Making choices

" Oh my, it's dreadfully hot in here! " Rarity used a napkin to wipe off the sweat coming down her forehead. She put it in the saddlebag the equestrian group had been given by Forge and turned to the smith himself for explanations. He shrugged his shoulders and told her:

" Sorry, but I gotta keep the furnace running. And it's in the other room. "

" Having a smith's furnace next to your house! Huh! So unpractical! Back in Razorcliff the forge was 100 feet away from the main building! " Metal Chord complained.

" Well, not all of us could afford living in a castle! " the smith replied.

" Wait, what is Razorcliff? " Luna, just as the rest of the Equestria group, was very confused. Even Formidon, whose eye peeked through the door, since he was too big to enter, showed signs of befuddlement.

" The capital, I guess? " Celestia spoke, having recognised the nobles' arrogance in the grey unicorn.

" Close enough. " Arcane answered.

" But perhaps we should first tell you the whole story.

Untill 15 years ago, everything went smoothly. We had magnonimous rulers, King Goldhelm and Queen Gownlace. They ruled our land, Runcinia, the way a kingdom should be ruled and everypony were happy. But a threat hung above their heads, and nopony could see it coming.

The soldiers were loyal to our rulers, but they were even more loyal to the pony, who led them in all the missions they had, the captain of the royal guard and a general in the army, Bladewaltz. A rough fifteen years ago, the minotaurs, living to the north of us, tried to conquer more territories from Runcinia. Minotaurs are the only threat there ever was to Runcinia, since from the west and the south we are guarded by high mountains, and to the east we face the sea. Bladewaltz stopped that invasion and took back all the lands the minotaurs hade conquered. His tactics were always brilliant, it could be expected from a third generation royal guard. Those quests earned him the loyalty of our whole army, the royal guards included.

He was planning to conquer the minotaurs' kingdom, but our king didn't want to break the peace and start a full- pledged war. Seeing this as a sign of his fear, Bladewaltz deemed him unworthy for the throne and started plotting how to dethrone him - and that wasn't going to be too hard. After all, the entire army saw him as a living legend.

Mouthguard. A town, mere miles away from the island Castle Razorcliff is on. Our capital and the City of Rumours, as it's best known. All Bladewaltz needed to do was attend a few bars disguised and be intentionaly too loud, pretending to be drunk, and soon the whole town knew the rumour: our king had sealed a deal with the minotaurs, and offered them lands, so that he could depend on them to conquer new lands and place a minotaur on the throne after his death. Those were all lies, of course, but the accusation was so horrible, that ponies actually believed, that it was true. Taking advantage of the rumour he had spread himself, Bladewaltz usurped the throne, forcing our king and queen into exile. The East was already his, and he sent his army to pacify the West. The ponies, loyal to the real rulers of Runcinia, were slowly turned from a separate country to a separate district, to a separate town, untill in the last Battle of the Rebellion,  a year ago, what was left of the Rebellion was vanquished forever. Me, my brother and Midnight are, I believe, the last members of the Rebellion. All ponies will rejoice, if our king and queen return and defeat the usurper. But none will cry if they don't. They're too afraid they'll follow the Rebells in their doom. "

" That's why I got you all here. " Midnight Bell turned to the Equestrians.

" We can't do this alone. We need you. We need you to bring hope back to Runcinia. "

" We can't refuse to that request. " Luna spoke from the name of the group.

" We will help you get your rightful rulers back... if you promise to return us back home afterwards. "

" Sure. " Midnight shook her hoof. As he heard that,Hase quietly snuck out, making sure nopony saw or heard him. Formidon moved away from the door, so that the pegasus could exit, and than took the same position.

Now that he was outside already, Hase could express his discontent. He sighed and kicked a rock, getting the dragon's attention. Shifting, so that his neck would shut the door and his head would be facing the black pegasus, the big dragon asked:

" What is it? "

" Oh, nothing really. " the inventor continued kicking the rock. The dragon raised an eyebrow and spoke again:

" As far as I know, one of the multiple advantages of having friends is being able to share what bothers you with them, am I not correct? "

" I thought you didn't know anything about friendship? " Hase looked at the black dragon with a questioning glare.

