Day 1 of the New Commision
Day 1 of the new commission.
I have worked for the princess before but I get the feeling this will be very different. I have been craving an assignment like this one and she finally gave me the kind of team i’ve been needing. A trip into the Everfree forest, that mysterious place only a short distance from the Royal capital. She couldn’t have made me happier if she had tried. She warned me to be wary of the many dangers but I scoffed at her. After all it was my wife’s job to worry for me while I filled in all those blanks on the map. It was what I was born to do and by my name I won’t rest until every blank space on my maps are filled.
Of course, I really wouldn’t be anything without my trusting team and my training. Having Princess Celestia’s knowledge of the heavenly bodies and her disciple Star Charter available to help in learning how to guide my way was certainly a blessing. I have certainly received a blessing. Star Charter really needs to loosen up more or else she won’t get any more friends past me and Gentle Soul. Ooooh, Gentle Soul has reacted quite well to the news. She knows how much this journey means since the Everfree has never even been attempted to be mapped before. How she worries about me though. Right after she congratulated me for the assignment she began to panic about all the dangers, rumors, and magic in the Everfree. I can’t help but chuckle when she is so concerned about magic and other mysterious threats when more often than not a calm head can get me through whatever dangers we have faced.
Red Liner is always helpful with those. I don’t think he realizes it but it’s like his cynical view of all things magical has saved both our lives far more often than not. My dear Gentle, she dares not speak the same hope I keep, that this time Red Liner can be defeated and she won’t have to deal with his fury when I get upset. The past few years he has been far closer to the surface. I have even see him in my reflection inside a puddle from the rain. I have long since grown accustomed to his presence and enjoy upsetting him further by goading him along. Gentle of course is my rock. If I did not have her perhaps I would have fallen to the cynicism and hate he holds so dear.
The rest of my team would have checked me though. My friend, the big, burly, Large Scale. He likes viewing my maps but he certainly can’t read my more detailed maps. Sometimes though his common sense helps me handle all the different problems that require a simpler solution. Recently when me and him go to see Star Charter she keeps acting reserved with me and they might think I haven’t, but I have certainly noticed how they are spending more time together. I hinted to him that maybe he should stay and let his “royal connections” care for him. Working for the princess, he assured me our boss would want him out here to take care of me.
Kill Joy has an agreement with me on what to do just in case Red Liner takes control. He has served me faithfully and as much as Gentle has her reservations about it, a professional sellsword is a great thing to have when out in the unknown. He sometimes enjoys his job too much but I prefer his skills and lack of hesitation compared to what other sellswords have. I hope he finds himself a wife sometime though so maybe he softens up to some of the rest of us.
Finally, there’s the zebra that I met a few years back when I stumbled across her camp. She gave up her ancestral name when she left her people wanting to instead travel the world with me and bring back the blessing of knowledge to her people. Even though they will never have her back she still insists that she does this for her people. Her knowledge of herbal remedies and tricks have done amazing things for us all in the past.
A pleasant surprise is that Celetia has told Star Charter to come with us on this trip so that she can more accurately learn the stars over the Everfree Forest. She also insisted to me that I help her with making friends with the rest of the group. The Princess seemed rather surprised when I told her about my suspicions regarding Large Scale and Star Charter. She will be an extremely useful add on to the team with her ability to navigate by the stars. She has taught me but she seems to have an almost spiritual connection with the stars. I still believe she can find her way better at night then she can during the day.
Even better than her usefulness though is that it will be a great reminder of when Large Scale and I started travelling because she accompanied us to teach us to navigate using stars and how to chart them so I could bring them back. I really don’t see enough of her since Gentle Soul and I got married and I started travelling farther away. I look forward to tomorrow when I get to start my dream with a team that is the best a stallion could ask for.
And yet… I can’t help but have a bad feeling about Red Liner. He seems strangely happy about this trip even though most of the time he’s yelling at me to stop risking our lives. Not like I ever listen but it is still best to pay attention to the self-destructive voice in your head. I get the feeling he expects us to find the same thing I do; a cure to this damn curse. And he probably plans to turn it on me. I swear now, tonight, that I will finally be rid of this bastard.
