//------------------------------//
// The Virtue of the Knight 
// Story: Daring Do and the Heart of Storms 
// by KitsuneRisu 
//------------------------------//


~~~~~


“O-oh!” she squeaked.

It was a high squeak. A cute one. One that, in any other situation, might be something that Haley would blush at with justifiable cause.

But this was strictly professional.

Fluttershy pulled the needle away from Haley’s leg, unable to keep it still enough to pierce her skin confidently. The syringe rattled in Fluttershy’s hoof like a toy meant for a toddler, and her gaze told Haley that the demure yellow creature would rather be anywhere else at this current moment.

“No… no… That’s not where the vein is…” Fluttershy muttered.

“You… have done this before, correct?” Haley asked, her regal tones overlaying the quickly falling lack of confidence in her voice.

“O-oh yes. Yes, I have,” came the response. “Well… I mean, o-on animals, that is. T-this is rather different.”

“Forgiving my brashness, but perhaps we should visit a… ah… well, more general practitioner…” Haley turned her head, eyebrow raising toward the figure standing by the door.

Rainbow leaned casually against the cottage’s only traditional exit as if she were guarding it, legs crossed and head tilted away in what appeared to be a cool disinterest of the proceedings of the room.

“Yeah… listen. Number one? Fluttershy’s a great doctor, got it?” Rainbow spat a response at Haley. “I mean, she doesn’t treat ponies, technically, but we’re all the same, aren’t we? In the end we’re all just ‘animals’, so just let her work!”

“Th-thank y-” Fluttershy murmured.

“Secondly, we can’t really see anypony else,” Rainbow continued in a huff. “I mean, you know. We don’t really want it getting out that we… brought a book to life. If you were… you know, full of ink or words or whatever…”

Haley frowned.

“I told you. I am a real flesh-and-blood pony. I don’t see why you keep insisting…”

“Just try to see it from our point of view here!” Rainbow grumbled back tersely, pushing herself off the door and standing up straight.

“Now, why don’t you try to see it from my po- Ow!”

Haley winced, turning down to look upon a face that pleaded for forgiveness.

“S-so sorry!” Fluttershy shuddered with embarrassment, chasing away her grievous mistake with a soft, nervous smile. “I… I didn’t mean to… I mean… please, just hold still! It will be over in just a few…”

“Um… Listen. Fluttershy, correct?”

“Oh, yes, that’s right,” Fluttershy nodded happily. Her nervousness faded slightly as she revelled in the joy that her name was remembered.

A trickle of red started to bubble into the syringe.

A sound came from over Haley’s shoulder, like a puff of air being released from a balloon all at once. The pony named Rainbow had fallen back to her casual lean against the door.

Haley turned back down to the doctor after the momentary pause.

“Don’t worry. It was merely the unexpectedness of it all,” Haley explained. “I’m not hurt.”

“Oh, that’s such a relief,” Fluttershy trilled, breathing easier. “You’re a great patient. Thank you for being so understanding.”

“Not at all. And you’re a great… well, vet, I suppose.”

“Oh yes, I am a vet.” Fluttershy nodded, slightly distracted with watching the little tube fill up with vitae.

“So, just out… out of curiousity…” Haley began, quirking an eyebrow.

“Y-yes?”

“This world…”

“O-oh, yes! It is a different world to you, isn’t it? This must be so new and exciting!”

“Well, it is rather different. But it’s also… quite the same, in some ways.”

“I’ve r-read a few of your books, Miss Do.”

Haley sighed.

“I suppose that’s how everyone in this world is going to see me, isn’t it?” she asked the room in general.

“Well, I mean, if you sorta look at what happened,” Dash commented, “kinda hard to not.”

“I’ve always found your world to be very curious and interesting and lovely,” Fluttershy continued over the other comments, “but it’s always hard to forget that you would see us in the same way! How are you finding it so far?”

“Well, the company is lovely.” Haley glanced at Rainbow out of the corner of her eye.

Rainbow blew a strand of hair out of her face.

“You about done yet, Fluttershy?” Dash asked impatiently, glaring back at Haley for just one fraction of a moment.

“A-almost done!” Fluttershy retracted the needle, immediately setting it aside and drawing out a huge roll of fabric from a shelf along the wall.

“Ah…” Haley muttered, attention caught by the swathe of cloth. “Perhaps…”

It only took a few scant seconds before Haley’s leg was entirely wrapped in bandages.

“Well. Alright, then,” Haley commented softly, setting her leg back to the ground, watching Fluttershy pick up the blood sample and take it to a counter to her left.

The little doctor spat it out onto the countertop, busying herself with gadgets and equipment of all kinds.

“Oh, you were about to ask something earlier. What did you want to say?” Fluttershy recalled, smiling, happy in her work as she drew a glass slide out from a small rack.

“Oh! Yes, that’s right.” Haley nodded. “Well… I suppose this might come across as rather forward…”

“Don’t worry!” Fluttershy reassured, dragging a microscope forward. “Please feel free to ask anything you’d like. You are our guest, after all! I mean… I have so much I want to ask you as well. I-if you wouldn’t mind, that is.”

“Of course not. But… well… my inquiry is… about your names.”

“Our names?” Fluttershy reconfirmed.

“Yes. They are… rather different. I find them curious.”

“D-different? How so?”

“Well, they’re all… just… different,” Haley repeated, a better word not coming to mind. “I mean… for example, and please do pardon the affront, but what is ‘Fluttershy’, exactly? It’s sort of like ‘butterfly’ but not really.”

“Yeah? What kind of name is Haley Waleria Doudemelle?” Rainbow shot out from behind her.

“It’s a name!” Haley turned back again, frowning. “It’s a proper name! Now, I honestly didn’t mean any offence, so…”

“Yeah, well, I kinda liked it better when you were just ‘Daring Do’,” Dash grumbled. “At least that wasn’t a stupid name.”

“Oh, excuse me! Look who’s talking!”

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

“I mean… you’re named after an… an illusionary sky mirage and some sort of… speedy action!”

“At least I’m named after real things!” Dash exclaimed, once again peeling herself off the wall and thrusting her chest forward. “Whereas you might not even be r-”

Haley burned white.

Her face was flush with a pale crimson, her lips parting to take in shallow breaths of air. She shut her eyes to cast off the world and felt the air around her turning a pale shade of grey.

“W-whatever,” Dash murmured, suddenly much more deflated than she was before.

Haley never saw her leave the room.

The air bit at Haley’s lungs. She could feel the wind rush past her lips as she sucked it down, and she could feel the soft and fluffy bandage coating her leg. She could feel the floor beneath her hooves, and she could feel the sting of the echoes of words left behind.

But she wondered if that was enough to prove that she was really feeling them.

“Um…” a tiny, gentle hum came, pushing past her thoughts and shaking Haley back to life.

She glanced forward, looking at the reticent creature in front of her. Fluttershy crept up with a look of guilt that was far more than was required for the situation.

“If it makes you feel better,” she whispered, “I like your name. I think it’s pretty.”

“It’s… Thank you,” Haley replied, pulling her hat off her head and letting her ashen streaks fall across her face. “I guess…”

Haley tried to think of something to say. Something that would represent the situation, something that would hold a torch up to this dark path. Nothing came to mind, and she found her very words burning out.

“H-here. Have this.” Fluttershy continued, pushing a small flat lollipop into Haley’s hoof. “It’s, um… strawberry.”

Haley stared at it, the corners of her mouth turning up a small sad fraction as she murmured the only reply she had to give. “Thank you.”

Fluttershy sighed, scraping at the floor with a hoof.

“I’m sorry,” she muttered.

“What for?”

“My friend Rainbow. She’s… she’s never like this. She’s usually very supportive and strong-willed and confident. Please, please don’t think badly of her. She’s not herself today.”

“Well,” Haley replied, still staring at the lollipop. “I suppose I’m just a victim of bad timing.”

A little hum grew from Fluttershy’s throat as it led up to a response. “No. It’s something else.”

“What do you mean?” Haley looked up, quirking an eyebrow.

“I… I really shouldn’t say, but, oh, I hate it when ponies fight. Especially my friends!” Fluttershy squeaked, stamping the floor with the fury of a ladybug.

