To New Horizons

After a half an hour of writing, a gentle knock on your door brings you back to reality. "It's unlocked!" You yell over your shoulder as you finish writing your last sentence and set your quill off to the side, allowing the ink to dry on the page. The sound of the wooden door slowly opening behind you prompted you to turn around and greet your guest. Slowly peering its way around the door was a white muzzle, soon followed by the rest of Eclipses face. His dark purple hair was messy and his dark blue eyes were filled with concern. But his muzzle held a sympathetic smile as he entered.

"Hey, Sky." Eclipse softly spoke, briefly, he scanned your room before fixing his attention back on you. "How are you feeling?" He continued, his soft, delicate voice easily making your heart skip a beat as you gave him a smile in turn. "Better, all things considering." You carefully reply with a shrug of your wings. "How about you? Last night was an ordeal for all of us after all." You continue, briefly motioning your right forehoof for him to enter. Prompting him so slowly enter the room and carefully shut the door behind him with a hind hoof.

"I'm doing ok but... look... we have to talk." He gently say's as he slowly moves towards you, that adorable soft smile never leaving his muzzle along with the look of concern in his eyes. "About?" You ask, failing to hide the concern in your voice as you nervously run a forehoof through your mane. "Last night." Eclipse states plainly as he stops his advance a meter in front of you.

"Yea... look I'm sorry I got super plastered." You start to apologize only to be cut off by Eclipse chuckling and waving his right forehoof dismissively. "No no, before that, on the hill." He briefly pauses as a small blush of crimson spreads across his cheeks. "You know you didn't have to do that. Keep me warm I mean." He continues as he gives you a sympathetic smile. You could feel your cheeks start to heat up a little at both his smile and the memory of last night.

"Of c-course I did, you were p-practically freezing to death." You stammer as he moves a little closer. His smile briefly falters for a second as he looked down at your wounded hindleg. "And here ponies thought you were a ruffian." He sadly teases as you feel your heart beat faster and faster. "Well, in any case, I just wanted to show you my thanks. So when Starfire sobered up, I asked her what your favorite meal was before she went to the market. After a bit of drilling. She told me." Eclipse continued as he leaned closer to you with a toothy smile.

"A-and what did she t-tell you?" You continue to stammer as you desperately try to regain your composure. "Blueberry pancakes. I've never had any myself but... Star told me the recipe, so I made us some." He replies cheerfully with a beaming smile. "You do like Blueberry pancakes... right?" He continues, that nervous look in his eyes returning with a vengeance. "Y-yea. I love y.. them. I love them. Yes." You quickly correct yourself. Mentally bashing yourself for nearly saying something stupid.

At this, Eclipse gives you a bright smile and happily taps his forehooves on the ground. "Great! Well, hurry up and finish whatever you were doing. I already made some and I can't wait to see your face when you try it!" Eclipse says happily as he pokes your side for emphasis. "Ya. A-alright I'll be quick." You stammer as Eclipse give you a warm smile. "Great! I'll leave you too it then!" He cheered as he turned around and happily prances his way to the door of your room, your eyes following the stallions rear all the way to the door.

Only stopping briefly as Eclipse opens the wooden door with his magic, and then briefly looking back towards you with a gentle smile. Quickly, you make eye contact with the stallion, trying your hardest to keep your wings at your side as his joy-filled eyes pierced through your heart and made it skip several beats. "Oh, and Sky?... No matter what ponies say. You really are a nice stallion." He say's with a faint hint of a blush gracing his cheeks before he made his way out of your room, shutting the door behind him.

As if knowing the coast was clear, your wings instantly left your sides. Making that all too familiar Pomf sound as you sat there slack-jawed at what just happened. "Did he just? Did I just?" You thought to yourself as you felt your heart continue to beat at a faster rate than normal. "No... No, I can't fall in love with a stallion from my own guild! There are probably guild rules against this or something." You start reasoning with yourself, knowing full well that the guild rulebook probably didn't exist.

"If by some act of Celestia it did, all three of you were probably drunk when writing it and it's most likely illegible." You think to yourself with a sigh before attempting to recompose yourself. "No, bad Sky. Its just pancakes, sure it was your favorite kind of pancakes, and a handsome stallion will be sharing them with you. But they were still just pancakes." You continue to reason to yourself as you slowly get off of your chair and walk over to your armor at the hoof of your bed.