Day 10 of the New Commision
Day 10 of the new commission
We have finally left Canterlot! I can’t believe all the delays and problems that kept coming up! Gentle insisted on getting all new pots and pans to commemorate the importance of the trip. It reminded me so much of picking out wedding gifts for the register. Last time I had no one though but this time Star Charter was with me. Its nice getting the chance to mess around with her again with how serious her studies have been. For some reason her and Gentle couldn’t get along! Charter kept getting sarcastic about Gentle’s concerns about pots(something I did not get into only for tactical reasons) and Gentle was far more aggressive then I’m used to. I think she’s just getting jumpy about this expedition. She threw a pillow when I tried to be consoling the night of the shopping trip Red Liner kept me up all night laughing in the window.
Large Scale, Kill Joy, and I went out to some of the farms to try out some of their farming equipment and some ground clearing tools we were bringing along to establish a long term base somewhere in the forest. Kill Joy enjoyed his jokes about the girls staying at home a little too much on the trip because the moment Star Charter hears one of those she’s probably going to carry him underneath a waterfall. I chose to keep my opinion to myself. Large Scale on the other hand was rather upset by Kill Joy’s tasteless humor.
It was shortly later that he got his revenge however. I had difficulty but I managed to get the plow to move and pulled a few stumps out of the ground. Large Scale acted like it was nothing and seemed to enjoy flaunting his strength in front of Kill Joy. I warned Kill Joy to be careful and that it was understandable if he couldn’t do this. After all he practices with his sword but that means a neck and jaw workout. I very rarely ever see him walk and I usually carry more than he does. That just made him mad and he struggled against the plow for a good hour while me and Large Scale tried desperately not to laugh. We couldn’t help but bust out when he tried to get the stump out of the ground by flying up and landing on the shovel’s handle. Between our laughter and the shovel breaking without getting the stump out, he had a lot of drive to hack down some trees. Kill Joy was strangely quiet on the walk back to town.
Large Scale and I went on our regular trip to collect supplies for the trip. However, I made the mistake of trying to get Star Charter and Large Scale some time together. I tried getting Gentle to bring her along and explained that the mares on the trip should have a say on what to get since this is our largest budget yet. Of course, rather than just invite Star Charter, she only invites Cure! Large Scale and Cure have always gotten along well but I want him to have more, like what I have with Gentle Soul. The trip turned into a further disaster as the two had us stop at every store that held anything that could possibly hold something useful. To further the problem they were obsessed with trying to find the best items, in both style and quality. No matter how many times I begged, Gentle would only say is that this dream job deserved the best and ignore me. I will never understand what it is with mares and shopping.
Cure wasn’t as bad. For the first time I watched as she gathered herbs and other items she would need but wouldn’t be able to replenish on their trip. I talked to her about the possibility of a magic that could make a pony change on a moral or emotional basis. We have discussed similar topics before and as usual she humored me. We spent a lot of time on the topic although she kept distracting herself and getting into conversations with Large Scale. After much discussion, most of it pointless because of her talk of “the essence of a living thing” and getting distracted, she promised she would begin thinking about it. She also insisted that the best anypony could hope to do was to separate and expel whatever portion of themselves they wanted to be rid of. I really wish I wasn’t so afraid to lose her skills or else I would tell her about Red Liner. Unfortunately, there’s too high a chance that the news would spook her tribal thinking and I can’t lose her perspective and skills.
Finally we can go though! Tomorrow we start on our journey. Celestia had a long discussion with me today about it. She was happy I hadn’t left yet because she had wanted to discussion her worries with me. She talked to me about how the Everfree has a tendency to bring out the worst in even the most level headed of ponies. Red Liner helps me understand my own evils though and I made sure she understood that, although she can’t know about Red Liner. I have my evils under control and I will keep a close eye on everypony like I always have. It was kind of her to worry though. Her prize pupil Star Charter will be safe in my company. If theres one pony that recluse relies on and confides in, it’s me. Tomorrow it all starts. Tomorrow.