“Hey, it’s alright. You can tell me.”

“My friend Rainbow… I think she’s just confused, Miss Do.”

“Call me Haley,” Haley said. “What do you mean by ‘confused’?”

“Yes! Of course. I’m sorry. Miss Haley. Well, you see… you probably won’t believe me, but she’s actually your biggest fan.”

“My… fan?” Haley repeated with slight hesitance.

“Y-yes! It must sound odd considering all this, but she actually loves you!”

“Pardon me?”

“N-no, I mean, she loves all the books,” Fluttershy amended. “The books that you’re supposed to be from. She can quote lines from them, and memorized all the small details, and… and she owns all the action figures!”

Haley blinked.

“I’m just not sure why she’s acting this way,” Fluttershy went on in rapt frustration. “I would have thought she would be more excited. After all, she’s had a crush on you for oh so very long.”

“A… a what?”

“Oh, no! I mean… it’s not strange, is it?” Fluttershy started rattling, trying to explain. “I mean, we all like characters from books sometimes, or from shows or from things. It’s not weird! Dash is normal, I promise! She ju-”

“No, no. Not that,” Haley cut in, her expression changing to one of confusion. “She had a crush on me?”

“Well, the ‘you’ that was in the books, at least. Your character.”

Haley let the words trail off as she thought about them.

“Huh,” she finally said, summing up her entire feeling about the issue.

“So I really don’t know why she would be so… rude about it, but maybe she’s just confused? After all, it’s like meeting your hero for the first time, and Rainbow is a very proud pony, and… well… and…”

Haley nodded.

“I understand,” she said. “I think I do, at least. I’m not sure. It wasn’t the best of welcomes, but I suppose-”

“Oh, you’re such a patient and thoughtful pony,” Fluttershy blurted out.

“Oh, no. Absolutely not,” Haley waved it away with a disdainful snap of the neck. She never took praise when it wasn’t due.

But yet, her eyes travelled the course of the room to the door. She couldn’t see through it, but she knew who stood just beyond the wooden frame.

Haley let out a sigh. One slightly less of contempt and more of a melancholic sadness as she thought of things that forced their way into her mind.

“Are you alright, Miss Haley?” Fluttershy asked, tilting her head as she stared at the distracted pony.

“O-oh. Yes. I am. I suppose I am beginning to understand the situation here. Albeit slightly.”

“I’m… I’m glad.” Fluttershy said hopefully. “Understanding is always the way to pleasant relationships. My grandmother used to say that all w-”

Fluttershy’s words were cut off as a new look stumbled onto Haley’s face, a little thing that seemed oddly out of place for the situation.

“Um… Miss Haley?”

“Yes?”

“Why are you grinning?”

“Oh, was I?” Haley stopped her smile but left herself in a mood of thoughtful indulgence. “I’m sorry. I was just thinking of something.”

“What?”

“There was a young girl once,” Haley said, looking to her companion and locking gazes, “who was very much like Miss Rainbow Dash out there. She couldn’t deal with something and was remarkably afraid. She was afraid that things wouldn’t go the way she wanted and did not wish to approach that which she was afraid of.”

“What happened to her?”

“She told the truth.”

“And that helped?”

“It helped.”

“But what happened?” Fluttershy asked, quite directly. “If you don’t mind me prying, that is.”

“Well,” Haley replied. “It started on my first day of testing.”








~ Daring Do and  the Heart of Storms ~


Chapter 3 :: The Virtue of the Knight
















Thank you for considering The Adventurer’s Guild for your future education and employment opportunities! A wild world awaits those who join, and life only gets more adventurous upon the issuance of your very own Adventurer’s License! However, all things start at the School of Adventuring, and each student will be categorized into one of twelve Guild Chapters which will dictate their future role in the Guild. Please familiarize yourself with them below:


- Explorers
The brave and stalwart Explorer seeks out new territories and lands. Travelling the world, they learn how to map, navigate, and charter. This Chapter is for the pony who loves to see the new and experience something fresh every day of their lives! The backbone of the entire Guild lies in the hooves of the Explorer.

- Trackers
Has an item been stolen or lost? No fear! Call upon the Tracker to find it. Whatever the item may be, be it treasure, document, or pony, the Tracker will find it and bring it back to its original owner. The life of a Tracker is frequently rewarding, and there will be no shortage of excitement!

- Archaeologists
Has one of your Guildmates found something that requires a more sensitive touch? Have they found a buried treasure that needs to be unearthed? Or perhaps they have found a relic that needs verification! No fear, just call the Archaeologist! With brush in hoof, the Archaeologist swings in to secure dig sites, extract precious items, and deliver them to clients, freeing everypony else from the hassle!

- Spelunkers
If the outdoors is not your scene and you prefer spending your time in a mysterious, unexplored cave, then join the Spelunkers! One of the most challenging Chapters, the Spelunker learns how to navigate dangerous terrain, map out caves, and prepare risk assessments. Oh, and did we mention treasure? There is always treasure in every cave just waiting for a Spelunker to find it!

- Tinkerers
Do you have a mind suited for creation and invention? If you aren’t sporty, strong, or quick, there is still a place for you in the Guild! Make your livelihood as a Tinkerer where a careful hoof and ingenuity leads the day! Creating and inventing the equipment that everypony else relies on, you can be one of the first to take advantage of steamtech in the new age!

- Assayers
Tombs and caves and foreign lands are filled with traps left by civilizations gone by. The Assayer also avails him or herself to the other Chapters, supporting them with the amazing knowledge of traps and tricks. Understanding the basics of how to disarm, create, and apply traps of all kinds, the Assayer is not only flexible but always in high demand!

-Scriveners
In order to understand the past, we must rely on the records of the civilizations gone by. And the dozens of languages and texts left behind are safe in the hooves of the Scrivener, who is able to translate, decrypt, and decipher. As a Scrivener, you will handle documents and books for the understanding of the old generations gone by.

-Emissaries*
Do you prefer to engage in the quieter side of things? Do you prefer not to be seen? Do you prefer not to be given credit for your work? Then come join the shadowy side of adventuring and be part of the Emissary Chapter! Emissaries take the jobs where a bit of covert operations are necessary!

-Brokers
Treasure and treats not for you? Well, maybe you prefer to deal with valuables of a different kind! The Broker trades information, contacts, and knowledge. They strive to discover the world by approaching what has already been found, and they dig things up from a very different sort of terrain! If you enjoy speaking and are good with communication, Brokering is a highly specialized and very lucrative field!

-Enforcers
If you were born with the blessing of size, the speed of an asp, or the magical dexterity of a wisp, then maybe it can be put to good use! The Enforcer Chapter is about protection, be it securing a site or fighting off bandits. When it comes to jobs that require a bit of offense, the Enforcer Chapter steps in to save the day when words and negotiations fail. Highly important for all activities of the Guild, the Enforcer is highly valued – and highly compensated – for their art.

-Shamans
The mystery of the world is found in the secrets of nature! Unlock the hidden powers of the things gone unseen! Know how to survive in the wild! Learn how to create miracles from materials! Plants, animals and minerals – these are the interests of the Shaman who puts them to good use in the fields of medicine, advancement, and research, and finds a way to unlock their full potential.

-Outfitters*
When a team comes together, they require leadership. The Outfitter takes care of jobs of a grander scale, calling and managing resources and overlooking a team of other Chapter members. The Outfitter is the commander and leader, able to see things from every point of view and handling them accordingly. Outfitters must be prepared to make the hard decisions for the sake of their team and the quest!

*Please note that you may not request to join this Chapter. You will be invited to join if you are deemed qualified during your placement exam.






