Limits of the Horizons

Ten years later

Sky Fire’s lips moved gently over Epiphany Dazzle’s, counting her teeth one by one and tasting her blackberry lip gloss as he leaned deeper into the kiss. The grass was moist with dew under their hooves, protected from the morning sun by swaying branches of the fragrant trees, which now scattered dappled sunlight over the skins of the young lovers, as the wind kissed the sweat from their bodies. Sky Fire closed his eyes, and wrapped one hoof around Epiphany Dazzle’s head and horn, drawing her even closer to him as he kissed his goodbye.

There was also some guy who was trying to kill him.

Coming at him from his right was some muscular earth pony colt who was cursing something about Sky Fire having slept with his fillyfriend. So far he hadn’t given a name, so Sky Fire wasn’t exactly sure who he was talking about, but it was probably that pegasus he did two nights ago, who’d mentioned her coltfriend had cheated on her and wanted to get even.

Dazzle turned her head to look at the colt but Sky Fire gently bit down on her lip to keep her facing him, and then wrapped his wing around both their faces, blotting out her sight of the attacker. Of course, this also blocked Sky Fire’s sight, but he didn’t need it. The earth pony was making enough noise to go by and so at just the right time, Sky Fire aimed a side kick an inch above the source of the cursing, let his leg retract, to avoid breaking the colts muzzle, then pushed back, throwing the colt to the ground, furious, yet unharmed.

Sky Fire picked a piece of celery from between Dazzle’s teeth, then used his tongue to block the roof of his mouth and then breathed in deeply through Dazzle’s nose, before bringing his wing back hitting the earth pony across the face. As the colt stumbled, Sky Fire grabbed the guy’s knee with his forehoof and pulled it out from under him; rolling him to the ground.

Dazzle pulled away for real this time; choking on uncertainty, “Do you need a minute to take care of this?”

“No” quipped Sky Fire kissing her again, “I’m good.”

The earth pony picked himself up, and pelted a rock towards Sky Fire. His aim was way off, but would have come just close enough to hitting Dazzle that it justified Sky Fire pushing her to the wet grass and landing on top of her as he ‘shoved her out of the way’. “Don’t worry,” he whispered, “I won’t let him hurt you.”

Sky Fire leaned in for another kiss but this time Dazzle pushed him off and stood up “… I’ll see you later.” She almost hissed as she turned and began trotting away.

“I’ll miss you” he called after her. Sky Fire watched her flank disappear into the trees and sighed in disappointment, then turned on the earth pony who was coming at him and landed a solid blow to the strongest point of the earth pony’s ribcage, hitting him into the air. Sky Fire launched into the wind, caught the earth pony by his hind legs and then, using his own upward momentum and wing power, spun both of them through a five hundred-seventy degree angle, before letting go, hurdling the earth pony into a nearby pond.

Hovering triumphant, Sky Fire listened to the excited gasps from the two unicorn fillies who had been watching from a hill, just outside of ear-shot, that he’d been pretended not to notice until now. He could have dealt with that colt hours ago, when he first showed up, and then done his thing with Dazzle unimpeded. Even after the colt appeared the second time, Sky Fire could have still done things in a way that would have included him doing Dazzle in the cave under the park; but that would have done nothing for the spectators, both of whom were gorgeous.

Dazzle was awesome; but even she liked to at least pretend she had his complete attention when they were together. She was mad; but when Sky Fire got back in two weeks she’d forgive him and these two new fillies would have marinated in their curiosity enough to be ripe for the picking, meaning he’d have sacrificed one re-run with Dazzle for potentially two new fillyfriends.

He just needed to finish their appetizer.

After watching the earth pony crawl out of the pond and cast a hateful glare at him; Sky Fire took to the air and made a slow pass over the fillies. One of them averted her eyes, and probably wouldn’t make for good company, but her friend was doing a hopeless job pretending not to stare as he showed her everything he had to offer. A moment was all it took for him to memorize her green face, outlined by a lively amber mane. If he saw her again he would know, and as for her - the rainbow mane was pretty distinctive and so was the physic that shamed most professional athletes, wrapped in gorgeous blood-red fur. Sky Fire climbed higher and maneuvered a subtle salute, just clear enough to make her wonder whether or not she had imagined it as the shallow tree line of Canterlot’s botanical gardens gave way to the clock tower and-

Hayfries; he was late!

