To New Horizons

After a few more seconds, you hear the doorknob click and watch as the door slowly opens to reveal a small dragon on the other side. The dragon has purple scales and yellowish underbelly scales. Does he have green eyes and a green spiked mane? Or are those scales two? The small dragon's voice breaks you from your internal monologue. "Howdy. Can I help you with something?" He asks with a small smile across his face, you heard dragons tended to be mean. Guess that's just a stereotype. "Hello. Twilight asked me to drop by today. She home?... Or well... At work I guess." You ask as you look up toward the Golden Oak Library sign with a confused look.

It always confused you how some ground-based ponies live where they work. That's not really a thing in Cloudsdale. The old librarian you used to help; lived on the other side of Cloudsdale from the library. "Ya, she's in the other room doing some research into a new spell. Come in and make yourself at home while I go get her." The small dragon says as he opens the door and steps to the side, allowing you room to enter the room.

"Thanks. I don't believe I've properly introduced myself. My name's Skyward Sword, at your service." You say as you enter the small library. The library entrance only had five proper bookshelves, six if you added up all the stray shelves around the room. In the center of the room was a table with a raised center with four wooden chairs surrounding it. On the raised center was a wooden bust of what looked like an equine from Saddle Arabia, although it could just be a cool chess trinket for all you knew.

In the back of the room was a staircase seeming carved into the wall, leading further up the tree. To the right of that was a door to another part of the structure. While inspecting the room a little more carefully, you noticed the light in the room was coming from two sources, one being a window about a meter above eye level, and the other coming from an engraving in the roof. The engraving looked a lot like Celestia's cutie mark, and the light in the center was to your best guess, magical in origin.

"My names Spike. I'm Twilight's number one assistant. I'll go tell her you're here." Spike says as he makes his way toward the door next to the stairs. You take it upon yourself to inspect some of the books available on the shelves while you wait. At a glance, the books were all organized alphabetically by subject, for example, apothecary, anatomy, and astrology books were all in the same section. Which was a decent way to organize a bookshelf if anypony asked you.

The faint sound of a door opening caught your attention and you flicked your ear up to try to hear what was going on. You could hear a faint conversation, although you really couldn't make out any of the words to it. Spike's slightly deeper voice remained relatively even while a lighter voice, which you presumed belonged to Twilight or an associate; was starting to grow increasingly... rushed? No, you would probably call it frantic. The door soon shut and the sound of Spikes footsteps slowly made their way towards you.

"She'll be a few minutes." He says, prompting you to turn around and give him a brief smile. "No problem. I've got nothing planned till later this afternoon anyway." You say with a smile before remembering what Twilight said last night. "You're studying old Ponish too?" Her voice rang in your head, suggesting she already had some old Ponish books in her possession.

"Now where would that be?" You think to yourself as you turn your search toward the O section. "Shesh. How'd you get that wound?" Spike asks as you scan the books in the section. The O section barely had enough books to call it a "section." Making it fairly easy to find the book you were looking for. "Old Ponish for old ruins." Was the title of the book, and with that, you proceeded carefully pull the book out with your teeth and nestled it between your right wing and your body.

"Timberwolves, to put it bluntly." You say with a sigh as you make your way back toward the center table. "Oh. You're that pony. Ya, Twilight told me all about last night. You're lucky she's been practicing more healing spells. From the way she described it, you might not have made it to Ponyville general." Spike says as he follows behind you. You nervously chuckle and place the book on the table before sitting down in a wooden chair. "I wasn't bleeding that bad." You say with a forced smile as you look down at your leg. Admittedly, it did look pretty bad last night. But you know for a fact you could have made it to the hospital. Right?

"Well still, it looks like it hurts a lot." Spike says as he grabs a chair and takes a seat next to you. "Only when I use it. But yea, I'm going to need to do something nice for Twilight for helping me. She's the studying type right?" You ask curiously earning a confused look from Spike. "Yea... Why?" He asks as confusion and curiosity plagues the young dragon's face. "Well, don't say anything. But if I find anything in my travels I'll definitely bring it to her to examine... Assuming she'd enjoy that." You say with a smile, earning one from the dragon.

