//------------------------------// // Peregrination // Story: Risky Business // by Compass The Pegasus //------------------------------// The pair sat in a grassy meadow right off the side of the road. The moon was so bright in the night sky that it almost hurt to look at it. Soren lay casually on a bed of moss while River sat up next to a large, flat rock. “So… you know where we’re headed right?” Soren asked, looking over to River, who had just pulled out a map from her bag and laid it flat on the surface of the rock. “Yeah, yeah,” she said, tracing her hoof on the map upwards from Oak Ridge. “The forbidden jungle is the first place we're headed, right? That’s… north.” “You don’t seem very sure about that,” he said through a yawn. “We’ve been walking for almost three hours now. Shouldn’t we be sure of what direction we’re going in?” “Hush, don’t worry about it. I can handle it! Aha! There it is.” River pointed at the map. “See? The forbidden jungle is northeast of here.” “Wait, you said it was north, not northeast.” “North, northeast, same thing. We’re going in the right direction aren’t we?” “Uh, no? North and northeast are totally different directions. And it gets worse the farther you go. Did you actually not know where it was before we left?” “Shush.” “Uh huh. Whatever, okay then, which way is northeast?” Soren asked. River paused and let her mouth hang open. “Great,” he snorted. “Hey! I know what I’m doing. We left Oak Ridge by taking the north exit. We should be going in the right direction somewhat.” Soren sighed, then yawned once again. “Look, I’m too tired to argue right now. How about we make camp here, and then we can use the sun to navigate in the morning?” “Well, okay, I guess that works,” River said as she packed away the map and made her way to a nice, soft, mossy spot right next to a large oak tree. River didn’t realize how tired she had actually been until she lay down. Her eyelids felt heavier almost immediately, and a wave of fatigue rolled over her body. The last thing she remembered before drifting off into a dreamless sleep was a familiar voice carried on the wind. “River…” The whistle of the steam locomotive screamed into the morning sky. A cloud of thick, oily smoke bellowed out of the engine’s smokestack. The bassy chugging of the pistons was nearly deafening. The sun sat comfortably above the treeline as the train hustled down the tracks. In the first class cabin sat the six elements of harmony, two of which were fast asleep, along with Spike. Fluttershy sat near the front of the cabin, looking out the window at the flocks of birds who had only just awoken to forage for their food. Rarity held two knitting needles in her magic, and worked on the foundation for a new scarf. Pinkie Pie stuffed her face from a cart of confectionaries next to Applejack and, across from her, a snoring Rainbow Dash. Twilight Sparkle stared out the window nearest her, pointing her own Magic Meter out in hopes she would pick up a signal on the way. With another eight hours to go, she patiently sipped on a cup of tea, waiting for the moment when the red light would change. “Hey, wake up. The time for beauty sleep is over, we gotta get moving,” River remarked, shaking Soren until he jerked awake. He squinted as the bright morning light pierced his eyes. River shook her head disapprovingly. “Dear Luna, you sleep like a brick. I’ve been trying to wake you for the past five minutes. You’re almost as bad as Breezie when she’s had too much.” Soren blinked repeatedly at her after rubbing his eyes with his hooves, and groaned as he sat up onto his haunches. “Ugh, sorry about that. I guess all that walking and dancing yesterday really put me out.” He looked over to River, but she had already trotted back to the flat rock. “Yeah it’s okay,” she said, “I’m just teasing you. Come on, I bet you’re hungry.” She reached into one of her saddlebags and removed two large, ruby-red apples. Soren stood up, immediately wincing as he felt the soreness in his legs. “Ow,” he said flatly, repeating it with each step he took towards River, to her amusement. “Ow, ow, ow…” “Sore?” she asked rhetorically. “Just a bit,” he replied, finally stepping up to the stone. She pushed one of the apples over to him and laughed. Soren picked up the apple and bit into it. There was an explosion of flavor in his mouth; this was the tastiest apple he had ever had in his life. “Mmm. That’s great! Though the thought of even more walking after this just makes me want to puke…” “Don’t worry. I thought this would happen, so I packed something to help with the soreness.” “No more soreness for the rest of the trip? I’ll take it,” he said, taking another bite out of his