…………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Daring Do stood with her wings tied to her back and legs chained to the podium; surrounded on all sides by hundreds of mountain gorillas, waiting to tear her limb from limb. The air was thick with hatred permeating from their every breath, but not one of them moved or made a sound, sitting in reverent fear for their king who sat high on his granite throne, examining Daring’s equipment piece by piece, before throwing it in a pile on the ground.

Ordinarily Daring would have tried lying her way out of this, telling a story that was more believable then the truth, a truth which she herself just barely believed; but she couldn’t. To her right stood a tall gray unicorn stallion with a lasso cutie-mark; the renown sheriff Straight Way. He was the one who had hunted her for a month in a race across continents, finally catching her last week in a triple cross in the Ephrentine Palace. He was the one who had brought her here, to be tried and executed by the Mad Ape King and his people; he was the reason that lying here meant certain death… and he was her only hope for survival.

Straight Way had studied Daring; he knew her methods, habits, strengths and weaknesses, and she had studied him just as closely. She knew the value that he placed on justice, that he would never let an innocent person be condemned, or a guilty one go free. He knew her side of the story, and for one moment, he had almost believed her, but then Jeopardous Zeal came and ruined everything.

While he was taking her here, Daring had tried again to convince Straight Way of the truth, and she knew that he was questioning his own judgment. If she told the truth now, there was a chance, just a chance that he would believe her again, and then maybe he could find a way to help her. But if she deviated from her story, even in the slightest, he would lose all faith in her, she would die, Straight Way would never know the truth until it was too late, and Jeopardous Zeal would win.

The Mad Ape King tossed aside Daring’s lock picks and lifted her boomerang high for all to see. “What is this?”

“That’s… my boomerang;” said Daring hesitantly, “It was given to me by the governor of Saddle Arabia for uncovering an assassination attempt on his life. It’s enchanted with accuracy, and increase the strength of its wilder. I use it to test for booby traps when exploring tombs and… I have used it in self-defense.”

“How many of my people have you murdered with this?”

“None.”

“What’s wrong Jeopardy? Did you never get the chance to use your latest stolen booty; you were so busy burning villages and selling my people as slaves?”

“I’m not Jeopardous Zeal!” pleaded Daring desperately, “My name is Daring Do! Jeopardous Zeal is my twin sister! We were separated at birth; she was raised by our father, Warlord Spoil, I was raised in Equestria by who I thought were my real parents. I didn’t know she existed until three weeks ago, when I encountered some of her soldiers and they mistook me for her.”

The assembly was silent and then all at once the gorillas began howling demands for her blood while their king sat in silence, his frown pulling his mohawk forewords like a blade. After letting his people make their demand clear The Ape King raised one fist, and the auditorium grew silent; “Do you have any proof?”

Daring trembled, looking sideways to Straight Way who shifted uncomfortably, knowing as well as she did that the only thing that came close to evidence was at the bottom of the river, “… No.”

The Ape King slammed his fist on the armrest of his throne, cracking it. “I usually pity the fools who find themselves in my court. I pity the thief who got caught after losen his job. I pity the kid prankster who got someone hurt. But you’re not a fool Jeopardy, and I don’t pity you!” The Ape King rose and began descending the stairs of his throne, calling out to his vengeance starved people; “Jeopardous Zeal, and her army of Snare Blades, have robbed our mothers! They’ve murdered our brothers! They’ve taken our kids, and used them as slaves! SHE WILL PAY!”

The gorillas began roaring a contorted babble of threats and verdicts until one constant chant came to drown out the rest; “Death! Death! Death! Death!” If the guerrillas and their allies thought Jeopardy was dead, she could fake the disbandment of her Snare Blades, and everyone would believe that the war was over. “Death! Death!” Jeopardous Zeal had the dagger of Jintun, stolen from the Giraffadie prophets, which granted its wielder glimpses of the future. All she needed was time to master its power. “Death! Death!” When she did strike; it would be too late. “Death! Death!” The Alliance would crumble. “Death! Death!” The Snare Blades would be unstoppable. “Death! Death!” Jeopardous Zeal would be invincible. "Death! Death!” The world would fall. “Death! Death! Death! Death!”

The gorillas had picked up stones and began banging them together in time with their chant, waiting for their king to give the order. “Death! Death! Death! Death!” Daring looking up, and found herself looking into the eyes of Straight Way his blond and crimson mane bristling in the breeze around eyes which showed equal measures of sorrow and regret. Could he not see her for who she really was? “Death! Death!”