"Yea, I think she'd enjoy that. Don't worry, I Pinkie promise I won't tell her." He says as he does a series of motions that left you absolutely dumbfounded. "Right... Well, what about you? I haven't seen too many dragons around this town. What's your story?" You ask as you examine the book. The book was a pretty simple blue hardback book, giving it the dull appearance of an old dictionary, the back of the book didn't have a summary of contents. But the spine of the book did tell you who wrote it. It read. "Published by the ministry of education." Good, so this is an academic book.

"Not much to say really. Twilight hatched me from an egg and raised me ever since. We use to live in Canterlot before we moved to Ponyville." Spike says with a shrug as you open the book to the table of contents, giving it a brief glance over. From what you could tell, it had everything from old Ponish sentence structure, vocabulary, chapters dedicated to interpreting the cryptic language and so on. Which brought a smile to your muzzle.

"Never would have taken you two as the Canterlot type. But then again, seeing as your here. I'm guessing your not." You say with a chuckle as you close the book and give the dragon your undivided attention. "Well, it's a long story. It all really starts with..." Spike starts but is quickly cut off by the sound of a wooden door creaking open. The two of you divert your attention to the side room door, where a purple unicorn mare was carefully peeking her head around the door, her horn was glowing with a purple aura. Showing that she was actively casting a spell of some sort.

"Ah, you're still here. Good. Sorry for keeping you waiting, I wasn't expecting you for another ten or so minutes." Twilight says as she makes her way into the room with a small potion bottle filled with a mysterious red liquid floated behind her. "Not a problem ma'am. I don't have to be anywhere, in particular, to be until late this afternoon." You say with a smile as she approaches the table. She briefly gives Spike a nod of acknowledgment before she takes a seat next to your right. From there she sat the potion bottle onto the table and returned her attention to you.

"I see you've wasted no time enjoying the library." She says with a chuckle as she looks at the book you picked out. "Why of course, although I didn't get to read much. But I did enjoy a lovely conversation with your assistant." You say with a smile as you gently tap on the wooden table with your right forehoof. Twilight's smile seems to widen a little as she leans to look around you. "Making new friends I see. Well, I hate to interrupt the meet and greet, but can I have you start organizing the back room? I need a few moments alone with our guest." She says in an almost motherly tone as the young dragon chuckles and slides from his chair.

"On it Twi. It's been nice meeting you Mister Sword." Spike says with a small bow. "Nice meeting you too Spike." You say with a nod before Spike made his way toward the side room door and made his way inside, shutting the door behind him. As soon as the door closed you give Twilight your full attention. "So, how's your day going ma'am?" You ask with a smile, causing Twilight to chuckle.

"Sky, you don't have to call me ma'am every time we talk. Just call me Twilight or Twi. Most of my other friends do, and to answer your question, I'm doing alright. I've been testing out a lot of spells as of late. How about yourself? Did my treatment help at all?" Twilight asks with a smile as you lean back in your chair. You alway's wondered what it was like to have magic, to cast spells and summon familiars at a will sounds amazing. That being said, you would never trade your wings for it.

"Alright. Twilight." You say hesitantly, allowing your brain to get used to saying the name before you continue. "Yea, I'm doing pretty well, your magic closed the wound right up. Though my leg still hurts like Tartarus when I try to put any weight on it." You say with a shrug, causing your smile to falter a little as you look down at your bandaged hind leg. "That's what I was worried about... and why I asked you to check in with me today. From what it sounds like, the spell I used last night didn't heal the nerve damage your leg suffered. But don't worry! A friend and I did some studying last night just in case... and we found an easy solution to that problem." She calmly says as she slides the small bottle over to you with her magic.