~~~~~


“Find your groups, and report to your stations,” the voice boomed over the loudspeakers, “and good luck! The entrance exams begin in half an hour!”

Haley stared down at the small brochure in her hooves, a large number ‘5’ scrawled upon it in shaky script. Underneath was written a single name – ‘Viceroy Arlington’.

She looked up from the paper, pushing back the hat that had fallen over her eyes. It didn’t fit, but she still insisted on wearing it anyway; it was what her mother had worn to her entrance examination, and Haley wanted to follow suit, despite being many years too young to wear an adult-sized pith.

The site of the Adventurer’s Guild’s testing grounds were awash with life, buzzing with potential students and overseers and viceroys. Even one of the Domini had come to give the opening speech and had just stepped off stage to return to the campus.

There was an excited hum that flew melodically through the air, and the entire open field was less green than it was speckled with the assortment of ponies that inhabited the huge space.

Refreshment tents had been set up along the outer border for parents to inhabit – a place to wait while their precious children took the tests. A different sort of energy arose from those areas and stopped short at the applicant-only border that only allowed the applicants through.

Haley stood in the middle of the field, looking past the swathes of crowds to try to spot her parents. It was a futile act, but it didn’t stop her from trying anyway. Even if she could look past the dozens upon dozens of other hopefuls, the waiting tents were far too distant for her to pick them out in a crowd.

But they were there, and in the end, that was all that mattered.

Haley swallowed a gulp of air.

She looked upward to the large poles that had been erected at various places on the grounds, each bearing banners and flags decorated with the guild crest, each lavishly painted and filigreed with reds, purples, and golds. Each pole also bore a number, and it wasn’t long before she found the one bearing the number ‘5’ – the same number as her scrap – to which she moved as she pushed through the crowd.

Like ants, the applicants eventually found their way across this frightening new world to their respective spots, clustering around them and waiting for further information.

In the hot sun of the open fields, the other hopefuls stood impatiently, waiting for something to happen. Haley suddenly felt a bit more thankful that she brought along a hat.

But without direction, the majority of the crowd took their time, and they all mingled and talked and chattered, slowly separating into their individual groups.

It was a good moment to take a breather.

“Hey, got space under there?” a voice came from her left.

“Whu-buh?” Haley replied, pushing the hat back off her eyes to take a closer look.

A young stallion – one a few years older than Haley by the looks of it – stood up tall, a smooth voice of almond butter pouring from his mouth as he spoke.

“Your hat.” He smiled, tilting his horned head toward Haley as a sign of respect. “It’s a cool hat. I like it.”

“Oh! It’s… it’s my mother’s,” Haley replied. “It’s the one she wore when she first joined the Adventurer’s Guild herself, actually.”

“It’s a nice look!” the stallion continued. “But you’d think it’d be a better fit, huh?”

“Whu-? Ah, right!” Haley exclaimed. “No. She transferred in from another guild, so she was a lot older. She told me it was pretty weird to be one of the few adults amongst all the children.”

“Well, there’s a few adults around this year as well.” The unicorn looked out into the crowd. “Rare, but it does happen. Some of them are the invigilators, of course, but at least a couple are surely applicants! And as you can see, I’m not quite so young myself!”

“Invigi-wha?” Haley asked.

“Our testers,” the stallion explained, rubbing his brow with a hoof. It was rather hot.

His long, black mane didn’t help with the heat, Haley was sure. But one couldn’t really do anything about that.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I haven’t introduced myself. How rude of me.” He held out a hoof. “Maxville. Maxville Sunderland.”

“Haley Doudemelle,” Haley replied, bumping her hoof against his.

“Well met, Miss Doudemelle.” Maxville nodded again, giving her the most polite of smiles. “It should start soon, I think. They’re just waiting for everypony to get into place.”

“I don’t mind the wait. I’m kind of nervous about it, to be honest.” Haley chuckled, nervously, to prove her point.

“Well, we all are. But all we need to do is put in our best effort, and everything will turn out champs,” Maxville assured her. There was a tone in his voice that made Haley feel a little bit more comfortable with herself. She had no idea what it was, but she felt inclined to believe what he said despite only having met him a few minutes ago.

“So, which chapter are you joining?” Maxville asked, tilting his head to the side slightly to look at Haley’s mark.

“Um…” Haley muttered, swivelling so that he could have a good look at the compass that adorned her flank. “I’m not rather sure. I was thinking explorers, maybe. But my mom was a spelunker, so… maybe that? They’re all the same, anyway.”

“Well, they do seem similar. I always wondered myself why the twelve schools were so closely related but still considered separate.”

“What about you? What are you joining?”

“I don’t know either! Unlike you, I don’t seem to have a clear course,” Maxville laughed, showing off his flank, which was devoid of any picture upon his dark blue coat. “I suppose I will let them assign me one after the test.”