"Now, I know for a fact you're going to need a good washing." You think to yourself, though you do catch a stray thought that Eclipse could have been the one to undress you, soon followed by the perverse thought of Eclipse giving you a good washing. These rouge thoughts cause an all too familiar heat to grace your cheeks with its presence. "Urgh! Brain why?!?" You groan to yourself as you carefully take the collar of your armor in your mouth and half hazard sling it onto your back, the weight shift nearly knocking you off your hooves and onto your rump.

"Buck me, that's heavy." You complain to yourself as you slowly make your way toward the door of your room and out into the guild hall, where the lovely scent of blueberry pancakes graces your nose, eliciting a small noise of hunger from your stomach. On further inspection into the room, you notice that a certain white unicorn is reading a wide variety of books on the war table while slowly munching on some blueberry pancakes.

In the center of the table is another stack of pancakes, along with silverware, a jug of maple syrup, and two glasses of milk. Though one of them has obviously been drunk out of, so you can easily deduce that glass probably belongs to Eclipse. You slowly begin to trot over to the studying unicorn, though the sound of your hoof steps causes Eclipses ear to twitch, prompting him to look up and acknowledge you. "Hey, Sky..." He starts to say cheerfully with a smile before he stops himself. Briefly as his eyes fall upon your armor on your back.

"Nope, you're not carrying that on three hooves." Eclipse states sternly as his horn lights up and your armor slowly lifts itself off your back in a dark purple aura and levitates itself onto a chair to the left of Eclipse. "We'll handle this, after breakfast. Now come on, sit back and enjoy the meal." Eclipse continued to say as he pointed over to the empty seat across from him, prompting you to carefully take a seat. Briefly, you fumble for a moment, taking extra care not to put any weight on your wounded hoof.

"Heh, thanks. I haven't had blueberry pancakes in... well... a while." You say cheerfully as you reach your right forehoof over and drag the plate of pancakes in front of you. Promoting Eclipse to magically push the glass of milk and silverware over to you as well. "Well, why not?" Eclipse asks with a smile as you grab the jug of maple syrup and liberally pour its sweet syrupy contents onto your pancakes.

"Simple, it's like exposing yourself to a good song. If you listen to it too often, it loses its meaning. So if I eat too many of these, the taste will dull itself." You explain with a smile as you begin eating the delicious stack of pancakes in front of you, which tasted heavenly. The careful blend of your mother's special batter and the blueberry's themselves only left a sweet and savory taste in your mouth with each bite. "Fair enough. But it's the least I can do to thank you for last night." Eclipse says shyly as he levitates his fork with his magic and continues eating his stack of pancakes.

"This tastes exactly how my mum used to make it!" You exclaim joyously as you continue to devour the pancakes in front of you. "So I take it I'm still the master chef of the guild?" He teases as a small smile slowly spreads across his lips. "Was there any doubt?" You tease back as you continue to devour your meal. "You know, I wanted to be a chef when I was a young colt. But when I got my cutie mark in the Canterlot library I thought that dream was dead." Eclipse says as he stared down into his glass of milk before taking a sip of it.

"Perhaps now is a good chance to test the waters." You think to yourself as you swallow another bite of food. "Well, that's the funny thing about dreams, real ones adapt to circumstance." You state softly, causing Eclipse to let out a sigh, though his smile never faded. "Ya, I guess your right. What about you?" He asks softly as his gaze falls on yours, allowing you to better enjoy his cute little smile.

"Believe it or not I wanted to be a librarian." You state softly as you slow down your intake of food. "You? A librarian?" Eclipse chuckles, as he brought a hoof up to his muzzle to stop himself from letting out a full-blown laugh. "I know, I know. Sky, the pony who can barely sit still for five minutes wanted to maintain a place of knowledge. Trust me even I can barely believe it myself." You say with a chuckle as memories of your coltish-self wandering around the Cloudsdale library, assisting the librarian come rushing back to you.

"I spent quite a few summer vacations in that library, studying Equestrian history and such. I guess that's when you could say I first obtained the itch." You continue, smiling warmly as the pleasant memory's flash through your mind. "And here I took you for a ruffian. But here I find the swordscolt has some culture to him." Eclipse teases, letting his Canterlot accent slip for a moment before he took a sip from his glass of milk. You could only chuckle at that as you continue to eat your meal.

