To New Horizons

Time seemingly passes at a crawl as the two of you snuggle close to each other, silently watching over the Apple family orchard. You occasionally glance over to the farmhouse making sure nothing slipped passed you, but all you see is an exhausted red work stallion, standing guard on the porch. You watch him scan the horizon until he does a double take down the path toward town. This prompts you to nudge Eclipse and point over toward the farmhouse.

“Hey, I think he saw something.” You state as the two of you, now look over to the farmhouse. You quickly get to your hooves and fully extend your wings, preparing yourself for a fight. But after a few more moments, Big Mac waves. “Wait. What?” You think to yourself as two mares come into view between the trees. One of the mares was a white coated, purple maned unicorn, who walked almost with an elegance about her. Sorta giving you that “I belong in Canterlot” vibe.

The other mare was a yellow coated, pink maned pegasus. Her mane partially hung over her face, and you got the sense she was fairly timid. Since she kept her head a little lower to the ground than a normal pegasus. You couldn't really catch their eye color. But your sudden movement did catch Big Mac's attention. Only causing him to let out what looked like a laugh, and he motioned his hoof dismissively. Instructing you to go back to what you were doing.

This causes the two mares to look in your direction as they trot to the farmhouse. “False alarm.” You groan as you give Big Mac a winged salute back and return to Eclipses side. “You almost sound disappointed it's a clear night.” He yawns as he gives you an exhausted look. “If we don’t take out those wolves tonight, we’ll have to tomorrow.” Is all you reply before you return to surveying the horizon.

“I guess.” Eclipse yawns as gives Starfire a hard shove waking her up in a start. “Agh! What's wrong?” Starfire shouts as she frantically stands to her hooves, clutching her crossbow with a near death grip. “Your shift.” Is all Eclipse says before he collapses onto the ground and passes out. You could almost swear he fell asleep before his belly even touched the ground. But you had nothing to really back that claim up.

Starfire took a few deep breaths to calm herself before she looked up at you. “So, did I miss anything?” She asked as she grip on her crossbow loosened. “It's been pretty dull tonight, but the cavalry arrived.” You reply as you motioned your right hoof over to the farmhouse. Starfire raises her eyebrows at this and trots over to you to get a better look.

You glance over too, just to see what those two were doing. Big Mac was talking to the two mares and occasionally pointing over to your hill and the direction Aj and her friends went. So it’s safe to assume he’s bringing the two mares up to speed. “Huh, I wonder what they’re jobs are going to be,” Starfire said as she gave you a quizzical look.

“Well, logically he’s either telling them to split up between the two groups, or the poor stallion’s finally going to get some sleep.” You reply, as you leisurely return to scanning the horizon. “Um, Sky?” Starfire asks as she trots over to Eclipse and seemingly inspects him. “Ya?” You ask as you look over to her in acknowledgment. Seeing this, she gives you a sly grin before pointing down at Eclipse.

“Why does he have your feathers in his mane?” She asks as the grin across her face widens into a sly smile. You feel the blood rush to your cheeks, full well knowing what this perverted mare is implying. “He was cold, so I draped my wing over him.” You reply, intentionally leaving out the fact that it basically became a snuggle-fest.

“Oh really? That's all?” She continued to question causing you to feel your face grow even hotter. “Yes, yes it is.” You reply almost too quickly, causing Starfire to add a glare to her sly smile. “And here I thought he loved the flower stand mare.” She states as she slowly trots up to you. “Hey to be fair I still think he is courting her.” You rebuttal as you point your left hoof over to Eclipse.

“Sure you do, now I’m starting to see why you asked to take first watch with him.” Her sly smile continues as she presses her a hoof against your chest. “And your prevailing theory is madame detective?” You ask, worrying full well about the answer this perverted mare will give you. Perhaps it won’t be that bad.

“The two of you totally took that time you were exposed to be on watch and bucked in the orchard. Didn’t you?” She states, poking your chest for emphasis. At this, you feel your face burn hotter than Celestia’s sun and you hear the all too familiar pomf sound as your wings fully extend as if you were about to take flight.

“No! No why would we? Were just friends Star! and he was freezing so all I did was keep him warm, that's it!” You frantically explain, attempting to dissuade this mare from the local candy shop rumor mill. After a few moments of her happily enjoying your torment, she speaks. “Fine, I believe you.” She states as she turns around and smacks you in the face with her tail.

“But from the sight of those wings, it looks like you aren’t opposed of the idea.” She teased as she walked back over to Eclipses side and did a quick scan of the horizon. “Shut up!” Is all you can stammer in response as you force your wings back down to your side. “Looks like I lost five bits to the betting pot.” Is all Starfire could say as she started searching through Eclipses sachel bag for something.

“There was a betting pot about me?” You ask, though it was unsurprising, pony’s did like to meddle in other ponies business a bit too often. “Yep, I place five bits on you and Applejack being a thing.” She stated matter of factly as she continued to practically ransack Eclipses satchel bag.