apple. “Ah, ah, ah, it’s not that easy,” she said, biting into her own apple. “We’ve only got enough for three or four days. After that, you'll just have to soldier through it. Hopefully, your body will be used to all the walking by then and you won’t need it anymore.” “Well, alright. Better than nothing, right?” he shrugged. “Well, what is it?” River reached into her bag again and produced a long, thin vial of an amber fluid. The label read ‘Muscle Up!’ beneath a picture of a flexing stallion, who sported a smug smile and the sharpest jawline Soren had ever seen on a living creature. He looked over to River once more and raised his eyebrow. “You’re sure this is safe?” “Oh, yeah! That stuff is great. I’ve used it before, and it works like a charm. Plus, it’s cherry flavored!” she assured him, gesturing for him to drink with her hoof. He sniffed the open bottle, and, sure enough, it smelled like cherries. ‘Of course the medicine here would be cherry flavored too,’ he thought to himself. Soren hesitated, but mustered up the courage to pour it into his mouth. As the liquid traveled down his gullet, the effect was almost immediate. His entire body felt warm for about five seconds before the feeling vanished. It did, in fact, taste like cough syrup. “Woah,” he exclaimed, flexing his legs and shifting his weight around. Not the slightest trace of soreness remained on his body. “You weren’t kidding. This stuff is great!” “Told ya,” she replied, smiling at him, which he returned. “Well, come on. We should get moving,” she said, craning her head up to look at the sky. The sun peered over the treeline, partially obscured by the slope of a mountain in the distance. “Look, the sun’s rising from over there, so that’s east.” She pointed off into the distance. “So, if we just turn a little bit to the left we should be heading in the right direction, right?” “I… Wait, aren’t you supposed to be an expert on this? Don’t you hike a lot?” River blushed. “Well, I’ve never hiked out farther than an hour from home, max… So every step I take now is the furthest I’ve ever been from home by myself. I never really needed to know navigation… at least not much more than knowing that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.” She rubbed her neck. ”In hindsight, I should’ve learned anyway…” “Alright, whatever. I’m more blind here than you are, so I’ll trust you. I just hope this isn’t the blind leading the blind.” he mused. “Ha ha, very funny,” she replied flatly. “Alright, let's go.” “Wait a second, how far is this place from here anyway?” Soren asked, tossing the ‘Muscle Up!’ potion into his own saddlebag. “Uh, well it’s a bit of a journey for sure.” She paused, looking back at the map. “If I had to guess, it’ll probably be four days by hoof at a decent pace,” she said, receiving a nod in response. The pair finished packing up whatever they had left, and set off once again, heading slightly left of the rising sun. The two pegasi walked on throughout the day, passing through the mountainous region as the sun climbed higher in the sky. Once they had gotten over a precariously steep rock face, River found herself in total awe at the meadow before her. A blue ribbon of river meandered through the meadow, bubbling and burbling, shallow and clear enough that the smooth stones beneath glittered in the sunlight, and running as far as could be seen. The surrounding mountains provided shelter from strong winds, allowing only the most gentle of breezes to flow and kiss the two pegasi, cooling them in the late, summer air. Even the grass here was different from the grass back home. Flowing in the breeze like water, it was a beautiful and rich shade of green, and tall enough to touch their shoulders. Appearing out of a dense patch, a family of swifts flew a figure-eight around an immense tree, before taking to the air. As she followed their movements, she gradually shifted her focus up into the sky. It was a magnificent and noble shade of blue, seeming to stretch across an infinitely long horizon, and was peppered with massive, fluffy clouds, which sat high above the ground. Almost impossibly so. She couldn’t imagine flying high enough to touch them. Her breath was caught in her chest; tears formed in her eyes. She had never seen anything like this. It looked like it was ripped straight out of some sort of storybook. “Wow, this place is so beautiful!” River exclaimed, stepping up to the edge of the peak. She peered over the edge to find that they weren’t too far from the gentle slopes below. A few minutes of making their way down, and they wouldn’t have to climb anything else for a while. “Yeah, it is. Wow,” Soren added, also looking out over the meadow. He turned his