You carefully inspect the small bottle before looking back at her. "Well that's great, but... what is it?" You curiously ask as you carefully swish the red liquid in the small bottle. "Well, I was able to get the recipe to a health potion from a friend of mine... Guaranteed to heal any wound within moments. With the right amount of ingredients of course." She cheerfully says as she carefully swings her right forehoof in a salespony manner. "Wow... Did this take a lot of ingredients? I can pay you back if its..." You start to say, but Twilight cuts you off.

"Sky. Don't worry about it. This bottle's got no strings attached. But first, do you mind if we take a look at that wound? It looks like your wound may... have reopened." Twilight nervously asks as she points down to your blood stain on the bandage. "Yea... That might be a good idea. But hey, If this potion does what you say it does, we might be able to see its effects right in front of our eyes." You say with a nervous smile. Trying to look at the bright side of the situation as you put the potion bottle down and start trying to unfurl the bandage.

Twilight's eyes widened at your words as if in revelation before her horn lights up and she levitates a small box from a library shelf over to the table. From there she magically opens the small wooden box and pulls out a few sheets of paper, an ink quill and an ink bottle from it. "That's true, I don't think I have an in-depth description on the physical effects of a health potion. This will make excellent study material! With your permission of course." Twilight says starting out cheerful and enthusiastic but ending with a nervous chuckle as she scratches the back of her neck with her forehoof.

You, however, wince as you attempt to unravel the masterwork of a medical wrapping. You'd been in a couple of scrapes in your life, but this bandage was on there good. "Sure I'm fine being the guinea pig. But... can you help me get this off? It's on here pretty tight." You say meekly as you give up trying to take the bandage off altogether and carefully move your leg towards her for your request. You hated asking for help, but you knew better than anypony that magic tended to be better than hooves.

Twilight only sighs, although the smile never left her face. "Sure. Glad to see nurse Redheart's lessons were worth it." She says with a chuckle and without another word, Twilight's horn lights up a little brighter, casting a purple magic aura around your hind leg. With the utmost ease, she manages to tear a small part of the blood-stained bandage near the top of the wound and starts magically slicing her way down the material. You let out a small sigh as you feel your leg decompress a little, though fear grips your heart at what you might see underneath. Last night you had the morbid luxury of blood hiding the full extent of the wound. However, today you knew you weren't going to be so lucky.

Once the bandage was cut straight down the middle, Twilight carefully levitated it out of the way on the floor, allowing the two of you an unobscured view of your leg. To put it mildly, your leg was sickening to look at. There were three obvious teeth marks that had obvious signs of being yanked on in the form of torn flesh down toward your hoof. However, the torn flesh was held together by what seemed like small magical stitches, if that was the way to describe them. It was as though the torn flesh was fused together in some way, and the sight of it made you nauseous.

From there Twilight carefully begins to examine the wounded appendage with her right foreleg, taking her time to roll your hoof around and take in the full extent of your wound. Which, you are not ashamed to say, you looked away from. The sight of it made you nauseous if nothing more than, reminding you how close you came to becoming a Timberwolves meal last night. After a few moments of examination, she quickly dips her quill into the ink and begins to scrawl something in her notes.

Briefly, she looks up at you and makes a small noise of intrigue. Causing her quill to move faster on the page, as if she was taking notes on more than just the wound, but the "subjects." reactions as well. But, that was your best guess, seeing that you can't read what she's writing. "Would you like to remain anonymous?" She gently asks with a small smile. Which you only reply with a shrug. "I don't really care Twi... I just... I just want to get this over with... If its all the same with you." You reply nervously, attempting to make eye contact with Twilight while also averting your gaze from your wound.

"Of course. I just need to take a few more notes and then the potions all yours." Twilight says with a smile as her quill quickly dabs itself into the ink. Only to return to her notes with increased fervor. For a brief second, you were impressed that she could multitask so well. You still couldn't believe magic required any concentration at all, unicorns always made it look so effortless. But then again, they have been doing it all their lives. So maybe it's more of a practice thing. Still, you found a strange need to pick up a book about magic, if nothing more than to...