" Just a thing or two. So, what's the deal? " the scientist's newest friend asked again.

" It's just that... the last two months, for the first time in more than 1000 years, I've had a normal life. Than you and my father came along, turning everything upside down, but at least things went right very quickly and I hoped I would be able to return to my normal life afterwards. And now... everything starts all over again. We'll probably have to travel to the capital and dethrone that usurper this healer spoke about, and the focus will constantly be on possible dangers, who's good and who's bad and how to bring back peace! I never asked for this kind of things! Ever since I invented my formula, with the exception of those 2 months I told you about, my life has been a series of constant mishaps. Some will call them adventures, but they are not. Adventures are fun, and for the last years of my life I have been wondering what's good and what's bad, is friendship worth it or not. I have broken friendships, which I have later rebuilt, made new ones and fallen in love. Now that I have finally found what's right, learned to value friendship and spread it, I thought I'd finally be able to have a normal life! You can't imagine how bad I felt, when back when I didn't know all this things, I watched ponies live happy lives, in which the biggest problem is organising a family meeting or taking care of some critters, while for the last years of my life in the past millenium I have been hunted down by my best friends at that time because of something I thought would only bring happiness to ponykind.

You can't imagine how happy I felt, when I got all my friends back and made a thousand more, when I knew no invention or potion is more importrant than a friend, when I could spend time with my beloved mare. Even the thought of you destroying Ponyville couldn't bring me down, since I knew, that whatever happenned, I had friends to back me up, friends, that I could depend on for anyrything.

Finally, you can't imagine how dissappointed I am now, after I thought I'd be able to spend some time with my father, Rarity and my friends, and instead I am brought in another dimension to help a bunch of weirdos, who don't even get along, and forced to help them succeed in an impossible mission we could never succeed in just to be able to get back to Equestria and have a normal life again! "

Hase realised he had yelled the last few words out, gradually becoming louder during the last sentences, so he looked around, fearing somepony might have heard him. Seeing nopony had witnessed his selfish demeanor, he sighed in relief.

" That probably sounds very egoistic and all. I'm sorry, Formidon. That's not how a friend should behave. I'm only thinking of myself and my wellbeing, ignoring the millions of ponies, living in this land. " the pegasus looked around.

" How dare I complain? I have friends, I have a family, I'm in love, and many ponies around here probably have none of these things. " he frowned.

" We all make mistakes sometimes. Like wanting to incinerate a town because of a pony, that used to live there. " Formidon joked.

" Mistakes? I sounded like a tyran, admit it. I was ready to sacrofice a whole country just to be able to follow my dreams. No! I won't do this mistake again. Listen to me now! I hereby swear, that any creature, that has done no harm to me or somepony else, or any living and sentient beng, as a matter of fact, will be as close to my heart as my own species. I shall only do harm to those, who do harm to those who don't. I seal this oath... " Hase looked around, searching for the object of his desires. Spotting it, he left his position, leaving the dragon puzzled, got that object and returned where he formerly stood, letting Formidon see, that the thing the inventor picked up was an empty glass bottle. Hase carefully shattered it with his hooves, avoiding getting cut by little pieces. Picking up one relatively big piece, he held it right next to the upper part of his hoof, on a spot, where he knew no major blood vessels passed, pushed and pulled, leaving a small incision behind. It wasn't big, but some drops of blood still managed to fall to the ground, lifting small pieces of dust, turning into little wet dustballs.

" ... with blood. " Hase finished his oath.

" With blood? " the dragon seemed startled.

" Yes. What? " the black pegasus asked after he licked the incision, so that it wouldn't bleed to much.

" I find this rather... extreme. " Formidon replied. He was about to say something else as well, but he felt somepony pat him on the back, probably demanding an exit from the hotness inside of Forge's house. The black beast moved aside and Rainbow Dash came out.