“Straight Way” she whispered, unsure if her trembling voice carried above the pounding rocks, let alone her own beating heart, “Help me.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tungsten flipped the page to the next chapter. He knew what happened next, mom had read him the series when he was a kid, and he’d read it for himself a few years ago, yet his eagerness for Daring Do’s adventures never faded.

Tungsten started reading again, but before The Mad Ape King realized he’d been tricked, the words all suddenly got bigger as his book stopped moving but he didn’t. Not being the first time he’d walked into someone while reading, Tungsten stopped in time to only give the other pony a minor bump. He looked up, hoping it wasn’t someone annoying and was glad it was only Star Streak. “Hi Tungsten.” Called the black pegasus, without looking up.

“Hey Star Streak.”

Star Strike looked down at the book that had fallen to the floor, “Daring Do and The Family Lies. I thought’s you’d read that already; or are you working on some kind of project for Daringcon at Youtherd?”

Tungsten snatched his book up off the floor with his magic, “I like reading them again, there’s so much hidden in them that you don’t see the first time; allusions, foreshadowing, stuff like that.”

“You know you can just watch the movies, right?”

Tungsten snorted in derision, “They butchered the movies. They took out all the really cool stuff to make them shorter, and then filled them back up again with junk that doesn’t even make sense!”

“Whatever” sighed Star Streak, “The point of movies is to entertain; nothing more.”

“Oh yea? What if one day the fate of the world rests on the accuracy of the Daring Do, book to movie translations?”

Star Streak screwed up his face, “How would that happen?”

Tungsten thought furiously for a moment, searching his mind for that precious scenario with which he could answer his rival's challange, “…You’re right; that is a bit of a long shot.”

“Whatever.”

“See you at Youtherd?”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” said Star Streak, turning back to his locker.

Tungsten tucked his book back in into his saddlebags; walked to his own locker and withdrew three bags, each already packed for the holidays. The first was a bug-out bag; small, light, and packed with an arsenal of highly versatile tools, first aid, concentrated rations and water flask. Tungsten had only ever needed this bag once, but he’d always had it, and his parents insisted that he keep it close by, and got upset if he used the stuff for something he wasn’t supposed to, (especially the super glue).

The second bag was considerably heavier; stuffed with treats, games, books, pranks, a costume, and more treats for Youthherd. The third bag was a sack that had been slowly swelling since the start of the school year, packed with all the old homework, tests and schoolbooks he didn’t need anymore. Tungsten knew it wasn’t as much as the older kids would have, but it would still make some nice fuel for the bond fire.

After shoving the final doomed convicts into the sack, Tungsten withdrew all three bags, and refilled his locker with the schoolbooks he’d been carrying; neatly stacking them with his, quite pleasing, end of year report card on the top, for when dad came by to pick his books up later. He cantered to the front of the school to a rose red pegasus with a rainbow streaked mane who was waiting for him. “Hey Tungsten” she smiled, “Ready to go?”

“You bet Sky Blaze.” Tungsten fell in beside Sky Blaze and gave her a bro-hoof; although it wasn’t really a bro-hoof since Sky Blaze wasn’t his bro, (Sky Fire was). She was still cool though, but not awesome like Sky Fire, even though they were twins. (Sky Fire always said that Sky Blaze was awesome but in a boring sort of way and Tungsten pretended he didn’t know what that meant because otherwise Sky Blaze would become a nagging prude. See? Totally un-awesome.) Tungsten on the other hoof was awesome, (or at least he was going to be,) but he wasn’t nearly as cool as either of his older siblings; his coat red was like theirs but he wasn’t as smart or as good at fighting as they were, his mane was a stupid pale grey instead of rainbow, and on top of all that, he was just a unicorn.

He was still cool though; definitely the coolest kid in his class and one of the few that was going to be at Youtherd this year! The unofficial rules said you had to be at least sixteen to be allowed to go there for the holidays, and Tungsten was only twelve; but no one really kept track and so if you had an older sibling who was willing to take you, you could go!

Youtherd was the greatest party in Equestria; held every year in Ponyville for anyone in high school or early college, celebrating the end of the school year. Tungsten had heard about all the awesome stuff that happened with the concerts, sport events, advanced screenings of new movies, carnivals and circuses that visited there and couldn’t wait to get in on it himself.