Your thoughts were interrupted by an intense pain radiating from your right hind leg, forcing a loud yelp to escape your muzzle. Your gaze instantly falls upon your wound, only to find Twilight's hood pressing down it before she gives you a nervous look. "Sorry... Just gagging how painful it was..." She apologizes with a nervous smile as she continues to write in her notes. "It's fine! Just... Give me a warning next time ok?" You say as with a pained sigh. You then turn your attention away from the wounded area.

"A bit squeamish?" Twilight asks as she continues her examination. "I just don't want to look at it." You reply nervously, only to earn a small chuckle. "I figured an adventurer like yourself wouldn't mind a few scratches." The librarian teases as her horn lights up and her magic aura surrounds the small potion bottle. "In all honesty, I can deal with blood. But once the blood's gone and all that's left is the... wound... itself. I just get unnerved ok?" You say as that strange nauseous feeling returns.

"Well, in that case. I'm ready when you are." Twilight says with a gentle smile as she levitates the potion bottle in front of your face. You hesitantly take the bottle of red liquid into your hooves and carefully biting down on the cork and opening the contents to fresh air. Once off you carefully set the cork on the table and proceed to sniff the bottle. It was an old habit of yours, and you never really knew why you did it.

But this "drink" wasn't going to get special treatment. As you carefully sniffed the bottle, you found the potion had a sweet, almost rosy scent to it. However, there was another scent in the mixture that gave you pause. "Garlic with... something gamey. Bitterroot?... No. What is that?" You think to yourself before looking up at Twilight, who was giving you a curious look. "Well?..." She prompted with a concerned look and a gentle; go on, hoof wave.

"Right, sorry." You say with a nervous chuckle before closing your eyes, pressing the bottle to your lips and lifting it like a flask, pouring its contents into your muzzle and down your throat without a second thought. To your surprise the potion tasted really sweet for some reason, you were honestly expecting it to taste bitter, if anything. "At least I can enjoy some medicine for once." You think to yourself as soon as you finish chugging the potion a soft mystical wind chime sound fills your ears, prompting you to open your eyes to find its source.

Upon opening them you find that a soft golden light was starting to form and spin around you. You quickly look to Twilight for reassurance, only to find her gaze rapidly shifting from you to her paper and back to you. The light passes by your vision once more, almost beckoning you to watch it as it slowly glows brighter. Like a ray of sunlight breaching the horizon at dawn. The light slowly circles you a couple more times before gently swirling down to your right hind leg.

From there the light gently covered the scarred tissue of the wound from sight. Like a magical bandage, only to began to produce a gentle warmth. Almost akin to a ray of sunlight gracing your fur, but more... lovingly. Within a few seconds after that, you could feel your torn flesh shift, although it didn't hurt like you thought it should. But that only made you feel more anxious. Shouldn't this hurt in some way?

Before you could question the feeling any further, you felt the gentle warmth slowly begin to fade and with it, the light slowly began to dim. Leaving a scar in its place. You sat there with your mouth agape for a few moments before you gently press your right forehoof against the scarred tissue. Only to learn there wasn't any pain anymore. "Sweet Celestia..." You gently swear to yourself as you continue to stare at what should have been a temporary bum leg.

This didn't last too long, however. "I've never seen anything like that! How did it feel?" Twilight eagerly askes, effectively breaking you from your thought. "It felt like warm sand. With my leg being the sand and the.... whatever that was as the sun. And I felt it... move." You say in a half daze at what you just saw. Could magic really be so godlike?... You'll have to get a couple books about magic to really grasp what in Tartarus just happened to you. "Move?" Twilight asked with a curious look on her face. "Yea... It felt like something was moving the wounded flesh back to its proper place but... I didn't feel any pain." You try to explain as a thousand more thoughts rush through your brain.