" Getting some fresh air as well? " the cyan mare gave Hase the answer he'd otherwise have to make up. The stallion just nodded. The other pegasus stood beside him, overflowing with enthusiasm. The inventor was befuddled:

" What's so exciting? " he asked.

" Did you get out before Midnight told us the whole plan? " now Rainbow Dash was the more confused of the two.

" Errr, yes? "

" And you have no idea what awesome adventure awaits us? " the pegasus' tone gradually rose up.

" Not really. " Hase managed to disguise his discontent as ignorance.

" Oh my, you're going to love this... " the excited cyan mare got back to Formidon, until he moved away from the exit. She entered and soon afterwards got back as well, carrying a scroll in her mouth. She let it fall on the ground once she'd reached her spot next to Hase and used her forehooves to spread it.

A map, apparently of the country they were in, was drawn on the parchment. Runcinia, as Midnight Bell had called it, was about the size of Equestria, but there was one major difference: in Equestria, the trip from the furthest north point to the furthest south point would take at least 7 days, while a trip from the furthest west point to the furthest east point would last mostly 3- 4 days. Here it was the other way around: the country was wide, and reaching from the furthest east point to the furthest west point would probably take somewhere around 10 days, but going from the furthest north to the furthest south point seemed to be a two day trip.

The size was were the resemblances with Equestria ended. The west and the east border were guarded by mountains, painted in dark brown with white at most peaks, indicating, that most of those peaks were more than 20 000 feet tall. It was no wonder the mountains were called " Western shield " and " Southern shield " - no army could cross these mountains and remain in battle condition.

Most of the country was covered in plains. Hase could only see woods in the feet of the mountains and some very small dark green dots, probably less than a mile in a diameter, spead chaotically over the country. The light green colour dominated.

The country was split in half by another mountain, called the Belt. Its peaks weren't as high as the ones of the shield, the highest the black pegasus could see didn't excel 7500 feet, but anyway, there was only one passage leading from the west to the east.

Probably the most remarkable of all things on the map was the big river. It began from the western Shield, passed near one of the many lumberjack villages in the mountain's foot and flowed east, gathering many other small rivers, coming from the Shield. It passed right through a gray area on the map, about 2 days away, as the map said, from the first village it passed by. Three volcanoes stood in the center of that gray area, hinting, that those lands were probably an ash wasteland. Hase's surprise could clearly be spotted on his muzzle, as he saw a town, situated between those three volcanoes.

' Who would be so dumb as to build a town in the foot of whole three volcanoes? ' he wondered, as he read the town's name: Smith's Keep.

Than he went further down the river, which according to the map was named the Stream. The Stream took in another big river, although not as big as itself, before crossing the Belt mountain. On the other side it took a very big river, coming from beyond the northern border, before entering a big town, named Streamcross. From than on boats were drawn on the river, indicating, that it was navigable, untill it reached the biggest town in the whole country, the town Arcane had mentioned, Mouthguard, and flowing right into the sea. Not even a mile away from Mouthguard there was an island with a dot on it, along with the name Castle Razorcliff, the other name she had mentioned in her story.

Rainbow Dash, after noticing Hase had finished looking at the map, put her smile on and began describing the adventure, that awaited them:

" Alright listen now! We're here," she pointed a small village by the name of Graywood. It was south of the one the Stream passed by.

" , but since we have no weapons here, we'll have to go to a friend of Forge in Smith's Keep, " her hoof moved to the big town.

" , to get some! Isn't it awesome? Not one, not two, but whole three active volcanoes! That rocks! " Rainbow Dash looked for enthusiasm in Hase's eyes, and luckily, probably because she was too excited, she took his imitation of it for the real thing.

" It's one day on hooves from here. Than, we'll have to pass through the only pass there is through that mountain - the... " the cyan mare took a closer look at the mountain, looking for its name.

" ... the Belt, yes! That's three days from Smith's Keep... "

" Three days! " Hase was frustrated. All he wanted to do was get home, and it turned out passing only half of the country would last whole 4 days!