Oh and did this town love to find reasons to ship two ponies together, it was in fact, your kind of town. “I’m more or less leaning in on the AJ’s a lesbian camp.” You reply earning a chuckle from Starfire. “Ooooh, that betting pool. Ya, looks like I’m gonna have to recoup my losses by betting in the Big Mac and Cheerilee betting pot.” Starfire replies, earning a stifled chuckle out of you.

“Well I guess we’ll see, also why are you digging through Eclipses bag?” You ask, giving Starfire a confused look as you relax a little and briefly scan the treeline. “Well if you must know, I’m looking to see if he brought matches, and it looks like…. he did!” She says as she pulls out a box of matches and held it up into the sky with her hoof.

“Fair enough.” You say, briefly acknowledging her before you go back to scanning the horizon, you give one last idle glance down to the farmhouse and see the pink-maned pegasus slowly making her way towards your hill with a picnic basket held in her teeth.

“Oooo, I think the Apple family’s sending us some snacks.” You state at the sight of the picnic basket. “Ah ya! I’m starving!” Starfire practically yelled in joy as she quickly trotted over to you. The two of you anxiously await the arrival of the timid looking yellow pegasus, though as she approaches you can easily tell she recognizes you from somewhere.

This causes your heart to sink a little, but you take her not calling you a monster and running off with the basket (hopefully) full of baked goods as a good sign. But you do finally notice that her eyes are blue. “Hello miss.” Is all you greet as she draws near to the two of you, though you do glance over to Eclipse just to make sure he hasn't wandered off in his sleep.

“Oh, um…. Hello.” The pegasus mare gave a muffled reply, but still, a clear enough one to confirm your suspicions, she was the shy type. Sometimes your bartending powers scare even you. “What brings you up to this end of the orchard?” Starfire asks, seemingly recognizing the introvert in the theoretical room and restraining herself from getting inside the mare’s personal space.

The pegasus mare carefully sets the basket down on the ground before replying, “Um, Big Mac figured you…. three” She briefly pauses as she does a quick count of everypony on the hill. “That you three… probably are getting cold and...hungry.” The timid mare barely says just above a whisper as she sheepishly takes a step away from the basket.

“Well thank you kindly, um I didn’t catch your name miss.” You reply politely as Starfire doesn't hesitate to take the baskets handle in her teeth and nearly run off in excitement towards the sleeping Eclipse. The poor mare stutters for a bit before she replies just above a whisper, “Fluttershy.”

“Fluttershy? Well Fluttershy, my names Skyward.” She seems to somehow hide her muzzle in her mane as you state your name, but you continue anyway. “The mare that took the picnic basket is Starfire, and the poor sleeping unicorn over there’s named Eclipse. It's a pleasure to meet you.” You say with a genuine smile as you slowly hold out your left hoof, hoping that if you don’t make any sudden moves, she won’t flinch.

Unfortunately, she flinches back further into her mane and lets out a quiet yelp. This causes you to let out a defeated sigh before you carefully lower your ears, head, and hoof. “Ya, I get that a lot... Have a good night miss Fluttershy, and thank you for the snacks.” Is all you reply before you take your leave and slowly trot back over to your friends.

Starfire gives you an almost pitying stare and frown before the sound of rapid trotting catches your attention, you glance back to see the poor mare running like her life depended on it down the hill and back toward the farmhouse. As you sit down near your friends, you realize Starfire is giving the poor pegasus mare her signature death glare as she runs away.

“Down girl. Mind unpacking while I awake sleeping beauty?” You ask as you attempt to defuse the situation by intentionally throwing out jab material. “Oh, so you do think he’s beautiful.” She teases as her gaze turns to you and her glare melts back into her cocky grin. Hook, line, and sinker. The two of you chuckle to yourselves before she starts unpacking the basket.

You take this time to gently shake Eclipse awake. “Hey, Eclipse wake up, Big Mac sent up some food and junk.” You say as Eclipse only groans in response and rolls over onto his side. “Come on! Wake up!” You continue to shake him, but he remains asleep. You look over to Starfire and give her a confused hoof motion, but she only shrugs in response as she lays out a blanket on the ground and begins to pull out some food.

Well, there's food on the line now. Drastic action must be taken and an old Cloudsdale trick should do this situation kindly. With a few flaps of your wings, you begin to gently hover over your sleeping victim as you gently scoop him up in your forelegs. Making sure he’s safely secured, you can almost hear Starfire’s stifled giggles as you lift the poor unicorn just a half inch off the ground.

You check and double check that the ground is in fact, just dirt with no rocks in it. “Well, I gave you a chance to do this the easy way.” You whisper in his ear, causing it to twitch before you proceed to let go of him, and the moment he began to descend, you could hear him sharply gasp for air as he was suddenly jolted awake.