“Listen,” Haley muttered, eyeing a small patch of flowers a few meters away from the pole. Other than the plants, it was one of the few places in the field that bore a small tree. “Would you like to have a seat in the shade? There’s somepony already there, but I’m sure they wouldn’t mind sharing.”

“I definitely wouldn’t say no to that!” Maxville exclaimed as the two of them pulled into a walk towards the tree.

“Well, you ought to have an idea, at least,” Haley commented. “I mean, about what you want to do. You decided to join the Adventurer’s Guild for a reason, surely?”

“Oh, yes, yes. I mean, I simply want to be in this line of work. It’s so exciting, isn’t it? Getting to travel the world and meet new ponies and see new things! My parents weren’t really excited about it initially, but I managed to convince them.”

“So you want to work in the Guild, but you don’t know what to do in it?”

“Well, when you put it that way,” Maxville chucked with good nature, the two of them stopping under the shade of the giant oak. “I suppose that sounds a bit silly, but I always felt that flexibility is important. I don’t mind any of the twelve chapters, so I’ll do my best in whatever I get assigned to! Besides, even if you do request, sometimes they’ll pick something else for you anyway, so, in the end, I’m not too bothered.”

“Oh, they do that?” Haley asked. “Mother never mentioned.”

“It’s something quite new. The tests these days are a lot more elaborate than they were many years back. The guild has grown, and they have to make it more efficient now. I think that’s why. I still don’t understand the chapters, though.”

It was something to think about, which Haley did as she looked around the tree. A circle of daisies were growing around the base of the larger plant, and it was only in a small wedge at one side of the tree where the flowers did not grow, as if somepony had intentionally removed them.

“Excuse me, miss,” Maxville said with a cough to clear his throat, approaching the figure who sat in the shade. “Would you mi-”

“Stop!” the figure yelled, raising her hoof.

Maxville and Haley froze in place, Max himself in mid-step.

It was such a powerful voice coming from one so small. She was an earth pony, brown coat and green mane, an odd colour combination that was unfortunately not very pleasing to the eyes. In fact, being so close to the ground, she very nearly resembled a plant herself. Even her mane was slightly shaggy and scruffed up, like the leaves on a bush.

A pair of thick brass goggles hung around her neck, and in her hooves was a small golden cube that she was playing with, covered with lines and etched with channels. It looked as if she were trying to navigate a small ball across its surface – a shiny metal pin-head that would only travel along the grooves in the face of the device. Every once so often, she would swivel the cube along an axis, changing the configuration of the lines.

“Don’t step on the flowers,” she commanded, pointing a hoof at them without looking.

“O-oh, I’m sorry!” Maxville stuttered, retracting his leg. “Are you…”

“No. Gardener’s watching us,” the earth pony continued, swivelling her hoof to a spot across the grounds toward an elderly stallion in a straw hat, although her attention was still clearly focused on the little, puzzle-like toy that she held. “Has been ever since I got here. Don’t wanna bother him. Don’t want him to bother me.”

“Oh, that’s alright, then!” Maxville remarked chipperly, stepping around the border of the tiny, white plants. “We’ll look out for them, won’t we, Haley?”

“Ah…” Haley hummed.

“Haley?” Maxville turned around.

“Yeah… I… um…” Haley pulled her hoof back, a couple of the daisies crushed beneath.

“Oh dear,” Maxville muttered, holding his own hoof up to his mouth.

The pony on the ground rolled her eyes and went back to fiddling with the cube.

None of them saw him arrive, but in that very second, he was there. A hoe and a rake were strapped to his back like a pair of swords, and he stared at the three of them from beneath his straw hat. He moved his stubbled jaw around as he took stock of the ponies in front of him before opening his mouth to spit gravelly words at Haley.

“Why’re you killin’ m’ flowers?” the gardener finally asked with a low voice that sounded like the engine of a steam-powered blimp. “Huh? What’re your names?”

“Haley Waleria Doudemelle, sir!” Haley spat out quickly, blubbing a little as she tried to make herself incredibly small.

“Maxville Sunderland, sir,” Max said, nodding. “But she did not mean to-”

“And you?” The gardener cut him off, flicking his head to the one under the tree.

The earth pony looked up, almost as if it were a laborious task, and eyed Haley with a tiny bit of disdain before moving back to the cube.

“Loveday,” she said with a sigh. “Just Loveday.”

“Just nothin’. What’s your full name, kid?” the gardener growled.

The pony sighed again.

“Adeline Petrona Taylor Loveday,” she muttered. “Just Loveday, though.”

“Alright,” The gardener nodded. “Would you kindly tell me why you were steppin’ all over the flowers, girl?”

Maxville stepped forward. But a heavy stare forced him back. It was clear that the gardener wanted Haley to answer.

“I’m sorry, sir,” she squeaked. “I wasn’t thinking. The pony there tried to warn me but-”

“Warn? Excuse me? Warnin’s are for dangerous things, you understand? Warnin’s are for the sake of the safety of the one bein’ warned! You tryin’ t’ tell me that the only reason not to step on them flowers is just t’ avoid a situation like this one right here?”

“N-no, sir, of course not! I mean… I mean…”

“Yeah? You got an excuse for me?”

“I… no, sir. I don’t. I wasn’t thinking. I wasn’t thinking about it at all. I’m sorry.”

“You gotta be aware of these things, kid!” The gardener fumed, pointing to the pony known as Loveday. “She didn’t need to step on them flowers, did she?”

Loveday remained silent, twisting the cube once again.

“Sir, if you would, please…” Maxville started again.

“Boy, do you ever keep quiet?”

“Ah…” Maxvile trailed off.

“What chapter?” The gardener spat at them.

“I’m trying to get into either the spelunkers or the explorers, sir,” Haley said.

“You?” The gardener looked to Max.

“Undecided, sir.”

“Undecided? What is this? Kindergarten? How could you come here so unprepared? And you?” the angry old stallion finally turned to Loveday.

There was yet another short pause before she responded, as if it took her time to gather the will to speak.

“Tinkerer,” she replied.

“Yeah, you look the part,” the gardener grumbled. “Bunch of clowns we have this year, don’t we? Don’t even know what chapter you wanna join, and you come traipsin’ in here like it’s so easy?”

“Sir, I do not doubt for a moment that it will be rather difficult. But all chapters present their own challenges and rewards,” Maxville said, slowly. “I merely believe that it would be simpler to approach the challenges as they come.”

“What a weird-ass way of thinkin’,” the gardener grumbled. “You just makin’ excuses, ain’t ya?”

“No sir, I am not,” Maxville stood firm, shaking his head, calm as ever.

“Do you even know what the twelve chapters are, chucklebutt?”

“Yes sir. Explorers. Trackers. Archaeologists. Spelunkers. Tinkerers. Assayers. Scriveners. Emissaries. Brokers. Then there are three more…”

“Enforcers, shamans and outfitters,” Loveday finished, staring away from the group.

“Ah… yes, thank you, Miss Ade-” Maxville said.