attention back to River, who was basically radiating happiness. He couldn’t help but smile in turn. “Hey, how about we stop for some lunch somewhere down there? We can take it easy for a bit and take in the sights.” River’s attention snapped over to him. Her eyes opened as wide as he had ever seen them go, and her smile reached ear to ear. “Really!? Yes! Yes!” she cheered, hopping up and down in place. “Hah, okay, okay. Calm down!” Soren laughed, and then pointed into the distance. “There’s some nice trees down there by that stream. We can sit in their shade and relax.” “Okay!” River hummed happily as she splashed in the shallow stream of water. It felt nice and cool on her coat. She felt like a little filly again, with the entire world in front of her. The air here felt fresher, somehow. Even though she spent plenty of time in the wilderness by herself, even the thought of being near home was suffocating. Here she could breathe deeply and freely. Free… Free was how she felt, here. She spread her wings out for the first time in a long time, and it was a sight to behold. Soren looked on from where he sat, a few meters away, and noticed that her seafoam-green wings were woven with a few brilliant, golden feathers. River slowly extended them out as far as they would go, and brought them up and down in a flapping motion. The grass bent and scattered away from her in the sudden wind as she lifted herself into the air, flapping her wings, and twirled in a small circle. Her laughter from up there was wild, honest, and contagious. As he watched her fly, Soren imagined a great bird set free from a tight cage. River felt her heart beat harder and louder as she soared higher into the sky. The wind swept through her mane and around her wings. It seemed this moment could last forever. Suddenly her attention shifted towards the sky, at a massive cloud floating nearly a kilometer high. Now with renewed determination, she flapped her wings hard and took off vertically toward the cloud. Even after passing the height clouds would normally be, the cloud didn’t look any closer, though Soren on the ground was but a small speck. “Huh? Who put this cloud up so high? I can’t even get close!” she said out loud to herself while slowing mid-air and hovering in place. She looked down at Soren and then back up to the cloud and decided that it wasn’t worth it to burn this much energy right now. She folded her wings to her side and let herself drop headfirst toward the ground, and once she was roughly sixty meters away from the ground, she whipped out her wings again as air brakes and transitioned to a blazing horizontal pace just above the grass, before slowing to a gentle glide and touching down over where Soren sat. “Woah… That was crazy!” he exclaimed. “I’ve never seen you fly before! That was amazing!” “Heh, thanks, yeah I don’t really fly all that often these days. Never really had much of a reason to fly around Oak Ridge,” she replied. “And look at that!” Soren pointed at River’s wings, still half-extended. “I never noticed your wings had golden feathers! I mean like… They’re beautiful!” River collapsed her wings abruptly and looked away, blushing. “You don’t have to say that…” she mumbled. “Well, why not?” he asked genuinely. “Seriously, those are some really pretty wings. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you move them until just now. Why do you keep them folded away?” “Thank you, Soren. And… well, I don’t really know to be honest.” she answered, “I guess I just felt stuck back home, and never had any reason to get off the ground.” Soren scratched his head. “Well, you’re not home anymore. There’s nothing here keeping you to the ground, other than me I guess.” “What? You’re not keeping me down. Why would yo-” “I meant literally, I can’t fly,” he interjected. “I can’t even really extend my wings.” He attempted to move the appendages on his back as a demonstration. His wings shook as they started to part from his body, but then snapped back into place at his sides. He panted from the exertion, and shuddered from the unfamiliar sensations, so he opted to lay down in the grass. “At this point, I don’t know if it’s worth trying to fly. It would’ve been really cool, though.” “Nonsense! Any pegasi can fly! You’re just… a late bloomer?” she offered, smiling awkwardly. “I’m not even a pegasus though, remember?” “Sure you are. And I taught you how to walk, didn’t I? I think I can teach you how to fly!” she exclaimed, stomping her hooves in excitement. “Come on, lemme try to teach you. Please?” she pleaded. Soren exhaled out his nose and chuckled. “Fine, but good luck. I can’t even open my w-INGS” he squealed as River grabbed his left wing with