"You know, while you and Star were drunk off your flanks last night. She said something that sorta interests me." Eclipse states cautiously as if gauging whether or not to tell you. "Oh? And here I thought you had a thing for the flower mare. What's her name again? Roseluck?" You tease eliciting a faint blush and an eye roll from Eclipse. "No, not like that. Besides, Roseluck's dating Caramel." Eclipse states with a chuckle as he eats another bite of his pancakes. "Then what?" You ask with a chuckle as you sip on some milk. "She kept talking about somepony named Steel something... Do you know who she was talking about?" Eclipse asks with general curiosity as he takes another sip from his glass of milk.

"Steelstocks? You know Steelstocks, he was our caravan leader." You state as you take another drink from your milk. "Oh, the stallion who brings us our food shipments?" Eclipse asks cheerfully as his eyes light up in recognition. "Yea, how have you never learned his name?" You ask with a chuckle as you finish eating your pancakes and sip down some more milk. "I don't know, you or Starfire tend to deal with him more often than not." Eclipse says with a small smile before finishing up his own meal and levitating your plate onto his.

"In any case, what got you curious about him?" You ask with a smile, earning a shrug from Eclipse. "Well, nothing anymore. She just mumbled about traveling with Steelstocks for a while, and I was curious if you knew him" Eclipse says as he levitates both of your plates down towards the edge of the table and moves his book in front of him. "So speaking of. Any reason why Star's absent from the table?" You ask as you unfurl your wing's and after a brief examination, you find and realign a couple feathers before refolding them back to your sides.

"Well, she went out to see if she can commission a new sign for the bar. She said she had a friend that could paint one up by the end of the day." Eclipse answers softly as he skimmed the pages of his book. "Well, that's good to hear. How about you? You got any plans today?" You ask, causing Eclipse to seemingly ponder the question for a moment. "Well, I caught a lead on a possible ruin up north. Though I need to confirm my suspicions in a couple other old books first. I also need to run to the market and pick up some tomatoes and carrots since we're running low. What about you?" Eclipse asks with a small smile across his muzzle.

"Well, I was going to clean my equipment today, but I seem to have misplaced my sword and shield." You say nervously, as Eclipse gives you a dismissive wave of his hoof. "I left your equipment at the Apple family farm. I can't levitate two drunken ruffians and their equipment. So your stuffs still probably there." He says with a shrug as he goes back to skimming his book. "Then I got to visit Twilight to see what she wants to do with my bandaged leg, though I really should go to the clinic." You continue earning an ear twitch from Eclipse. "You have stayed off that leg... Right?" Eclipse asks as he gives you a concerned look.

"Of course. I just hope I can walk on it soon. It makes lugging things around inconvenient." You reply with a smile before drinking the last of your milk. "Well, either way, I suggest you visit the clinic. Just to make sure that wound doesn't get infected or anything terrible like that." Eclipse says cautiously as he levitates your empty glass over to the rest of the dishes. "Ya, I will after I visit Twilight. Hey, do you have the time?" You ask as you slide out of your chair, being extra careful not to put any weight on your wounded leg. Even though the pain in it stopped a while ago.

"It's about nine in the morning. Why?" Eclipse asks as you walk around the table and make your way toward your armor. "Wow, it's really that early? I guess I got some time to kill before AJ wraps up apple bucking for the day. I guess I'll go get this thing cleaned before I head out towards Twilights." You say as you motion your left forehoof over towards your suit of armor, earning a concerned look from Eclipse. "Yea, your still not carrying that. Give me a second and I'll join you." Eclipse says as he levitates your armor out of reach. "Oh shoot! Speaking of, Star's armor is damaged isn't it?" You say with concern as Eclipse levitates the dirty dishes into the air as well and slides himself off of his chair.

"Ya, three plates have that timberwolf's teeth indents in them. She's lucky the two of you bought steel reinforced armor." Eclipse says cautiously as he slowly starts trotting over to the Guildhall door. "Do we have any spare plates in the spare room?" You ask as you glance back to the spare guest room. "Yea, I think so. Mind getting them? We need to clean her armor anyway, may as well maintenance it too." Eclipse sighs as he changes direction toward Starfire's room.