“Just Loveday!” she yelled back.

“And do you know what they all do?” The gardener issued a second challenge.

“I do by their definition,” Maxville replied.

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

Maxville held a hoof up to his chin again as he thought about it.

“Well, you see, sir, I’ve always wondered why there were twelve chapters. I mean, could some of them not be combined? Explorers and spelunkers, for example. The former maps and charts unexplored territories, right? That is their specialty.”

“Yeah? And?”

“And spelunkers do the same thing, sir, except with tombs and caves and specific sites. I don’t see why they couldn’t both be the same job.”

Haley listened closely. She would have been lying if this wasn’t something that crossed her mind as well. Even the one named Loveday perked up, leaning slightly toward the direction of Maxville, although she tried to act nonchalant.

“You tryin’ t’ question the system, boy?” The gardener narrowed his eyes, glaring at the other stallion.

In response, he did not back down nor waver, but put the question to heart and answered with all due honesty.

“No, sir. Absolutely not. But I speak only from the position of limited knowledge. If you had insights that could aid my understanding, I would certainly love to be educated on the subject.”

“Mmm,” the gardener said, quirking an eyebrow, softening his tone suddenly. He drew back, breathing in noisily as he took stock of the stallion in front of him. “Well, I’ve been around for a while, I can tell you that.”

“Do you know why the system is like this? My inability to choose… I will admit, is related to a lack of information. Perhaps with your knowledge…”

“You askin’ a groundskeeper, son?” the gardener asked.

“Why not?”

The gardener snorted, as if there were something to take offense at. He looked intently at Maxville, then to Haley, then to Just Loveday.

“Kid, there are many differences between the chapters,” he said, finally. “It ain’t just about what they do on the surface.”

“How do you mean, sir?” Maxville asked politely.

“They all support each other. That’s how it works. You were talkin’ about explorers and spelunkers, right? Well, open terrain ain’t nothing like tombs. Everything about them is different, and when you start to study it, you’ll find out why. You gotta choose your first and second year chapters carefully, kid! They gotta work together! Compliment what you wanna do for the Guild!”

“Sir, if you could elaborate…?”

The gardener rubbed his face with a hoof with annoyance.

“Fine. You know your first choice dictates what you get to be, right? You can’t change that. If you’re an explorer first year, you’re an explorer for life. Jobs are only open to some chapters, so you gotta make sure you pick well. That’s why it’s so important. Your second year is your second choice, so you gotta find something that works well with your first choice. They all can work together, but some just naturally fit in better. Let’s say you wanna be a tracker, right? And what’s a tracker do?”

“The retrieval of lost goods, items or ponies,” Haley rattled, dictating from the official guide book.

“Good. That’s right. So let’s say you major in that for first year. Then what would help you for second year? S’possin’ you go enforcer. Learn how t’ fight and all that. That’ll help, wouldn’t it? You’re more likely to run into a scrap if you’re tryin’ t’ recover stolen goods then if you were simply just mapping new land, right?”

Haley and Maxville nodded. Loveday remained still.

“And if you were a scrivener, all you’d be doin’ is stickin’ back in offices the whole day and writing documents and stuff. I mean, maybe that’s your thing. I dunno. But it’d be less smart to go choose enforcer for second year if you choose scrivening for first, right? I mean, who ya gonna beat up at the water cooler?”

Haley tried to stifle a smile, despite the atmosphere.

“The twelve chapters are spread out across all facets of what it means to be an adventurer. The Guild wants to train specialists, not general know-it-all buffoons who think they can do everythin’. If you want that, you oughta just go join Bosé and Randello’s. Their guild doesn’t care.”

“I don’t like the Delvers, sir,” Maxville said of the rival school. “They seem… stuffy.”

“Exactly. That’s the point. You wanna know why we make ponies choose at this school? Why we only let them study two chapters at most before they get their license?”

“Why, sir?” Haley asked.

“Figure it out yourself,” the gardener huffed.

“Oh,” Haley muttered.

“I understand,” Maxville said. “Thank you for explaining. I think I know what to do now.”

“And what would that be?” the gardener said, gruffly.

“I am going to let the Guild decide.”

“What?” the gardener roared. “Ain’t you been listenin’ to a word I’ve been sayin’? It’s important to know what you want, son!”

“Yes sir. I mean no disrespect, but please, let me explain. It is clear that I know nothing about what the Guild intends for us, but how could I possibly? The only way I will ever know for sure what the right choice is is to spend many years in the Guild to observe how things are done. And by that time it would be far too late. I am not emotionally charged to join any of the Chapters, nor do I have any other reasons. I believe my new friend Haley here wishes to follow in the hoofsteps of her mother, and Ad- I mean, Just Loveday over there seems to have a natural affinity for gadgetry. I have no such ties, and I will rely on the wisdom of the Guild to guide my path.”

“Yeah, whatever you say, kid,” the gardener spat out. “That’s your choice, huh? Just make sure you can live with it. As for the three of you, I’m gonna have to report you all for trampling the flowers.”

“W-wait, sir. Kind sir,” Maxville stuttered, stepping forward. “If you would reconsi-”

“No!” Haley yelled, finally stepping forward herself.

“Excuse me?” the gardener said, staring at the child.

“Mister gardener, sir,” Haley told him. “It was just me. The others had nothing to do with it. It was my own fault for not considering it. If you must report somepony, please report me and just me.”

“I do what I want!” the gardener yelled. “Now all of you! Get going! I gotta fix this mess. Go wait by the meeting spot, damn it!”

Maxville and Haley exchanged glances, but both put on determined looks. There was nothing else they could do about the situation. There was only the fallout to deal with. With that, they rushed off towards the pole without looking back.

Loveday looked up, watching them leave as she finally popped the small bead out of the cube, having worked it out of the maze. She made no effort to stand but sat there for a few elongated moments.

“Hey, wait for me,” she said quietly, almost to herself, struggling to get to her hooves. With a start, she darted after them, leaving the toy to rest in the grass of the tree.

The gardener bent down to pick it up, then placed it in one of the satchels that hung from the tools on his back.

He shook his head as he watched them leave, and soon they were lost in the crowd.

With a burst of magic, his straw hat lifted off his head, revealing a horn that crackled with energy.

A small clipboard appeared in a flash, his eyes running down the list of names that were written upon the paper it held.

“How’s the turnout, Tweedy?” came a voice.

A pony with a wild red mane stepped up to him quietly with a smile. She shook her head, her hair rustling as if it were the winds itself. A small green streak ran through it, a stem to the rose of her flourishing hair.

“Good day, Dominus Arlington,” Groundskeeper Tweedy responded, his voice now suddenly lacking the gruffness that it held a mere minute ago. “Interesting bunch.”

“Who were those kids?” Arlington asked, jerking her head toward the gathering crowd, although she had only three in mind.