"Interesting." Twilight says as she quickly takes some notes. "And does it hurt anymore?" She continues, prompting you to slowly slide out of your chair and stand on all four legs. You take this moment to properly stretch and jump a couple of times before you slowly walk around the wooden table once. After successfully performing this minor task with no pain, you find a small smile to grace your muzzle. Deciding to truly put this potion through its paces, you speed up into a brisk trot and do another lap around the table.

Finally, moving to a full-on sprint. Earning a small chuckle from Twilight as you skid to a stop next to her. "I guess that's a no." She teases as she writes down some more notes. "No ma'am! It's as good as new." You say with a stupid smile across your face, earning a gentle smile from Twilight. "Well, I'm glad to see Zecora's brews never fail." She chuckles as she carefully corks her ink jar and leaves all her unused writing materials on the wooden table.

"Zecora? I don't recognize the name, but please tell them I owe them a drink at the bar. It's the absolute least I could do." You say with a smile, seemingly causing Twilight to gain a small look of horror on her face. "Oh, no no no. I wasn't supposed to tell you that." She says as she puts a hoof up against her muzzle. "Um... Why not?" You ask nervously, causing your smile to slowly fade from your face. "Why would someone you didn't know want their name hidden." You think to yourself, only to have your train of thought broken by Twilight.

"She's just... Reclusive, and a few ponies in town still don't really trust her." She says as she nervously scratches the back of her neck. You're going to have to pull out some minor interrogation tactics if you'll want any more information. "Did this pony do anything to warrant the distrust?" You ask, giving Twilight a hard inquisitive look that could almost feel like a father's disapproval. Which does the trick to an extent. "No, she'd never do anything to hurt anypony or anything like that. Ponies around here just don't understand herbalism like she does and they go on to call it witchcraft." Twilight frantically retorts, earning a small chuckle from you.

"A herbalist you say? Heh, yeah I can see how that profession can earn you a couple weird looks. Please, next time you see her tell her that if she needs some herbs or plants from far off lands not to hesitate to ask. I'm expecting to travel all over the place, and I wouldn't mind picking up the odd basket of plants for her. She'll just have to introduce herself to me over a cider first." You say with a smile, feeling determined to at least try and repay the favor to the mare.

"Yea, I'll pass the message along." She sighs and rubs her forehead with a foreleg before continuing. "In any case, I need to go refine these notes a little. Care to join me? Or do you have other plans you need to get to?" She asks with a friendly smile. "Depends on what time it is now." You reply with a smile of your own as Twilight leisurely walks over to a window and looks out. "It's about noon proper. Why?" She asks with a curious look.

"Yea, I wouldn't mind helping you refine your notes. As long as you can give me some pointers within understanding Old Ponish. I won't be able to stay for too long though. I'll probably need to get going around one or two, I really need to talk to Applejack about something before her family sits down to eat." You reply with a hearty chuckle smile as you idly glance down at the Old Ponish for old ruins book.

"Of course! I wouldn't want to keep you from your duties for too long. But before we get started, can I ask you a personal question?" Twilight asks with a friendly smile as she makes her way over toward you. "Sure, what do you need to know?" You ask, feeling a small amount of dread well up in your chest at the thought of a question pertaining to your family. But, you ignore the dread and take a seat at the wooden table once more.

Twilight leisurely takes a seat to your right and scoots a little closer to you before replying. "What was it like working as a caravan guard for so long?" You let out a small sigh of relief as Twilight spreads her note across her work area. "Getting an itch for wandering?" You tease, earning a small chuckle from the purple mare. "No, nothing like that. I'm just curious." She replies as she uncorks the ink jar once again with her magic. You lean back in your chair a little and ponder the question for a little while before replying.

"Well, I got lucky and was assigned to a personality friendly caravan." You reply with a small smile as you lean forward once more and open the book to the first page and begin to read. "You're assigned to a caravan? I thought ponies owned their own caravans." Twilight says inquisitively, causing a small chuckle to leave your muzzle.