a hoof and opened it manually. “Hey!” “You can’t fly with your wings closed, silly,” she teased. “Fine, just watch it! Those are mint condition, you know? Never used?” he shot back, trying to wrestle himself away from her, unsuccessfully. “Come on, stop being such a foal. Look, can you feel where I’m touching?” she asked while prodding the muscle on the base of his wing. He nodded back. “Yeah.” “That’s called your pectoralis muscle, or pec. That’s what lets you move your wings down.” She then moved her hoof to the underside of the base of his wing and poked another muscle. “This is your supracoracoideus, or supra for short. It’s what lets you raise your wings up. Making sense so far?” she asked. “Uh, yeah I think so.” “Great! Now, moving up your wing… Obviously you’ve got a bicep and a tricep. You extend and retract your wings with them. You also have some radial mobility.” She brought his wing to a fully-extended position, and pointed out the largest feathers. “Now, see these longer and wider feathers that run from the tip of your wing to about halfway to your body? These are your primaries. They’re where most of your power will be generated. Take really good care of these, because they don’t grow back without extensive magical help,” she warned, wagging her hoof at him. “Then from the end of your primaries and up to the crook of your wing are your secondaries. These help you build lift. They also help you turn and control your direction. Are you getting this, Soren?” River moving his wings felt very strange. Muscles that he had never had before were being used, and he wasn’t sure if he liked or disliked the feeling. It almost felt natural. “Uh, yeah. Primary power, take care; secondary lift and control,” he rattled off quickly. “Good!” River smiled. “Okay, next we’ve got your tertiary feathers that run up and over the ‘top’ of your wing. They’re short, as you can see, and they’re mostly there to help reduce drag and offer better control as well. Then, you’ve got your coverts, which just streamline your feathers and insulate you in the cold. Finally you’ve got your alulas and scapulars, but you don’t need to worry about those right now. Make sense?” “Yes?” he replied, raising an eyebrow. “Well, I appreciate the anatomy lesson, but how is that going to teach me to actually fly?” “Well, like my dad used to say, ‘Success begins with mastery of fundamentals,’” she replied sternly. “My dad taught me everything about flight way before he let me start my actual flight training. I’m skipping a ton of stuff for the sake of time, but he’s the reason I became such a good flier. He- He…” Tears started forming in River’s eyes, but she did her best to blink them away. Soren noticed her look away and let his tense shoulders drop. “He- uh… It sounds like he was a great dad,” he said, quietly. “The best.” River sniffled. “I miss him. I miss him so much.” Soren didn’t quite know how to respond, so he just kept quiet. After a few moments, River wiped away her tears and perked up again. “Anyway, sorry about that. Let’s get back to your flying lesson. Now come on, now that you’ve felt each individual muscle, and you know how they move, try flapping your wings up and down. Slowly.” “Okay,” he responded, taking a big step back and away from River. He furrowed his brow and tensed his back, trying to get a feel of his wings. After a moment of effort, his left wing twitched. And then his right wing. Beads of sweat formed on his brow as he screwed up his face from the exertion. Very gradually, his wings began to extend outward. Any trace of River’s sadness was gone, replaced with a bouncy excitement.“Yes! Yes! You’re doing it, good job!” she cheered, as both of Soren’s wings reached full extension. The sun beat onto his navy blue wings. He could feel each individual feather as they all took in the heat of the sun. A feeling of warmth ran down his back and even through his legs. “I- I did it!” he laughed, looking back at his own wings. He then pulled his wings closed and extended them again, but more quickly. “Do you see that, River? I’m doing it!” “I see that! Great job Soren!” River exclaimed, hopping up and down in place. “Now try moving your wings up and down like this.” She demonstrated the motion with her own wings. Soren looked to his right wing and concentrated hard. His wing shook, but slowly rose higher into the air until it was vertical. After that, he relaxed, letting the wing fall down naturally until its primaries brushed the grass below. “Yes! Yes! You did it. I’m so proud of you!” River cheered once more. She rushed forward and wrapped her hooves around his neck. Soren blinked, but then wrapped his own hoof around and hugged her back. After