“Oh… curious picks. Stallion… was…” he ran down the clipboard, “Maxville. This is the guy. A bit older than the others. Thinks about everything. Hears everything. He’s a thinker. Level-headed. Wise. Good speaker. Rallies people real good.”

“And did anyone pick up the Lockney Cube?”

“Oh yeah, yeah,” Groundskeeper Tweedy said, patting the bag in which he dropped the game that Loveday had been playing with. “Left it there as you instructed. Somepony by the name of… eh… Just Loveday picked it up and started working on it immediately. Been watching her for a while. Avoided the flowers, too. Probably saw the obvious gap in the flowerbed. She actually finished the cube in… fifteen, twenty minutes?”

“She finished it?”

“Yep. And left it there. Didn’t even steal it or nothing. She’s a bit spacey in the head. I think there’s something wrong with her general faculties, but, you know. Tinkerers are all pretty nuts.”

“Yes, thank you, Tweedy. I’ll remember to put it in the official report that ‘tinkerers are all pretty nuts’.”

“You do that. But… that last kid. You’re gonna like this. You know who she is?”

“What, the kid with the hat?”

“Yeah, don’t you recognize it?”

Arlington stood for a while as her eyebrows tilted back. It was only when it clicked that her brow shot downward in furious recognition.

“Caspia’s kid?” she asked. “Haley? Haley whatever Doudemelle?”

“Heh,” Tweedy laughed. “Yeah. Caspia’s kid.”

“Small world,” Arlington muttered.

“Not really. Not if you think about it. I mean, it’s kinda natural she’d wanna follow, right?” Tweedy shrugged, the clipboard disappearing in a puff of fog. “Anyway, she’s interesting too. Got her mom’s heart and spirit, I can tell you that much.”

“This is gonna be interesting, isn’t it?” Arlington crooked a smile. “What do you have on her?”

“I don’t know yet. Might be best that we wait for the test for that one. How she handles it will be the most telling of all.”

Arlington breathed in deeply.

“Alright,” she said. “Thanks for the brief. I’m gonna head over to the other Vidame now, see what they’ve seen. Good job, Tweedy. You can take off now.”

“Nah, I still got things to do.”

“Oh? Like what?”

“I got a couple flowers to replant.” Tweedy frowned. “Stupid kid stepped all over ‘em.”


~


The talking stopped and the whispers grew as the pony with the fiery red mane stepped up towards the pole. Unlike the other invigilators, she hadn’t bothered to disguise herself while making her rounds and already the spread of whispers echoed throughout the entirety of group five.

Her approach to the meeting point merely sealed the deal.

She had been seen, the whispers said, wandering around and speaking to the Vidame – the blue-collar workers – of the Adventurer’s Guild. She had been openly prowling the grounds and hunting prey. The rumours said that she was going to head up one of the groups, but not a single pony knew which.

Now they did.

The infamous ‘Wild Rose’ had now staked her claim.

“Group five!” she hollered, calling her hopefuls to her, a good thirty or so, including Haley, Maxville, and Just Loveday. They all gathered and stared with rapt attention, especially the ones who recognized her for who she was.

“My name is Elisabelle Arlington,” she introduced herself, “and I will be in charge of testing you today. For those who do not know who I am, I am the Dominus of the archaeology chapter of the Adventurer’s Guild. The assignment I have set for you will be one that will not only test your capabilities but show us your spirit and your dedication. We will be watching closely to make sure that you live up to the name of the adventurer.”

The winds blew, rustling her mane over her pallid, white face.

“She’s one of the twelve Domini?” Haley whispered to Maxville.

The two had been stuck together since they met, and as an extra gift, they seemed to have attracted a silent third partner as well. Loveday always kept close by but never spoke and never did more than look around and make odd facial expressions.

“That’s what she said,” Maxville whispered back. “This is the first time I’m seeing her, though. I didn’t know she headed a chapter, either. I just thought she was… you know. Just really famous.”

“Well, you do always read about her in the papers, an-”

“Following the physical half of the test,” Dominus Arlington continued, “we will be holding short interviews with each candidate separately. All this together will determine if you are suited to be allowed into the school. It is during that time when you may appeal for a specific chapter, but please understand that our decision is final. If you do not like it, you are free to leave.”

She stopped to clear her throat, ending her briefing with a curt inquiry. “Are there any questions?”

A younger pony in the front raised her hoof.

“Yes?”

“Will the test be dangerous?” she asked.

“Yes. Next question?” Arlington flicked her head back to the crowd.

“What are we being judged on?” another asked.

“Everything,” Arlington answered. “Next question. Last question.”

“Can we go already?” shouted a familiar pony.

Haley and Maxville both turned, wide-eyed, to Just Loveday, who had yelled out the rather forward line. If anything, she looked irritated in stark contrast to the normally absent look she had.

“Oh, I like that! I like to see a bit of fire in our applicants!” Arlington shouted back earnestly, giving a sly smile to the group. “Let’s go then! Group five, follow me!”

She twirled, clicked her hooves together, and started off on a march towards a white tent in the distance – a spot on the horizon. It was a large one, about a hoofball field’s length away, bearing a small red flag on the main tentpole. It seemed to be their destination.

The group moved, some struggling to keep up with the invigilator’s quick gait, but all managed to finally end up at their destination, a little winded and a little out of breath.

Haley took a look at the group as Dominus Arlington stepped into the tent with a command for them to wait outside.

By far, Maxville was the oldest amongst them, but the range of the other applicants resembled the colours of the rainbow – both literally and figuratively. There was a good spread of earth, unicorn, and pegasus ponies, all of whom either stood in smaller groups or by themselves.

There were brave ones, shady ones, nervous ones, and ones who bounced around incessantly. There were all sorts of natures gathered here, which merely highlighted the breadth of characters that one could find in the guild. It was both the mixing pot of paradise and Tartarus’ social experiment at the same time.

But not all would make it.

Next to the tent was something that everypony soon realised was the true venue of the test. It was hard to see from afar, but there it lay: two huge stone slabs rested apart – huge doors that opened the way to a set of stairs that led straight under the earth. Against the grasses that swayed gently in the warm siroccos of the North, it looked like the maw of a dangerous beast, placed oddly against its backdrop. It was the one menacing thing in this field of serenity.

Unlit sconces bordered the walls of the passage, and the sunlight only managed to reveal so much before everything faded into a murky darkness beyond the twelfth stone step.

Dominus Arlington finally stepped out from the tent and regarded the crowd once more.

“Alright, candidates. One by one, I will call your individual name. As I do, you will step forward and receive your lamp. You will then take your lamp and proceed down the stairs over there. It’s one of our training catacombs, one that’s been prepped specifically for this test. Your task is to make it to the end using whatever skills or tools you bring along with you. That is all.”

Arlington swung to a pony who shot her hoof up in the air with blazing speed.

“Dominus Arlington, ma’am!” he said. “What exactly is ‘the end’?”