"Sure thing, you need anything else?" You ask as you turn towards the spare room. "Well now that you mention it, I could go for a Canterlot ale later this evening." Eclipse teases with a smile, causing you to roll your eyes and chuckle to yourself. "After an amazing breakfast like that, I think you might just get that ale." You softly say, eliciting a faint yet noticeable blush across Eclipses fluffy white cheeks as you briskly trot over to the door of the spare room. Carefully you open the door with your left forehoof and enter the room, leaving the door open behind you as you begin to inspect your surroundings.

From left to right you find the room was an absolute mess. Which was to be expected, since it was filled with your guilds equipment ranging from the three of your tents, Starfire's saddlebag's, a small grindstone under the window, a small box of parchment, quills, stamps and letter envelopes. The room also had some spare furniture for the bar below, consisting of a couple bar stools, chairs, and a table. In the right corner of the room was the spare bed for guests, though on top of the bed was several spare sheets of bedding for the inn below and a wooden tub at the hoof of the bed. Inside the tub was a metal ringer, some soap and a random assortment of steel plates for all your guilds armor repair needs.

"I really have to get around to cleaning this place out sometime." You groan to yourself as you trot over to the wooden tub and grab the edge of it with your teeth. Slowly you lift it up and onto your back, carefully using your wings to ensure the wooden tub doesn't slide off.

The tub and its contents weren't that heavy compared to your normal adventuring gear, but that didn't mean the weight behind it wasn't unnoticeable. Slowly you began to maneuver around to face the door, only to briefly stop as your eyes fall upon a ragged old blue bedroll. The very one you left Cloudsdale with all those years ago, one of your many constant companions from your caravaning days that had long been replaced.

You let out another sigh before continuing your way back towards the door. "I really need to clean this out one of these days." You whisper to yourself as you carefully make your way out of the room, closing the door behind you as you enter the guild hall proper. After a brief inspection of the room, you could tell Eclipse was still messing about in Starfire's room. "Eclipse! You ok in there? Star didn't booby trap her room again, did she?" You yell as you slowly make your way towards the open door.

"No, I'm fine. You ready to go?" Eclipse asks as he makes his way out of the room, the select assortment of dirty dishes, your armor, and now Starfire's armor all floating behind him in a dark purple aura. It always amazed you that a unicorn could carry an assortment of different objects with near ease, although Eclipse alway's told you it took a high degree of concentration to accomplish that. But with that curious expression on his face, it looks as though maintaining a levitation spell was the last thing on his mind.

"Whenever you are." You say as you trot over to him with a smile. "Let's get to it then" He sighs as his expression shifts to a shy smile and he begins to make his way toward the main guild hall door. Carefully you shut Starfire's rooms door before quickly catching up to the white unicorn and following him outside the guild hall. "How'd you sleep?" Eclipse asks as you shut and lock the guild hall door behind you and follow him down the first flight of stairs. "I had a nightmare last night. You and Star were in it actually." You admit as you slowly make your way down the stairs, being extra careful not to trip or drop the bucket of spare supplies.

"Oh? What happened in it?" He asked curiously as the two of you made it down to the second floor and stopped outside the door to the bar. "Well, to start off, Star woke me up in a panic saying something about Timberwolves sacking the town. She wasn't wearing her gear, and my weapons were missing. So I thought she was pranking me. Then..." You pause, considering your next words very carefully. "Then?..." Eclipse asks as he pulls out a key and unlocks the door. "And then... a couple Timberwolves broke down the guild hall door with your body in tow..." You say hesitantly, causing Eclipses ears to perk straight up as his magic to flicker for a brief moment.

"What?" He asks with fear in his voice as he gives you a concerned look. "Ya... and once the Timberwolves broke into the guild hall they saw me and Star... We both made a break for the window so I could fly us to safety but... They killed Star and one followed me through the window and.... dragged me down to the ground with it. Killing me as well. That's when I woke up." You cautiously say, cringing at the look of horror across Eclipses face. "T-that's terrible! And you just... Woke up like nothing happened?" He practically yelled, causing you to wince and your ears to fall back against your head.

Eclipse's eyes instantly filled with panic before he waved his hoof at you and continued. "No, I didn't mean it like that! It's just surprising, that's all." He clarified as he gently wrapped a forehoof around your neck. His fur was soft and warm, sending your heart aflutter as you leaned into the hug.