Tungsten was looking forewords to the sport events, especially the flying, because he would get to watch Sky Fire and Sky Blaze beat everybody; unless Sky Fire was too busy banging fillies. If that happened, Sky Blaze would win everything, since she wouldn’t be distracted by the colts, because she was boring.

The best part about Youtherd however was definitely going to be huge Daringcon expo they were having. Sky Fire had promised to go with him and that meant he would because Sky Fire always kept his promises, (at least to his little bro.)

…Where was he?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Sky Blaze trotted besides Tungsten towards the train station; her eyes scanning the crowded sky for Sky Fire, vainly, as he was nowhere to be seen. It was only too easy to guess where he was, or at least what he was doing; where and who were now always open to negotiation for Sky Fire.

Not that Sky Blaze had any problem with taking Tungsten to Ponyville and letting Sky Fire take the next train. By virtually every measure, she would prefer to go without him, but she still wished he were here. Sky Fire had promised Tungsten he would be here and, until now, Tungsten had been the only person left who Sky Fire’s promises to mattered more to him than chasing some filly’s tail.

This settled it then; Sky Fire was a hedonistic jerk who cared more about himself than anyone else; and didn’t even have the wisdom to see that he was destroying himself in the long-run, along with his best chances for an actual relationship. The worst part was that Tungsten was probably going to accept this. He might be annoyed for a while, but Sky Fire would never admit to having been wrong, Tungsten would believe whatever Sky Fire told him, and so Tungsten would learn that no promise was sacred so long as breaking it gave you a chance of getting laid. It was a lesson Sky Blaze was sure Tungsten would employ later on in life, probably much younger then Sky Fire had been when he first even considered it.

Why did Sky Fire have to be such a cheat?

Why did Tungsten have to admire him so much?

Why was it that, just when Sky Blaze needed her the most, Zecora had vanished?

Ever since her extended sojourn as a patient, the two of them had been close. Short, patient recovery reports had grown into long, heartfelt letters as Zecora became her pen-pal, and closest confidant. Sky Blaze had told Zecora things she’d never told anyone else and, when she was old enough to understand, Zecora repaid her in kind. More often than not over the last few years, Sky Blaze had spent at least some of each holiday visiting Zecora and known that if she ever needed to just drop by over the weekend to get some headspace, she was always welcome. Sometimes Zecora would teach her something about natural remedies or history or understanding people’s behavior; once in a while she would teach her something new about combat, but mostly, they were just friends.

And then, three weeks ago, she left.

Sky Blaze received one last letter from Zecora thanking her for her friendship over the years, but saying she needed to leave, and might or might not be able to reestablish contact, at an unspecified later date. Sky Blaze had dropped everything and raced to Zecora’s hut hoping for an explanation, or at least to show her off but the hut was empty except for another letter on the table that repeated the first, but with added emphasis that Sky Blaze should not try to follow her.

There was no sign that anyone else had been in, or searched Zecora’s hut. Nor were there any booby traps, but Sky Blaze concluded that that was probably because Zecora had known she would come there, and didn’t want to hurt her by mistake, so Sky Blaze remedied the situation by setting some traps of her own. Since then she had checked back on Zecora’s hut several times, but nothing had triggered her traps, and nothing had changed except the slow accumulation of dust, making Sky Blaze wonder if she had been right in assuming Zecora had been found out.

It didn’t matter.

Wherever she was; Zecora was protected, and since keeping her in her prayers was all she could do for her at the moment, Zecora would want her to be content with that instead of stressing out over things beyond her control, sacrificing attention which should be spent on matters that she could influence. The most important of said matters, was standing beside her, shifting uncomfortably as he searched the sky for his imperious older brother.

Maybe this really was for the best.

It was three minutes till the train pulled out, and Sky Blaze could see the sinking realization on Tungsten’s face that Sky Fire really wasn’t coming. This may be one of the best chances she had had to talk to Tungsten in a long time. Maybe if two of them could get a private booth, and some ice-cream, and the two of them could talk, really talk and then maybe, just maybe, having been stood up by his idol, Tungsten would actually liste – thud!

A bag hit the ground next to her.

Thud!

And another one.

“Sky Fire!” Tungsten yelled excitedly.

“Hey bro!” grinned Sky Fire, landing carefully in the narrow space between Sky Blaze and Tungsten, before ruffling his little brother’s mane “You ready for your first Youtherd?”

Sky Blaze sighed.