His hooves hitting the ground not even a moment later as he collapsed on to his belly, flailing around like a fish out of water. This causes you and Starfire to laugh hysterically, prompting Eclipse to stop flailing as his mind slowly catches up to the situation. “Good morning princess, finally ready to eat?” You ask as you hover directly over him with a grin plastered across your face.

His only response to you is a death glare before his horn glowed in that all too familiar dark purple aura, the same aura that seemingly surrounded you and tinted your vision to the same color. This blocked out most of the scenery around you except for the now dark purple unicorn sitting in front of you. Obviously pissed off.

“I’m dead.” Is all you think to yourself before you are magically floated over to Eclipse to look him eye to eye. This causes you to completely give up on keeping yourself aloft, you know from experience that trying to escape it is meaningless, so you just opt to not even struggle in the first place.

“Glad to see your awake.” You say with a nervous smile, trying to hide your unease in your voice as you glance over to Starfire. Who is in fact, just eating a hay sandwich with a smile plastered across her face. You return your gaze back to Eclipse, who seems to have lightened up a little, and had an ever-growing devious grin spread across his face. This is never a good sign.

He slowly levitates you up a couple meters off the ground and slowly rotates you until the ground has been replaced with Luna’s sky and vice versa. You give him one last uneasy grin, and before you can open your mouth to try to smooth talk your way out of the situation, your vision returns to normal and gravity wants to reintroduce you to the cold unforgiving ground.

You briefly flail your legs about, attempting to shift your weight to reorient yourself, but you fail miserably, and you land flat on your back, forcing a particularly hard shield handle to introduce itself with your spine. You let out a gasp in both surprise and fear as you quickly arch your back to minimize the damage.

Luckily for you, your armor absorbs most of the impact, unfortunately, your shoulders and hip take the full force of the fall as well. Causing a fairly painful stinging sensation as you lay there on your back. You groan as your body aches from the impact with your shield handle. “Weren’t shields expose to protect me? Not murder my everything.” You think to yourself as you stare up into Luna’s night sky.

After a few minutes, two concerned ponies faces slowly move into your view. “Sky….. Are you ok?” Eclipse asked as his horn lights up with a dark purple aura and your vision becomes tinted the same. “You could have at least made sure I didn’t fall on my shield’s handle.” You reply, trying to hide the minor pain your back was now in.

Your friend's eyes grow wide at this revelation as you are floated back into the air and rotated so that the ground and sky are back to their normal places. As soon as your hooves touch the ground, Eclipses horn stops glowing and your vision returns to normal as he quickly wraps his forehooves around you and pulls you into a tight embrace, burying his head into your neck as he did so.

“I’m so so sorry! I completely forgot about your shield!” He says, practically choking you with his death grip. “Eclipse. It's fine alright? Armour took the brunt of it.” You reply as you gently wrap your right foreleg around him. You could feel your cheeks heat up a little at how close the two of you were.

If he wasn't strangling you, you’d happily stay like this for a while. But the need for air in your lungs took some priority, that and the rumbling in your stomach. “Now can we please get some food? I’m starving.” You say as you try to gently push the soft white unicorn away from you, to no real avail.

You look over to Starfire for a little help, only to notice her ears are flat across her head and a devilish grin was slowly spreading across her face. She slowly lifts her left foreleg and points at you, before pointing it at Eclipse. She then lifts it to the top of her head and makes a motion as if she was stroking a horn.

You feel your face turn bright red as you use all your willpower to keep your wings from leaving your side, causing Starfire to fall to the ground laughing uncontrollably. This prompts Eclipse to let go of you and look back toward Starfire with a confused look. You take this opportunity to take a step back to compose yourself. Hopefully out of hugging range from the unicorn before he returns he gaze back to you.

“What's up with her?” He asks as he points his left hoof over to Starfire. “It's Star.” You state plainly, thinking of all the ways you could get revenge, perhaps you can short-sheet her bed at the inn. Maybe you could slip some cooked beef into her hayburger. So many possibilities. Seemingly satisfied with your answer, Eclipse cautiously makes his way over to the picnic basket and peers inside to its contents.

You shoot Starfire a glare before you sit down next to the picnic blanket Star set out, your stomach happily awaiting your turn to enjoy the contents of the basket. “Dear Celestia they packed pie in here!” Eclipse said enthusiastically as his horn lit up with a dark purple aura and an apple pie floated out of the basket with three plates and some silverware.

“Hay ya! I want a slice!” You say as you grab one of the plates out of the air with your teeth and set it down onto the blanket. Eclipse then proceeds to sit down as he magically sets the pie down in the center of the picnic blanket. Starfire finally managed to recompose herself as she returned to her hay sandwich, giving you a devious look as she sat down.

The three of you sat in a sort of triangle, with you having your back to the farmhouse and them having their backs toward the orchard. You briefly scanned the terrain behind your companions, just to make sure nothing was sneaking up behind them. In the meantime, Eclipse pulled his dagger out of its sheath and started cutting the pie into eight semi-equal slices.