To New Horizons

It doesn’t take long for you to get your armor on, your sword secured around your side, and you shield tightly secured on your back. Everything's set, but for some reason, you feel nervous. But why? They’re your friends. Maybe it’s having to teach a filly about the basics of adventuring? Or possibly making a bad impression on your new friends? “Foal steps Skyward, you’ve got this.” You whisper to yourself before you make sure your bandana is firmly secure around your neck and that your necklace is still there. Taking a deep breath, you finally make your way out into the guild hall.

As soon as you close the door behind you, you notice the room is silent. You look over at the map table and notice your guests are staring at you, almost in awe or concern. You leisurely make your way over to the table. Intending to break the awkward silence you decided to ask a question. “Did I…. miss something?” “NO! No” Twilight nervously chuckles before continuing.

“We’ve just been… waiting on you.” she continues before giving you an awkward smile. You take a seat with Eclipse on your right and Windwhirl on your left. “Riiiight…… in any case. Whirlwind! I will ask you a total of two questions and tell you six important things for your future training to be an adventurer. Assuming you want to continue through with this.” You say in both an attempt to keep your promise, and an attempt to break the awkwardness.

“I am!” She says with a fire in her eyes, reminds you a lot of your youth. But you haven’t promised anything yet. “Now, with the knowledge, we aren’t ready to take apprentices, do you still want me to teach you the general basics to adventuring?” You ask with as much sincerity in your voice as you can. You didn’t want to crush her, but then again you knew you weren’t experienced enough for an apprentice.

“I do.” She answers with confidence, a little more than what you would expect for a filly. “ Ok, now for my last question.” You say as you slide your sword out of its sheath and place it on the table in front of the young filly. Seeing this Starfire with confidence slides her crossbow across the table and it stops right next to your sword. The table was silently watching your teaching methods. It unnerved you. But you carried on.

Whirlwind looked at the weapons and then back to you inquisitively. “One day, if you feel you wish to truly be an adventurer and when I or another member of the guild are willing. What weapon would you wish to train with? The sword or the crossbow?” You ask as you study her intently. She looks to the weapons and then back at you. “I don’t wanna hurt anypony mister.” She says shyly. “Good, nor should you ever wish to. But being an adventurer is dangerous. If anything you’ll have to defend yourself and others, when the time’s right we’ll happily teach you.” You say sincerely as you gesture back to the weapons.

She looks to Applejack, which causes her to find her voice. “If you don’t want to Whirly we….” Applejacks cut off by Whirlwind. “NO! I want to do this!” Applejack nods to this and Whirlwind look's back to the two weapons. “I choose the sword.” She states hesitantly with newfound courage. “Alright, well. It is now time for your lesson on the six rules of adventuring. Eclipse may I have a parchment and a means to write?” You look to Eclipse as you ask, he nods and floats a piece of parchment out of his saddlebag and over to you with a feather and ink jar.

You proceed to slide those items over to Whirlwind and give her a smile. “I’ll make this brief and then you can run off and play with your friends. But I would like you to study what I am about to tell you. Ok?” You ask, causing her to give you a determined nod as she picks up the feather with her hoof.

“The six rules of adventuring, rule one: Never adventure or travel alone. Rule two: Your companions are your family, you will do anything for them as they would for you. Even if it costs you your life.” She gulps at that as you let her catch up in her notes. “Rule three: When preparing for a journey, bring thrice the supplies. Rule four: Eat well while you can.” You pause again to let her dab her feather into the ink and catch up. You look up and notice even Twilight's taking a few notes.
“Rule five: Always confirm your sources, make sure they are who they say they are.” You let her catch up again and she looks at you. “And the sixth?” she asks as she dabs her quill in ink.

“Its a poem, its called the adventurer's contract. Here it is. For if you find my bones wherever you roam, I request you return them to my faithful home, for in my journal you shall find, my every thought and adventure since the dawn of my time, bring it home to those I hold dear, so they may cherish and sing my song once more.” You watch as she finishes writing the poem and looks too you. You look at Twilight as she two finishes writing down something on a parchment and looks up to you, surprised you noticed her taking notes.

You look back down at Whirlwind with a smile. “You’re free to go, read over the rules of adventuring for the next few days and return if you still feel up for it.” She nods and gives you a smile back as she slowly slides off the chair. “Thank you mister Sky. You gave me a lot to think about. Come on girls, let's go.” She says prompting the CMC to start to follow behind.

“Not you Applebloom, you’re going to wait outside that door till we’re done in here. Alright?” Applejack states with a hint of sadness in her voice, making direct eye contact with Applebloom. Applebloom just nodded and after a few seconds, the CMC left the guild hall, shutting the door behind them. Silence filled the air as you looked over to your guildmates and back to your guests.

You sigh before making eye contact with each of your guilds guests. You decide a bit more of a blunt approach is what the situation needs. “Well, you…” You were interrupted by Twilight. “That poem was beautiful.” She commented, causing another silence to fill the air. “Why thank you. I wrote it myself.” You reply matter of factly. Another silence fills the air before Applejack replies. “You….. wrote that?” she pauses, staring at you awestruck.