a moment they let each other go and stepped back. “Well, do you want to try and get yourself up in the air?” she asked. Soren cleared his throat. “Uhh... I’d love to, but I think that’s all I can do for now. I guess it’ll be a while before I can actually get off the ground.” “Oh.” She tried not to look too disappointed. “Yeah, right. What was I thinking? Foalsteps right? Take it one step at a time, just like with walking.” She raised her right hoof in the air. “I promise that I will get you flying someday, though.” “Thanks.” The pair rested for a while in the meadow.. After their dinner of cheese, crackers, and apples, they continued through the valley until Celestia’s sun fell below the horizon, then set up camp for the night. Soren gathered wood while River constructed the fire. It took a few tries to light the tinder, but eventually it sparked and began smoking. Shielding it with a hoof, she blew into it to keep the embers glowing as she added smaller twigs on top for kindling. The fire slowly grew until it could sustain itself with its own draft. Soren returned with some larger logs and, with River’s help, neatly stacked them over the kindling to form a proper campfire. After that they both lay near the fire, enjoying the warmth it provided as well as the gentle breeze that rolled in to cool them down. There were chirping crickets in the grass; crackles and pops of the burning wood; splashes from a nearby pond; the guttural croaks of frogs. Thirty paces to their left was a field swarmed by fireflies - so many of them that instead of an occasional yellow-green blink, they appeared as a faintly glowing cloud. The two pegasi oohed and ahhed, as they watched the lightshow, but eventually grew tired - it had been a long day. Soren lay lazily on his back over a fallen log, looking up into the cloudless night sky. Thousands upon thousands of stars were visible from here, and a cloudy streak of light was painted across the entire expanse, from horizon to horizon, twinkling with the light of countless more stars. “I didn’t notice last night, but the night sky is so different here,” he said. River looked at him from across the fire. “What do you mean?” “Well, back home there was a lot of light pollution. On a clear night you’d see maybe twenty, thirty stars. If you went an hour or so out of the city, you could see some more, but this is on a different level altogether,” he mused. “It’s like I’m looking at a picture from a textbook or something.” “Wait,” River interjected, shocked. “You’re saying you’ve never seen the night sky like this before?” “Never,” he said. “Well, not in person, I suppose. I’ve seen pictures and movies, but the real thing definitely beats that by a longshot.” River frowned.“Well, I won’t lie. That’s really sad to hear. Everypony should be able to experience the wonders of life. The night sky being one of them, thank Luna.” “I guess so. What other wonders have you experienced?” Soren asked, genuinely, and pushed himself up into a more attentive position. River rubbed her neck and chuckled nervously. “Well, the night sky… that meadow we stopped in earlier… sunset from the top of Mount Wicker is a good one. Oh, and the view from Cloudsdale! I went to Cloudsdale a few times with my dad when I was a filly. He had some work to do up there every once in a while, so I’d get to skip school and tag along. We’d usually go at least once a month or once every other month, and when we’d get there there was this amazing ice cream stand on the corner of Wonderbolt Plaza. We always got some from there, every time we’d visit. I’d get chocolate mint swirl and he would get butterscotch with caramel syrup on top. Those are some of my best memories with him. It was… great, while it lasted.” River’s voice cracked noticeably as she finished. “What happened? Do you need to talk about it?” Soren asked. “I don’t know… It’s a long story. I don’t know if I should dump this all on you,” River replied, shrugging her shoulders. Soren shifted himself to the opposite side of the fire where she sat and plopped down next to her. “It’s alright,” he assured her. “I’m here for you.” Their gazes met and River smiled at him. She took a deep, calming breath, and looked down into the fire. “Okay, so, my dad was a soldier. He would travel all over the world helping out creatures in need, when we were foals, but one night he received a letter. I remember it well.” River raised her hooves and gestured in front of her. “It was me, Breezie, mom and dad all at the table having dinner. We had all just come back from the carnival that was in town that week. It was a perfect day, right up until we heard a knock on the door. The letter was delivered by royal