"Honestly if I had a dream like that, I might have cast a shield spell as I woke up." Eclipse chuckles as he gives your neck a friendly nuzzle, prompting you to return the affection. "Trust me, I woke up screaming and frantically searching for my sword." You admit, earning a small chuckle from Eclipse as you feel your cheeks start to burn a little. Though you couldn't tell if it was from embarrassment or the way he was comforting you. "In any case, I'm sorry you had a nightmare last night." He says as he gives your neck one last nuzzle before he pulls away from the hug.

"Did you have a dream last night?" You ask as his magic aura surrounds the wooden bar door and opens it. "Yep." Eclipse says as he starts making his way down the last flight of stairs, prompting you to close and lock the door behind you as you follow him. The two of you silently walk down the stairway, curiosity gripping your mind as you think more about what he said. "I wonder what he dreamt about last night." You think to yourself as he levitates all the dirty dishes from your meal onto the bar counter. "You'll handle that later." He teases as he looks back at you with a sly grin. "Eclipse?" You ask, garnering his full attention.

"Yea?" He replies as he looks you in the eyes. "What was your dream about?" You ask, prompting Eclipse to lose his sly grin and avoid eye contact as his face blushed furiously, giving you all you need to know. "Oooo, Clipsy have a lewd dream?" You tease, causing his face to turn an even deeper shade of red. "S-shut up and let's go, w-we don't have all day." Eclipse stammers as he starts to make his way towards the tavern door, prompting you to follow close behind. "Sooo. Who was the lucky pony?" You continue to tease, eliciting a groan from Eclipse.

"I need to stop telling you stuff." He groans as he unlocks the tavern door and opens it with his magic. "Was it an earth pony, a unicorn or a pegasus?" You ask, flaring out your wings for added effect and earning a small tail twitch from Eclipse as a reward."W-we're not talking about this." He whines as the two of you made your way onto the street, making sure to close and lock the tavern door behind you.

"Ooo, so it was a pegasus?" You tease, giving Eclipse a gentle nudge with your right wing as the two of you walk down the cobblestone street toward town square. The small town of Ponyville was quite in the early hours of the morning, something you've never really realized before, seeing that you've always been a night pony. The gentle sounds of hooves on cobble coupled with the wooden creak of market stands opening their wares to the public set a calm but busy atmosphere for the small farm town. The cool morning air gently nipped at your nose, as if winter itself was giving everypony one last farewell kiss before it left for the north, allowing spring to make your acquaintance once more.

The air carried with it the sweet smell of sweets and baked good, most likely coming from the small bakery down the road known as Sugarcube corner. "W-will you stop?" Eclipse pleaded, temporarily pulling you from your observations. "Aw, but you love it when I tease you like this." You tease as you gently ruffle the unicorn's mane, earning a quiet huff from the other party. His face was still beet red, though a smile remained on his face, telling you he was probably enjoying the attention.

"I can never win with you. Can I?" Eclipse asks as he looks you in the eyes, his smile never fading along with his rosy cheeks. "Only when I want you to win, now stop diverting and tell me about that dream of yours." You reply, earning a small groan from the unicorn. You may have only known him a few months, but you learned quickly he favored more subtle ways to divert your attention. "Fine, it was... A pegasus." He finally admitted, his ears falling back in defeat as he diverts his attention back in front of him. "Mare or stallion?" You ask, causing him to let out a small groan as the two of you continue to walk past the small bakery and towards the small bridge that leads over the Ponyville river and into town square.

Town square was practically empty, minus the few stray ponies on their way to work or the market. Town square was more or less town circle, considering the plaza around town hall was well. A circle. For a brief moment, you wondered if the fountain on the other side of town hall was operational yet. Surprisingly you've never seen a working fountain in your life, and you're sorta curious about what made a fountain a fountain. Although that's not uncommon for some pony who lived in Cloudsdale for most of their life.

"I hate you." He says with a slight hint of compassion in his voice, once again breaking you from your train of thought. "See, I knew you loved this." You continue to tease, earning a groan from the poor stallion. The two of you continue to make your way to the bridge, only to divert your path before crossing it. Stopping at the riverside to the calm waters of the Ponyville river. Once stopped, you gently remove the wooden tub off your back as Eclipse rests the two floating sets of armor next to the tub. From there you remove the spare metal plates and Eclipse levitates the tub into the river, scooping up some water before bringing it to your side. With that, you picked up Starfire's armor and began to scrub.