To New Horizons

You walk the streets in relative silence as you keep vigilant to your surroundings. The sun was starting to set on the horizon and almost everypony was at home, save for the occasional merchant’s strolling the street after closing their stands in the market. You look up to the sky, witnessing the beautiful colors of orange and pink that span dusks sky.

The site was almost soothing on your nerves. Almost. The thought of being attacked by Timberwolves tonight made your heart nearly stop. Not to mention the apparent hostility between your guild and Applejacks friends. A tap on your shoulder shakes you from your inner thoughts. Causing you to look down at a very concerned looking Starfire.

“Hey, hang back a bit. We need to talk.” She whispers as she slows her pace a little, glaring at the three mares and filly in front of you. You take a glance over to the three mares as well, only to catch Rainbow Dash taking one-two, hers being a lot more suspicious. Once both your eyes meet, Rainbow Dash returned her gaze forward as she seemingly began debating Twilight.

You hang back a bit, eyeing the situation carefully in front of you. You’ve seen thousands of debates in your time, mostly political. Some turned into a shouting match, and others remained calm with both sides trying to come to a compromise. Even without being able to hear the conversation you can tell just by how tense they were, that this argument was one match away from becoming a powder room bomb.

Poor Applejack seemed completely done with keeping the conversation civil, allowing the two mares to hash it out on their own. In any case, it wasn’t really your concern. Right now the only pressing matter was whatever Starfire needed. Once you slow down and are now side by side with Starfire, you quickly match the speed with Applejack as not to lose or accidentally abandon her.

Eclipse notices the two of you slowing down and soon joins you. You give Starfire a confused look before speaking. “Whats up Star?” You ask failing to hide the concern in your voice. “Sky, that cyan pegasus up there knows who your father is.” She says, with concern in her voice. Those dreaded words making you feel as though your heart was sinking into your chest.

To think you moved all the way out here to Ponyville just to leave that stallion behind you. Only for his horrid reputation to be known here too. “It's true, she was practically begging Applejack to have nothing to do with us. She knows everything Sky.” Eclipse chimed in with his ears back against his head as he gives you an almost depressed look.

You take a deep breath before continuing. “Does she think… I’m anything like that monster?” You ask, as the horrid memories of the stallion you called a father in your youth come rushing back. You remember him introducing you to your “future career.” Showing you the ropes of how to operate an airship, introducing you to his “crew”, and more importantly. Introducing you to the most dreaded flag to all the eighteen known nations around Equis.

The pony skull and crossbones with a black background, more commonly known as the jolly roger. Him and his band of hired cutthroats would mostly raid around the Griffin highlands, a small colony created by the griffin nation of Silvercrest. The reason the town was settled there was because of a major trade network that connected just about every known nation.

Excluding the isolationist nation of Yakyakistan. From your knowledge your father never raided ships bearing the Equestrian flag. He always told stories about sinking Griffin skyships, but until he introduced you to his crew, you assumed the stories were just that. Stories. When your mother discovered what his real profession was, she left. Never to return, forcing your father to raise you in Cloudsdale. You never resented her for leaving, that was understandable. You only resented her for leaving without you, abandoning you to that monster.

He would leave for long periods of time for his “work” but always managed to accompany you to your flying tests during flight school. His name was known all across Equestria, if not for the fact that he was wanted in every surrounding nation for one thing or another. His reputation caused family’s of colt’s and filly’s to tell their children not to associate themselves with you and to be honest. That amount of loneliness stung.

But, one day. After a pretty bad scrap with some colts that bullied you for being “lawless scum.” a gray-coated, blond-maned pegasus sat down next to you. At first, you thought she was just going to kick you while you were down, but instead. She did the one thing that no other pony would. She picked you up and dusted you off.

She was different from the rest of them, ignoring the fact she was a little wall-eyed. It was almost as if she saw you for, you. With a smile, she gave you her hoof and introduced herself as Dizzy Do, or, what her “friends” called her. Derpy Hooves. That's all it took, a simple hoof shake for you two to become best friends, staying that way all the way through the Cloudsdale education system.

The two of you kept in touch through the years, and you eventually discovered she lived in ponyville as well, you’d have to get back in touch and…. Your thoughts are interrupted once more by a hoof shaking your shoulder. “Sky?.... You ok?” Eclipse asks as he gives you a somber look. “What?...... Ya ya, I’m fine sorry. I just sorta got lost in thought there for a second.” You say shaking your head for a second before taking a look at your surroundings.