courier rather than by a normal mailpony, which was very odd. Dad was retired at this point, or in reserves or something. He shouldn’t have gotten called back to work. I remember his face going pale as he read it. He went into his room without saying a word. I found out later that dad had been conscripted for some war on the other side of the world.” She buried her head in her hooves. Soren offered a supportive hoof onto River’s shoulder. “He had to go,” she continued. “I was angry. I was really angry. I didn’t even let him see me before he left. I locked myself in my room and I wouldn’t hear what he was trying to tell me. Well, he left. He left and he never came home.” Saddened, Soren shook his head as she finished. “Wow… River. I’m so sorry, that’s horrible. I’m really sorry to hear that.” “No, I’m sorry. It was too much…” She sniffled, reaching up to wipe a tear that had started rolling down her cheek. “No, it’s fine,” he reassured her. “I’m here to listen and support you just as much as you’ve supported me. You can be as open with me as you like. I’ll sit and listen if you want to vent, or I’ll try and help you come up with a solution if that’s what you want. It’s the least I can do.” “You d-” River started, but Soren raised his hoof, cutting her off. “Nope, you and I are partners on this thing. It’s important that we’re here for each other, otherwise we wouldn’t be an effective team, now would we?” he asked. River didn’t look at him, or answer. “Am I right?” he repeated. “Yeah. You’re right. Thanks for listening to me, Soren… I appreciate it,” she said, turning to smile at him. She shifted her gaze away again, and mumbled something under her breath that Soren couldn’t hear. “River?” he asked. “Could you, umm…” She faced him, but kept looking down. “Could you give me a hug, please?” He bumbled, not expecting to hear that. “Oh, uh, um, yeah of course. Yeah.” He fidgeted a bit, trying to figure out the best way to hug her in this position, but managed to draw her in from the side. To his surprise, she leaned into him. They each felt the warmth of the other. It was nice. Really nice. They held the hug for a while, neither wanting to let go. Then a thought popped into Soren’s mind. What if he were to practice moving his wings here, and try hugging her with them as well? He congratulated himself in his mind for coming up with such a fantastic idea, before slowly extending his wings out and then around River’s body. The moment his wings wrapped around her, she sighed and melted further into him, but then she gasped and her eyes snapped open. She looked down to see Soren’s wings around her and practically jumped out of the hug, before losing her balance and falling into the dirt behind them. “Woah, what happened?” Soren asked “Are you okay? Is something wrong?” River blushed redder than a tomato. “Y-y-you wing-hugged me…” “Oh, uhh was I not supposed to do that? Oh jeez, I didn’t offend you, did I?” Soren panicked, folding his wings away. “Oh man, I’m so sorry River, I didn’t kn-” “No!” she exclaimed, climbing back to where she sat - slightly further away this time. “No, you didn’t offend me. It’s okay. You didn’t know either way. Umm… How do I explain this?” she paused, biting her lip. “Well, generally here in Equestria, giving somepony a wing-hug is reserved for displaying the highest level of affection or love. Like, for example, a mother will wing-hug her newborns to comfort them, or a couple might wing-hug each other when they want to take their relationship to the next level. And… well, it’s commonly used during a proposal.” “Jeez, I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” he repeated, smacking himself in the face with a hoof. “Relax, Soren. It’s okay. I’m not offended. That’s the first wing-hug I’ve ever gotten from a stallion though.” She tried to reassure him with a smile. “Look, let’s just forget about it for now and go to bed. According to the map, we should finally be out of the mountains tomorrow and into the great plains. There should be a town somewhere up ahead where we can rest and restock on supplies. I don’t know about you, but I’m kinda tired of eating apples for every meal.” “Okay… but I’m sorry, again. I didn’t mean it.” “I… I know. Good night, Soren.” “...Good night, River.” After the two lay in silence for a while, the first to fall asleep was Soren. River’s mind kept replaying the wing-hug over and over again, remembering what it felt like. It was one of the best feelings she had ever felt. It was warm, sweet, and cozy. She could’ve stayed that way forever if she hadn’t freaked out. As she started feeling herself doze off, she lingered on one last waking thought: she wished she hadn’t stopped him.