You started feeling extremely uncomfortable being the center of attention and you looked over to Eclipse and Starfire for help as you reply. “Ya, it's sorta a code I go by.” Picking up on your discomfort Eclipse chimes in. “You know, it's great sitting here and not saying anything and all but…. You did call us here for something urgent….. Right?” He said that with a subtle bit of hostility in his voice. “What the hay happened while I was gone?” You think to yourself as you glance at everyone around the room.

Everyone was acting on edge, there was a blaring tension in the room and you had absolutely no idea why. “Ya AJ the rest of us would really like to know what's going on.” Rainbow Dash said with her teeth clenched as she briefly glanced over to you and then back at Applejack. That causes you to lose your smile. Something's up, and it ain’t the mission.

Applejack takes a deep breath before speaking. “ For the past few days…. Some Timberwolves have been tearing up trees in my orchard. Now, we have been able to chase them off before... But last night they started to get a little bit more….. Daring.” She explained, purposely avoiding eye contact with anypony at the end of her sentence.

“How so?” Eclipse asked as he took out his journal and began to take notes, prompting you and Starfire to do the same. Something still seemed off to you about how they were all acting, but you decide to drop it till you can get some alone time with your guild. “They… They’ve been making their way closer and closer to the house every night, forcing me and Big Mac to keep an eye on the house while our orchard slowly gets destroyed.” She said with shame in her voice as she looked down at the table.

“Why didn’t you tell us sooner!?!” Rainbow Dash yelled as she continued. “Were your friends! We could have taught those Timberwolves a lesson!” Rainbow Dash slammed the table with her hoof as she finished. “I-I know! I just…. I don’t know! I thought I could keep it a… in-house issue…” Applejack replied as if she was on the verge of tears. She soon continues. “But now it's gotten outta hoof.” with that she then tips her hat over her eyes in an attempt to hide her shame.

You couldn't tell if the shame came from asking for help, or her not being able to keep her family safe. Perhaps it was a bit of both. You’ve never seen her like this. You look to your friends who both look just as sympathetic. You all nod to each other before all three of you slide off your chairs and make your way over to Applejack and her friends. Taking your respective journals with you. You personally sliding it back into Eclipses satchel bag. He hated you doing that. And you loved it.

Rainbow Dash is eyeing you all as you make your way’s over, attempting to calm Applejack a little by gently rubbing her shoulder. Twilight was also keeping her eyes on you, almost curious about what you were doing. Eclipse and Starfire moved to your side as you approached Applejack. She barely notices you as you approach, the room was once more silent as if frozen in a singular moment.

Hesitantly you lift her hat out of her now tear-stained face to look her in the eyes as you speak. “We’ll help ya, and before you say anything, we ain’t taking rewards. Not from family.” You say with a reassuring smile, causing her to wipe some of the tears off her face. “F-family?” was all she could muster to say. You nod as Starfire chimes in. “That's right, and no matter what we’ve got your back.” Starfire ends by giving Applejack a light punch on the shoulder.

“And a threat to your family is a threat to ours!” Eclipse also joins in as he trots a little closer to the now mob of ponies around Applejack. Rainbow Dash gives you a quick glare before looking back at Applejack. “You know I’ll be here for you AJ. Count me in.” Rainbow dash sighs as all eyes make their way to Twilight. “What kind of friend would I be if I didn’t help a friend in need. I’m in.” Twilight says cheerfully as she hops off her chair and lands next to her friends.

A few more tears begin to roll down Applejack’s face as she looks around at her friends that now surround her. “Thank you. Thank all of y’all.” Applejack say’s as her tears now flow freely down her cheeks. She then slowly slides off her chair and hugs you. You stand there shocked for a second before you return the hug. “This must mean a lot to her.” You think to yourself as you gently pat her back, fully allowing her to cry into your neck.

“Shhh. It’s ok, you’ve got nothing to worry about. We’ll keep you and your family safe. I promise.” You say sincerely as you both pull away from the hug and you look each other in the eyes. She sniffles and recomposes herself before she speaks. “I’ll hold you to that. Now enough with the tears, we gotta make it back to the farm before it gets dark.” She says with a final wipe of her tears.

Rainbow Dash moves to Applejacks side and gently nudges her toward the door. “We best get going then.” Rainbow Dash says as everypony nods and starts to make their way out. Applejack, Twilight and Rainbow Dash walk in front of you in a small group. Though Rainbow Dash glares at you one last time before resting her right wing on Applejack in a hug. Your group follows behind with Starfire on your left and Eclipse on your right.

Once the doors to the guildhall open, Applebloom quickly trots in between both of your groups and follows closely to her sister. As you all leave Eclipse closes and locks the door behind you with his magic, then quickly catches back up to be by your side. You all walk down the stairs and out of the building onto the second-floor balcony. From there you take the outside stairs down to the street and begin your walk to Sweet Apple Acres.