Bar None (open to all)

[cloudfall]

Cloudfall nodded and followed Trinity out. This was actually happening. They were going to do this. He just hoped they would actually find somepony and not just part of one. He shook his head, clearing away the image that tried to form.

'One step at a time...' he told himself. Right now he needed to get home and get Harrier's payment, then... supplies? What does one bring into the Everfree? He wasn't sure, and he couldn't think straight. His mind was still panicking. He would just focus on getting the bits for now.

Once outside the bar, he took to the air and headed for his home. Then their search began.

[kindjalsonnet]

((Several hours later, after the events of Searching for Wildfire))

Harrier walked back into the bar and sighed. While she hadn't expected to discover anything less in the forest, it still didn't make the discovery or the trip any more pleasurable for her. She didn't particularly enjoy telling ponies their friends were dead, and it wore her down. At the very least, the trip hadn't been very eventful; she hadn't had to fight whatever it was that had killed their friend, or anything else for that matter. She sat down at the bar and shook her head. "I need a drink," she said to the barkeeper, who gave her a long hard look before giving her a tall glass of ginger ale. She shook her head and tried to see if she couldn't drown this bad mood.

[cloudfall]

Not too long afterward, Cloudfall reentered the bar as well, half stumbling over his own hooves as he made his way up to the counter and Harrier. His hair was messed and his eyes were half closed and listless, it looked like he just woke up or walking in his sleep. He carried a small bag that jingled as he moved, which he dropped on the bar as pulled himself into the seat next to Harrier.

He laid his head on the counter top, "Hey..." he said quietly and monotone, then slide the bag towards the mare, "That's for you. Forgot to give it to you before..." He stared, unblinking at wall beyond the counter, his eyes slowly moving over the items the barkeep had set up, though he didn't really notice any details.

[kindjalsonnet]

Harrier blinked, a little surprised to see the dark blue pegasus again before realizing what he was doing here. "Oh, I guess ye did," she said, taking the bag and opening it, counting out bits. 40 exactly... Taking out twenty bits (ten for the song and the tracking advice, plus her flat rate), she slid the bag back to the pegasus. "I didn't earn the whole keep, though; here's the rest," she said, nodding.

After a moment or so of awkward silence, Harrier shook her head. The lad didn't look too well... "You look like ye could use a drink," she said after a moment, patting him on the back just between the wings. "On me." She selected four bits from the pile she'd taken out of the bag and giving them to the barkeep, giving him a look. He nodded knowingly and put a small glass with a salt lick around the rim, filled with a citrus smoothie. It was Harrier's favorite drink when she was feeling bad; the salt added a unique taste, and the drink was cool and sweet.

[cloudfall]

Cloudfall nickered as Harrier passed him back his change, but his eyes kept forward. He didn't care about the bits, she could have taken all of them for all he cared. They weren't going to bring back.... He closed his eyes and took a slow breath, half opening them once more at Harrier's suggestion of a drink. Normally, he wasn't one to hit the salt, but then he normally didn't mope in bars either. He did go home, tried to sleep. He was so very tired. But sleep didn't find him. Each time he tried, he was back in the forest, looking through the bushes and finding... Maybe a drink would be nice.

A glass was placed in front of him. He stared down his snout at it. It was a colorful little thing. Slowly he picked his head up off the counter top and slide the drink closer to himself. Holding the glass between his hooves, he took a long sip from it and placed it back down, licking his lips testingly afterward. It wasn't too bad. Sweet.

"Thanks." he said to the mare next to him as he stared down at the glass. Then he was quiet again for a few moments before asking, "...Has this happened to you... before? ...How do you move on?"

[kindjalsonnet]

Harrier smiled a little as he took a sip of the drink. It always helped her soothe her nerves, and it looked like it was helping him a little as well.

When he asked her how she dealt with loss, she shook her head and sighed. "It ain't easy," she said after a moment. "Especially in this line of work, where it's easy to say it's my fault for not doin' my job." She took another swig from the soda she'd ordered for herself; the touch of bitterness always helped her with hard to swallow information. "Y'know I almost killed my closest friend, back when I first started this job," she said, her eyes distant. "I'm pretty sure he's still bitter about the whole thing. I haven't seen 'im since..." she snapped back to reality after a moment. "Ye never forget them, lad. Best ye can do is remember them. And know this: Mopin' around won't bring her back; ye'll just get yerself killed as well." She took another drink and shrugged.