"Most are, and only new caravan guards are really "assigned" to caravans. You see companies sometimes contract out or flat out buy independent caravans to serve more. Steam lined transportation. For example, the caravan company Hooves to Roads, contracted mercs and caravaneers alike to run wood and basic supplies down to Appleousa while the settlers were well... Settling the area. The caravaneers would pay a decent amount of bits to the company for the needed supplies, and the company would use that money to pay for more supplies and security for the caravan. Once the supplies make it to their destination, caravaneer's would tend to double the price and earn their own pay." You happily explain with a smile
as you reminisce on your first time in a caravanner's recruitment office.

You were nervous as all Taurus, even though Ditzy's father, Breeze Carts, practically guaranteed you a job in his trading company. The old grey pegasus with blue eyes lead you right up to a secretary and worked your name on the Cloudsdale employee's list. That secretary's name will forever escape you though, not because some otherworldly being was tired of Bsing names. Nah, it was because her name was just too generic. However, Twilight's voice pulled you back to reality.

"I'm surprised caravanners don't just hire their own guards and buy from local industries," Twilight remarks, causing you to chuckle. "Some ponies do, but you have to have a keen sense to where the coins flowing. The monthly paycheck of one inexperienced merc is about one hundred bits with free food and a place to sleep at night. After a couple months that paycheck rises to about two hundred and fifty bits. Hay, I've even heard some mercs charge nearly four hundred bits for their services, although they were heading down south near the badlands... and creatures down there are far scarier than a few Timberwolves here and there." You finish cautiously as Twilights quill stops moving and her jaw drops.

"Four hundred bits per guard!?! That's insane!" The purple unicorn shouts, causing you to give her a hollow chuckle. "Trust me, when you're bringing a caravan through dragon country, no sane pony would go through there for less than three hundred bits... A lot of the time caravans don't come back, and if they do... There always somepony missing from it... So pay is usually in advance." You continue solemnly as Twilights face changes from disgust to understanding.

"I see... Was your caravan anything like that?" Twilight gently asks as she rests her quill in its ink jar and gently places a forehoof on your shoulder. "Nah. The Quills and Crates trade company mostly operated across central and northern Equestria and was leagues better than the other trade companies. Quills and Crates absolutely refuses to send ponies on suicide missions like that... But that doesn't stop the odd greenhorn from deciding to travel into dragon country for a few extra gems and valuable ores." You reply with a careful nod as you gently tap the old Ponish book.

"Sounds like the company you worked for was a little hooves on." Twilight says as she orients herself towards you with a concerned look on her face. "Nah, the company I worked for gave caravans full autonomy. They told their caravan masters. "Go, be free! Just pay us thirty percent of your profits, so we can pay for your guards and the odd trade inside." And well, after I was assigned to Steelstocks's caravan with Starfire. Let's just say me and Star hit it off instantly and we declared Vaurear." You say with a small chuckle, earning an even more confused look from Twilight. "Vaurear?... Now, where have I heard that before?" Twilight asks curiously with a small tilt of her head.

"I'm surprised you've even heard about it. The Vaurear is an ancient pony tradition where two ponies swear to only fight along each other's side. The crown even protects this practice under the law, making it illegal for companies, military bands and even mercenary bands from separating those two ponies in any form of conflict." You explain before giving Twilight a smart-flank smirk. "Now it's my turn to ask a question." You continue, giving Twilight a devilish look. A look of surprise quickly crosses the unicorn's face before she replies.

"Why of course, it's only fair." She says gently and with a small smile. "Can you help me understand this?" You ask with a chuckle as you point your right hoof down at the Old Ponish book. Twilight facehoofs briefly before responding. "Right... Got sidetracked again. Here, let's start with the basic sentence structure." Twilight says as she opens to the first chapter of the book, officially starting your lessons on the old language.