another glob of crushed carrots splattered onto the door next to my head, as Amber harrumphed from her high chair.

“Now Amber, you know I love you,” I started. “But you’re eating these potatoes, and that’s final!”

She harrumphed once more, and then her horn flashed incredibly bright in another attempt to blind me. I tapped my goggles happily in response.

“I have you now,” I growled. With that, I put the spoon in her mouth, and let out a whoop of victory.

In retaliation, Amber swallowed the food with an adorable pout on her face.

Traveler: 1

Amber: 5

…I’ll take my victories when I can.

XHXHXHXHXHXHX

“Alright, Amber,” I started, holding the child in my hands. “Say…‘Daddy’.”

The baby cooed in response.

“That was close, but you can do better! Say, ‘Daddy’!”

Amber’s face furrowed in concentration, as her lips struggled to form the shape needed to say it. I waited on the edge of my seat, my heart racing as she slowly said…

“Da…Da…Damm…Daaaamm…Damn it!”

…

…

…

Please excuse me, but I’m not sure whether to be insanely proud that my daughter’s first accidental words were “Damn it”, or to be horrified that she could say it without once hearing me say it.

XHXHXHXHXHX

Three years after that, and Amber was speaking fluent sentences. Or, at least, she was able to say words and have them make sense. I did my best to make sure that she was a happy little girl, while at the same time trying to make sure that she was raised right.

It was around that time that I figured that it was time to enroll her in the local school…and that meant I needed money. Unfortunately, most of the construction work had been done by then, and the bank refused to fund any more expansion projects. Their argument was that there weren’t enough ponies to warrant such a thing.

The real reason? Silver Bars hated my guts.  Ever since I had made him look like a fool in front of both the mayor, and the head of the guard, he had had it out for me. Every time I tried to store money in the bank? They’d casually “loose” it. And when I tried to claim Whirl and Heart’s life insurance?  They said that I had to wait until Amber was a legal adult.

Needless to say, Silver was on the shit list.

It wouldn’t be wise of me to further antagonize the pony in charge of nearly all of the money in Pine Falls. So I did the next best thing I could, and found a way around his scams. Namely, I started carving again.

Turns out a lot of ponies were still grateful to me for helping to keep them safe from a dragon attack, and they were more than happy to buy up all my carvings. It was a bit time consuming, but then again: No sleep. I don’t care if I’ve said it a lot, it’s freaking useful! Not to mention Scorch was really starting to learn how to take care of plants even better than before. Between the two of us, we had managed to raise enough money to keep us with a roof over our heads, and an education for Amber.

Amber seemed happy enough at school. She had trouble with math and writing, but she really excelled in whatever arts and crafts project they gave her. History seemed to be one of her gifts as well. The only other problem? Well…

It shouldn’t have surprised me.

She had just gotten home from school, her saddlebags packed with her latest doodles and sketches. I looked over them, chuckling all the while at how detailed some of them were, when I came across a picture titled, “My Family”.

Ye Gods…I know that it’s been done before. I mean, you see a crudely drawn picture of the kid with her parents and siblings by her side, right? There’s a label over each one saying who it is, and they’re all happy and smiling…

The way that Amber had drawn it? She had put herself sitting on top of Scorch’s head, both of them with extremely large smiles on their faces. Instead of being with them, though, I was drawn off a little bit to the side, with my straw hat pulled low over my face. It looked like instead of wanting to join them, I was…watching over them. Guarding them, almost.

“Amber,” I said proudly. “That’s incredible.”

The girl smiled, happy to hear someone liked her work. A frown flashed across her face for an instant, and she attempted to hide it from me.

“Something wrong, kiddo?” I asked her.

She hesitated, before asking me in an incredibly tiny voice, “Daddy…why do we look so different?”

Now I was at a loss for words. This was the first time she had asked me that. It was the one question that I feared the most, simply because of what could come afterwards. And my heart wouldn’t let me lie to my daughter.

I sighed deeply, and pulled Amber onto my lap. I held her in silence for a few moments, as I tried to think of how I could tell her. She hugged me back in confusion.

“Amber…There’s something that you need to know…” I started, tears brimming in my eyes. “A lot of things, actually.”

For my daughter, and for the sake of telling the whole story, I relived that horrible day. I told her of how I had first come to this town, adjusting the story so that I wouldn’t have to tell her about my status as The Traveler. I told her about Whirl taking me in and teaching me how to read. I told her everything I could, leaving out none of the details.

When I finished, night had fallen and  Amber had tears of her own in her brilliant topaz eyes. Sniffing loudly, she asked me, “So…my Mommy and Daddy are…”

“I’m sorry, Amber,” I sobbed quietly. “I’m so, so sorry.”

She pushed herself away from me, and wiggled out of my arms. “You…you lied to me!” she half-shouted, her own tears running down her face.

“Amber, please, wait-”

I didn’t even get to finish my sentence. She had already bolted out of the door, leaving me in my seat. Instantly, I jumped out of my seat to follow her, calling her name as I did so. The little girl was nowhere in sight.

“Scorch!” I shouted, running back inside and slamming the door to the dragon’s room open. Scorch blearily shook herself out of bed, while I told her, “Amber’s gone! She ran away! I-I had to tell her everything…”

All traces of sleep left her eyes, and she ran outside to help me search the town. About an hour later, and there was still no sign of her. Not even my tracking skills from my guard days were helping me out. It didn’t help that the Pegasi had scheduled a rain storm for tonight that was washing away all of her hoofprints.

Just as Scorch and I finally started to think about asking the guard for help, a small girl’s scream pierced the night.

Amber.

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