[cloudfall]

Cloudfall sighed into his drink, "I figured it would be something like that..."

He took another, longer, drink from the glass and returned to staring across the bar. He let his tired thoughts float around without any real order to them, hoping he might stumble onto a helpful thought. He tilted his head back to look up at the ceiling with another sigh.

"It's my fault, you know." he said aloud. "Why she was upset and flew into the forest. Why she was alone and got...got..." he made small noise, like a whimper, and looked back to his drink. Then he quietly mumbled, "...If only I had be faster..."

[kindjalsonnet]

Harrier sighed. "I fig'red, lad," she said. "With the way ye were acting. But ye have t' understand that it doesn't change a thing. If ye had chased after her right then, you'd just be dead too." She took a long draught from her ginger ale, finishing the drink off. "Ifs may sound like nice things, but all they do is eat away at the now. Hindsight's always perfect, but it can't ever do anything for ye." She tapped her hoof on the table, ordering a refill.

[cloudfall]

"Right. Right... I-I know..." Cloudfall sighed in response, "I just can't help but feel like--No, you're right..." He laid his head back down on the counter and stared at what was left of his drink. Harrier was right, he couldn't do anything for Wildfire now. She was gone and he had to move on somehow. He couldn't have saved her....

Cloudfall raised an eyebrow as an idea formed in his mind. He could still learn from this. Even if it was too late for Wildfire, maybe... maybe he could help save other ponies somehow? His gaze shifted over towards the bard pony next to him, his tired mind trying to put ideas together.

"Say Harrier..." he asked as he sat back up, his voice soundless slightly less dull and taking on a hint of wonder, "How did you... get into your line of work? ...If you don't mind my asking, that is...." he asked, fishing for input to help his plotting.

[kindjalsonnet]

Harrier smiled a bit. "Ye want to try out being a merc for size?" she said sharply, giving him a knowing look. She paused and tapped her chin. "Well, once I'd discovered that nopony had any good use fer a bard, I decided I wanted t' protect people... I learned how t' fight at a school here in Cloudsdale, called itself the Titan school." The bartender brought her a new drink and she stopped to take a sip. "It had a focus in teaching ye how to defend others, rather than just defeating monsters. It was ran by an ex-guard who was older than the sun, and claimed to have seen more too." She sighed and shook her head. "He died a few years back though, an' I don't think anyone took up the school when he did. Fer all I know the building got made into a storm cloud over Canterlot; that'd fit his sense of humor."

"What was nice about the school is that it gave guard certification," she said, getting her head out of the past. "A lot of people claim to be a merc without it, but any merc worth the bits has a certificate from the Equestrian military saying they know what they're doin'." She pulled out a worn piece of paper to show him. "From what I understand, they do offer a test to get one of these in Canterlot, but ye'd need training..." She took another sip of her drink thoughtfully.

[cloudfall]

"Eh, well... I don't know about being a merc..." Cloudfall chuckled lightly, nervously, "I wouldn't want to step on your hooves." He also didn't care about making bits, his mind was focusing more on the 'saving ponies' aspect of the job. He didn't want there to be anymore accidents like Wildfire. Harrier did give him an idea, though. "'Guard certification'..." he said allowed, yet to himself. They protect, don't they? But then he's never seen them around Ponyville or Cloudsdale. Maybe another option...

Cloudfall sighed, which turned into a yawn half way through and he rubbed his eye with the back of his hoof. His lack of sleep and the excitement of the day was catching up with him again. He lazily floated himself from his seat, "Anyway, thank you for the drink, Harrier... and the advice." he smiled at her, "But I should go before I pass out on the bar, I'm really tired." He would wait for her response before taking his leave.

[kindjalsonnet]

"Alright lad. Luna's moon be with ye," she said, patting him on the back. "Me, I'll probably be hangin' around here the rest of the night; the barkeep and I go way back, and I'm in a reminiscin' mood now." She took a long sip from the ginger ale and nodded at Cloudfall, putting her guard certification back into the pocket on her leather armor. This was probably going to be a long night.