“The end is the end, kid,” she said. “You’ll know when you get there. Now. Once you accomplish this – if you accomplish this – you will return up the same set of stairs where we will be waiting. You will be escorted into the tent where we will have a short talk alongside two of my fellow colleagues. By the end of the debriefing, we will tell you if you have passed and which chapter you will be assigned to. Or you might fail. That’s quite the possibility. From there, you are free to leave or stay or whatever. I honestly don’t really care. But if you attempt to share information with your new friends after your test is over, believe me, there will be consequences. Everything clear?”

A small murmur of ‘yes’ escaped the lips of the group as the gravity of the situation started to sink in. Dominus Arlington sent her message across very clearly – she wasn’t one to care about frivolities. The task ahead of them started to feel just that much more dire.

Haley looked to Maxville. Even he looked slightly concerned.

“She’s exactly like how the papers portray her, isn’t she?” Maxville whispered.

Haley nodded in agreement.

Loveday still looked bored.

“What do you think is down there?” Haley asked.

It appeared she wasn’t the only one to do so, the others also breaking out in rumour as they wandered away from the tent.

“I have no idea. It’s all very vague, but I suppose that is the point of the test,” Maxville said. “Definitely, the mystery of it is meant to make us nervous. There is nothing worse than a rampant imagination.”

He turned to look at Loveday.

“I suppose some of us are immune to the effects of that,” he observed.

The earth pony blinked back, staring at the goggles around her neck.

“Don’t talk much, do you?” Maxville asked.

“Only when necessary,” Loveday replied.

“Do make sure you speak when it’s your turn in the tent,” Maxville suggested. “I dare say they would like some verbo-”

“Andrea Cuthbert!” the dominus yelled suddenly, reading off a clipboard, interrupting the thought.

Haley watched as a young, jittery pony of small stature made her way to the front, nervously grabbing the lantern by the teeth and proceeding down the steps.

Every head turned to watch in silence. Every lung held a breath, save for a few who didn’t seem to be affected by stress.

It was only a few minutes when they heard a terrifying scream and a crash, a shriek, and a loud scraping of something against stone.

The pony flew back up through the open entryway, flying out on four legs and hitting the ground with wide eyes and raspy breath. She curled up into a ball and, as everypony watched, started to sob uncontrollably.

Dominus Arlington walked over, looked down upon the blubbering form and shook her head.

“Promising batch this year,” she said dryly.


~


The first had failed, to her utter shame and embarrassment, and it was quite disheartening to see her go, but she was young, and first impressions gave way to a more medial truth. As the minutes ticked by, the candidates tried their luck one by one, and responses were extremely mixed.

Fear and nervousness washed away as the test went on, and the remaining participants all had a boost of energy and confidence with each successful entrant who proudly exited the tent bearing a green sheet of paper upon which was printed a certificate of enrollment.

The ones who failed simply left with head hung low or anger in their step, but the ones who passed stuck around to show their support.

Hope and confidence were not the only emotions that floated through the crowd – confusion struck as the purpose of the test became less and less clear.

It was never constant.

There was the one candidate who passed after a few minutes – a big, strong, burly sort who emerged from the dungeon carrying some sort of gaudy metal chalice. 

There was one candidate who failed after doing the same.

There was that one who entered, exited abruptly and requested to wait for half an hour before entering again, when the sun was fully in the sky and blazing down at maximum heat. He retrieved the same metal chalice and passed as well.

There was one candidate who emerged carrying absolutely nothing but also withdrew from the tent with a wide smile and a green piece of paper.

And there was the one who was most mysterious of all – the lonely pony who stood by himself, wearing the cloak around his face and neck. One look was all that he gave to the dungeon before he strolled over to the Dominus and whispered something in secrecy. He was pulled into the tent, and five minutes later, emerged with a fresh new certificate.

That one never said a single word about it and was not the slightest bit sociable during the entire test but sufficed himself to stay anyway, observing the other students with an air of curiosity.

There were many passes and few failures, but the numbers dwindled down to half, and before Haley knew it, Dominus Arlington was calling a very specific name.

“Maxville. Maxville Sunderland. Up front.”

Haley gasped. She didn’t know why. But she turned to her friend expectantly, giving him a nervous smile of encouragement. She pushed her hat up off her face and let him see the earnestness in her eyes.

“Well. My turn. Let’s see how this is done.” Maxville smiled, walking up to the front.

Haley turned to Loveday, who had been watching the proceedings with rapt attention.

“He’ll be fine, right?” Haley asked of the third wheel, who merely gave a shrug in return.

Haley frowned.

“He’ll be fine.” Loveday shrugged, tilting her head at Haley’s reaction to her indifference. “It does not matter what I say, you know. It won’t affect the outcome of the test.”

“Well… yeah, I know that! But still,” Haley argued. “You could be a little bit more expressive!”

“I don’t see the point. Declaring my feelings doesn’t change my feelings either,” Loveday shook her head in genuine confusion.

“It’s… it’s just about saying things,” Haley said. “Sometimes you need to let ponies know things. It makes them feel better. You know? Don’t you care about Maxville?”

“I see,” Loveday replied. “Yes, I suppose I care, sort of. Well. Here are the facts of the matter, then. He will leave in… under… ah, let’s make it fourteen minutes from now. He will emerge smiling and confident, proceed to the tent, and come out carrying the little green paper thing.”

“H-how could you say that?”

“What?”

“Like as if that’s fact?” Haley warbled incredulously.

“I dunno. It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?” Loveday shrugged, putting on her goggles, which glimmered in the sun. The lenses were covered in rainbow flecks, as if they were crafted from the finest opals and mother-of-pearl, tiny stars against a backdrop of black.

“W-what are you doing?” Haley asked.

“Preparing.”

“O-oh.” Haley turned back to stare at the entrance.

She couldn’t help but look at Loveday once in a while, though. It was funny, but her confidence made Haley that much more nervous about the whole thing.

Under fourteen minutes later, Maxville emerged, carrying nothing, beaming a winning smile to the crowd. He stepped up to the tent, bowing politely at the dominus, and disappeared within. As was predicted, he emerged with a little sheet of green paper tightly grasped in a bloom of magic.

He grinned at Haley and Loveday, moving to the side to join the other successful inductees. But he kept that eye on Haley, talking to her across the field with looks and laughs and comforting nods.

“How did you know that was going to happen?” Haley burst out excitedly. “That was amazing! I mean… down to the time and everything!”

“A simple matter of aggregates,” Loveday intoned.

“Aggre-wha?”

Loveday sighed.

“Patterns and stuff. You know. Look, all the unicorns that have gone down there so far have emerged at an average of about nineteen minutes. Given Maxville’s experience and age and intelligence, I could safely cut off five minutes from that time. Every unicorn so far has returned without the cup thing despite passing or not, so there’s something about not being able to use magic to get the cup. Seemed he would follow the same pattern. It was just a guess, really.”

“A guess?”

“Educated guess. You know. Guessing smartly. I could have been wrong.”