" Yes! " Dash took that frustration for the excitement of an impatient pony and went on with the summary of the trip.

" Reaching Streamcross from the mountain is a five day trip, three days in the passage itself... "

The inventor's frown was obvious now, but the pegasus didn't lift her head to see it.

" 2 days from there to Mouthguard, and mere 2 hours with boat from the capital to Castle Razorcliff, where we'll bring down that dictator to bring liberty back to this country! " Rainbow finally raised her head, expecting to see shared excitement, as it was with everypony inside, but instead met a dissatisfied, almost angry face. Her pupils shrinked in surprise.

" Are you OK, Hase? " the concerned pegasus asked and began searching for a reason for this discontent. It was first than she noticed his wound.

" You're bleeding! " she pointed out.

" Oh, I just cut myself on a shard of a broken glass bottle. Silly me! When are we leaving? This all sounds great! " the scientist tried to sound excited, but his friend had already looked beyond the mask.

" You aren't really that excited, are you? " Dash asked with a low voice as she sat down and prompted the stallion to do the same. He sighed and followed her example.

" No. " he confessed.

Dash knew not all ponies were that excited about adventures as her, even though Hase hadn't struck her as one of these before, so she didn't ask why. However, her face was begging for an answer, giving her out. As the son of Vortex saw this, he spoke:

" You wonder why, don't you? "

The cyan mare just nodded silently.

" Don't think I don't like adventures; I love them. It's just that... they keep coming too fast. That sort of adventures, with villains to be defeated.

It's different with you all. The first time you had to deal with Nigtmare Moon... well, that took you a few hours. And than you had a whole year break before Discord awoke. Than you had about 3 months break before facing Queen Chrysalis. Another 7 months before Sombra showed up. And another 3 months before I showed up. It's nothing you can't cope with.

But for me... I've spent the last 2 years of my life in the past millenium hiding from Celestia and trying to gather accomplices to force immortality on Equestria. Then I was frozen, which really doesn't count as time spent. Than there was our first adventure, that lasted a whole week. I've had two months break, barely enough to cope with the things of the present, before my dad showed up and everything went haywire again. I thought things'd go back to normal afterwards, and instead we're here for another 10 days of tension. I've been at it for 2 years. I simply can't wait for the day, in which everything'll be fine and no threats will hang above our heads, to come. "

Hase lied on his belly and put his chin on the ground, a streak of his blue mane falling down and covering his left eye. Annoyed, he blew it away and took his former position.

" Well... you won't have to wait too long. Just 10 days! " the cyan mare tried to encourage him.

" Unless something goes wrong. And it always does, doesn't it? " he frowned again.

" We'll be caught and we'll have to rot in prison, untill we get out, or just as we get back to Equestria, we'll learn, that Sombra has caused the Crystal Empire to vanish again and is running across Equestria with it in a crystall ball full of snow and we'll have to get it back... that kind of stuff. " Hase tried to be humorous, but didn't even manage to cheer himself up.

" You're being ridiculous. " Rainbow Dash laughed at the last "disaster" .

" And even if that all happens, we're still immortal, right? " she pat the stallion on the shoulder after she got up.

" That day will come... "

" ... eventually. " Hase said the last word along with her and sighed again.

" Hey! " she grabbed his head in her two forehooves, so that he'd be looking at her instead of staring at the ground.

" No adventure is hard enough to get through when your friends are with you. I'll prove it to you during our lessons. "

" What lessons? " the inventor's melancholia was replaced with discombobulation.

Glad, that she had managed to get her friend in his normal mood, the cyan mare smiled deviously and replied:

" Flying lessons, earthbound. " she teased him, making him smile as well.

" Unless you want your friends to train you when we return, that is. " Rainbow was somehow dissappointed, when she realised Hase would probably prefer to train with the Starfliers. They were Eqeustria's ex- champions, after all.

" They are good for races, not for lessons. " Hase ended her doubts.

" Alright. We'll see if you take off tommorrow. " Rainbow Dash got back in the house, leaving Hase in a bit better mood than when she came to him a minute ago.