//------------------------------// // The Equestrian steppes. // Story: Exploration turns out to be much longer than expected. // by Totito30 //------------------------------// J´zar woke up early. He had not slept for a long time, barely a few hours, as he would not like his companions getting killed by the Banished. J´zar ate a slice of bread he kept in his pocket. As he chewed the bread, J´zar looked at the nearest hill as the sun began to rise. Slowly, a sliver of light passed over the hill and J´zar had to look away from the father star’s brightness. "A nice morning ¿isn’t it?" Rainbow Dash said from behind J´zar. "Good morning" answered J´zar "I thought you would sleep forever" "Ha! I’m the best athlete in all of Equestria! Of course I can wake up early!" prideful Rainbow Dash said. "The same can’t be said about all of your friends" J´zar said "Though the farmer is good as you, I can say" "Yeah, Applejack sure lives up to her reputation" answered the pegasus as she hovered above J´zar, an expression of remembrance on her face. J´zar walked to where Twilight rested and softly shook her to wake the pony up. Between mumbles and snoring, Twilight woke up. J´zar proceeded to do the same with the other four ponies. "C’mon, sleepers, we have a long way to tread. I’d say at least ten miles, which will take us about three days, if we hurry, and you can keep the pace" J´zar said as he kicked the ashes of the campfire to completely put them off. The ponies started getting up, and Rarity stored the sleeping bags. J´zar and Rainbow Dash went ahead and tried to spy on something from above nearest hill. When they returned, the six mares had a breakfast based on grass and daisies. J´zar used his spyglass to check the forest, just to make sure nobody followed them. Finally, the party started to move. First, they had to carefully descend through the grassy hill, J´zar keeping a keen eye at the fields to check for holes. Then, they had to ascend the next hill, just to begin the process again. The first hours of the day passed in never-ending monotony, as J´zar and his companions focused on trespassing each hill. The wavy part of the valley didn’t last for long, however and the group had to wade through a field of grass a meter and a half tall, which ended abruptly into a plain of short grass. "This is so boring…" Rainbow Dash complained as they started walking through the plains "I mean, back at the forest we could have some fun, fighting foes and the likes, but now it’s just plain walking" "Travelling is a great deal of adventuring, my young friend" J´zar explained "Every journey commences with a single step" "¿Couldn’t we just teleport to Ix’s base of operations or something?" Twilight Sparkle asked. "Maybe. But I do not think you can teleport somewhere you can’t see or never have been at" Answered the warrior "Besides, Ix will have his castle heavily guarded against magic of all sorts" The sun started to descend from the sky yet again. J´zar hurried his companions into finding refuge to pass the night. And so they walked even faster. Finally, they reached what seemed to be a cave in the side of a small hill. J´zar had to send someone to check it. "¿What are you waiting, beastkeeper?" J´zar asked Fluttershy "It’s your job to check for wild animals, ¿remember?" "Y-Yes, sure" Fluttershy said "¿But what if there is another Banished inside?" "He would have already attacked. Years of imprisonment inside The Maw have made them crazed, and they have no sense of stealth or tactic" J´zar affirmed. "¿But what if he just doesn’t sees us?" The cream-colored pony mumbled, almost hugging J´zar’s leg. “I own this to her” the Principal thought. "Don’t worry Fluttershy" J´zar said patting her muzzle "I’ll go check it for you, no need to be scared" "¿But what if one is there?" Fluttershy fearfully told J´zar. "I can handle myself in a fight" J´zar answered drawing one of his swords and stabbing a piece of resin-covered cloth he had in his pocket on it. After Twilight set the cloth aflame, J´zar walked into the cave with the sword high in his hand to light the path. The cave was not very deep, and was empty as expected, except for a few centipedes J´zar accidentally stomped upon. "¡Come here!" he yelled from the bottom of the cave "¡It’s empty!" The mares entered the cave and lighted a fire with branches J´zar had recovered that morning. Around it they put a circle of stones to prevent the campfire from setting the whole cave ablaze, and around it they put the sleeping bags, except for J´zar, who said he would sleep at the entrance of the cave. "Tell me more about your world" Pinkie Pie asked. "There isn’t much to tell about it" J´zar said, thinking on the world he had left behind momentarily "It’s cruel and harsh" "It can’t be all that bad," Pinkie reasoned "¡if there’s candy on it!" "¡Of course there are sweets in my world too!" J´zar said "But that doesn’t makes the things much better. There are poor people in my realm, people who lives without a roof to cover themselves with and there are those who kill for money" "¡That’s impossible!" Twilight commented shocked "¿Who is evil enough to kill for something as trivial as money? "All wars on my world are waged for money. For power" J´zar grimly said. "If your universe is so bad, ¿why don’t you change it?" Rainbow Dash wondered. "My brothers and me are working on that" The warrior remembered all the glory of the Order in his year of birth "Trying to change the world. But it’s a war on all fronts" "¿I guess there is no time for fashion in such a place, right?" Rarity asked, thinking of J´zar’s world as an endless extension of trenches and cairns. "Fashion is given too much importance on my world" J´zar affirmed dejectedly "It is something so important it leaves people blind from the truth"