You were just now reaching the edge of town, so you didn’t space for too long this time. You look back at Starfire who gives you a concerned look. “You’ve been doing that a lot lately.” She states as she lowers her head a little in concern. “Ya…. I’m sorry. I must be coming down with something.” You say before giving her a half smile, trying to put her at least a little at ease.

It seems to do the trick or, at least partially as it prompts her to continue. “Alright, in any case. Ponies around here know about your bloodline Sky, and unfortunately, they’re judging you for your fath….” She briefly pauses before correcting herself. “That monsters crimes.” She states as she looks up to you, still with concern evident in her eyes.

“Not much we can do but prove them wrong.” You chuckle half-heartedly. Wishing for that to at least be the case, but sometimes no matter how hard you try. You just can’t sway every ponies impression of you. Luckily it was rare for anyone to recognize you as Jax Swords son, but when one pony did it wouldn't be long before other ponies started to look at you suspiciously.

“If you say so.” Starfire murmurs with a roll of her eyes. For some reason, this catches your eye. “Not like there is anything else we can do, they’ve got good reason to at least give me a sideways glance. Even if they wanted us to leave, we have a life here, a job that makes ponies happy if only for an hour or so, friends that got us to where we are now, and I for one ain’t leaving that all behind because of ‘public opinion.” You say, adding a little mocking tone to the words “public opinion.”Starfire let out a frustrated sigh, before looking at the four ponies you were following. “Ya, I know. It just pisses me off.” She grunted as she hung her head a little lower to the ground. “Well, as long as it doesn't affect our business, and it doesn’t affect your guy’s lives. It really doesn’t bother me too bad.” You say with a half-hearted grin as you gently patted Starfires right shoulder.

The scent of apples fills your nostrils as Starfire looks up at you, still with her ears low against her head. You roll your eyes and ruffle her mane, causing her to let out a chuckle. “Now stop being all mushy, we’ve got work to do.” You say with a semi-forced chuckle, seemingly causing her to cheer up a little.

“Ya ya.” She says with a small smile spreading across her face as she gives you a good punch to your shoulder, causing you to stumble back a bit with a laugh. The terrain slowly transfers from the outskirts of Ponyville to the outskirts of Sweet Apple Acres. The sweet scent of apples fills your every breath as your group continued to follow Applejack and her friend’s up a dirt path.

After a few more steps of trotting, you notice a member of your group has been awfully quiet, you look over to your right and see Eclipse trotting alongside you. He was looking off to his right, staring off into the distance. His eyes seemed as though he was in some form of dull pain, his ears were also lowered against his head and he seemed to be thinking of something.

“Hey, Eclipse?” You say with concern in your voice. The sudden mention of his name causes him to jump a little off the ground. He gives you a quick startled look before taking a deep breath and composing himself. “You’ve seemed to be a bit stressed lately, something up?” You ask as you give your friend a concerned look.

“It's nothing.” Eclipse said as he looked away from you again. You give him a cocky smile that you know he can’t see, as you think of all the interesting ways you can easily coerce the info outta him. Assuming it wasn’t serious, he usually only got this way when he hit a dead end in his studies. Or felt a lead was a false one.

“Oh come on clipsy, you know you can…” You were cut off halfway through your sentence by Eclipse. “Sky, I really ain’t in the mood.” Eclipse frustratingly said as he stamped his hoof and gave you a glare that nearly froze you in your place. Something serious was up. “Hey…” You softly say as you walk a little closer to him, determined to at least try and comfort him from his mystery problem.

“Look, I don’t know what's up. But I’m here for ya if you need me, man.” You continue, giving Eclipse a gentle pat on the back with your right hoof. Eclipse gives you another piercing stare before sighing, his eyes soon slowly soften, as he averts his gaze from yours. “It’s going to be a long night, so we’ll talk later. Alright?” He stated with a defeated sigh. This caused your heart to sink, what’s gotten into everypony?

“Ya, whenever you're ready to talk about it.” You say, giving Eclipse a little space. He briefly looks at you, shame seemingly filling his eyes before he looks back down to the ground. “Thanks.” Is all you can barely hear him whisper as your group continues to walk. You briefly consider trying to make him feel better but end up deciding that he needs to sort through it on his own. At least for now.

For the moment, your group continues to walk down the dirt path to the Apples farmhouse. The faint argument from the four mares in front of you keeps you from finding conversation elsewhere. Perhaps a calm walk is all you need to sort things out yourself anyway. So, with that, you look across the orchard and attempt to clear your mind of worry.