“Oh, I see… that’s neat!” Haley exclaimed again. “Really neat! But how’d you know he’d pass?”

“Eh… I had a feeling,” Loveday turned to look at Haley.

“Yeah. Me too.” Haley smiled, looking at Max as he mingled with the other winners, chatting it up and talking. The others had gathered around him as he led a conversation.

“Adeline Petrona Taylor Loveday!” Dominus Arlington yelled.

“Darn it!” the goggled one groused at the use of her full name.

“Good luck,” Haley whispered.

“May your nuts be tight,” Loveday grumbled.

“Wha?” Haley muttered.

“Old tinkerer’s saying. For luck,” Just Loveday explained, stepping forward a couple paces. “You’re supposed to respond with ‘and your gears well-lubed’.”

“O-oh! Well, and your ge-”

“Nope. Moment’s passed.” Loveday shook her head.

“Adelin-” the dominus’ voice rang out again with a tinge of impatience.

“Yeah! Coming! Sheesh!” the recipient called back, attracting more than a few raised eyebrows, before she turned back to Haley. “Listen. Gotta go. See ya in a bit.”

Before there was even time for Haley to respond, Loveday had swiftly pushed through the remainder of the crowd and stepped up to the entrance of the cave. She looked intense, or perhaps that was boredom, and she peered in cautiously before bending over to place the lantern on the grass.

She looked to Arlington as if to ask if it was okay.

A nod confirmed it, and the little earth pony disappeared into the ground and into the dark without the light to help.

Out of all of the applicants, she had to have been gone the longest. The looks of Maxville echoed Haley’s thoughts as time flew by, and the minutes became more agonizing as they passed.

After all, she was an earth pony of rather small stature. She was… well, weird, and a tiny bit distracted. What if something had happened?

Haley lingered on the thought, not wishing to press it further.

But still, she had to wait.

Even the crowd stopped their murmuring and chatter extinguished itself. Perhaps they were all thinking the same thing.

Half an hour later, on the minute, a figure emerged to the eruption of cheering from the crowd, who were only doing so because they were happy that she was still alive.

The little pony, hooves and face covered with dirt, grime, and soil, dragged the cup up with her inside some sort of net. Slung across her back was a strange device made out of branches and vines and other such things, and she pulled the goggles off her face as soon as she emerged, giving her two bare patches around her eyes where the dirt did not mar her skin.

The second bout of cheering came when she withdrew from the tent holding her certificate between her teeth.

The other winners rushed to her to ask their questions, to discuss and share, and true to her form, she simply tromped over to the side to sit down and attempt to not be bothered.

And all of a sudden, Haley felt afraid.

She realised then, at that moment, on which side of the field she stood.

She had no one to talk to. No one to cheer her on from the same angle. No one to stand beside her as she waited for her turn.

She was alone.

“Haley!” the dominus called.

Haley swallowed heavily.

“Haley Waleria Doudemelle!”

She let her hooves carry her to the front. Maxville was cheering. She could hear the echoes of what he said, but it seemed so very far away.

Before she knew it, she was standing there, at the gaping maw, the open cavern, the darkness beyond the stone doors.

“Haley?” Dominus Arlington asked, stepping up beside her.

“Whuh?” Haley burbled, turning away from the darkness that engulfed her sight.

“Haley,” Arlington stated again. “What’s the holdup?”

“I… I don’t think I can do this, Dominus…”

“Yeah well, you’re gonna have to, aren’t you? I mean, what are you even here for?”

“To join the Guild, ma’am.”

“Why?”

“Ma’am?” Haley asked, looking up at The Rose.

“Why are you joining? Did your mother ask you to? Peer pressure? Boredom? What?”

“N-no, ma’am! I wanted to… I just wanted to be an Adventurer!”

“Then get in there, and come talk to me later.”

Arlington stood back, dropping the lantern with a soft thud next to the young child.

Haley snatched it up with a wing, holding it close to her body. The sun was blazing down in strength, but somehow, it didn’t help to chase away the chills she felt coursing through her.

And with a hoof lacking of sufficient confidence, she descended the stairs into the thick, swollen darkness.


~


Even the tiniest of sparks served a purpose in a world where light did not naturally tread. The barest of flames – a tiny pulsating glow from behind glass panes – gave life to the chamber as it gleamed forth from the lantern. Its usefulness grew as Haley descended, each step along the damp, moss-laden stairs taking her farther and farther away from the sun.

Soon, each crack along the age-torn walls of rock held shadows of undetermined depth, the light bright enough to see but not enough to detail. It was like looking at the world through a blanket of thick mist – shapes and colours were all that gave the cavern form, but edges blended together in a swirl of muted paint.

Haley remembered how the one who had gone before, the pony just known as Loveday, dared to venture forth without the lantern. Clearly, those rainbow-specked goggles of hers had something to do with it.

And the other one she had met – the suave and confident Maxville – he had somehow passed seemingly without having done anything.

One by one, as she travelled the dusty passage, memories of the other participants and their fates ran through Haley’s mind, each one of them burning into her thoughts the farther she walked.

She hadn’t reached the end of the tunnel before she gave up determining exactly what it was that the test required of her.

The room that she stepped into was just as dark as the rest of the cavern.

The constant downward slope afforded it a high ceiling, no doubt just under the surface, but tightly closed off to the grounds above. Haley felt the debris strewn about the floor before she saw it, branches and vines and other such things crunching under-hoof as she walked slowly to the center of the chamber.

There, in the distance, was a glint of yellow and a flash of white.

Haley rushed to the bars, her heartbeat echoing throughout the cave.

Behind the thick metal bars that blocked off a corridor along one of the walls was the source of the flashes of light – a series of chalices that lay on a small wooden shelf. But far down the corridor they were, and out of leg’s reach they sat.

The bars offered no avenue to pass.

Haley stepped back. More corridors branched off from this central chamber like tentacles off an octopus. Each of them, upon further shining, also showed the glimmer of the prize. Some of them had been retrieved, leaving spots in the rows where they had been shelved ever so orderly. But all of them lay behind something which made them particularly inaccessible.

There was a path that had a contraption of sorts that would open a door only if two odd stones were stood on at the same time. It was easy to understand, but there was only one of Haley.

There was a path that teased her by having the cups only a foot away from hoof’s reach through a hole in the stone that was only half a body wide.

There was that path with the giant monster slithering away inside. Haley didn’t even want to get far enough to see it, let alone sneak by to steal one of its precious, guarded treasures.

None of them were as simple as a long pit that she could just fly over. It seemed like the trials didn’t serve to benefit any one of the three clans specifically, and the longer she stayed there, the more distraught she got at her inability, as much as she tried, to overcome the separate obstacles.

It was also quite apparent why everyone else save one had ended within a certain time.

Her lantern flickered. The oil it carried was burning away slowly. Very soon, she would be plunged into complete darkness without a lifeline.

But despite that, she furrowed her brow and tightened her throat.

She would find one. One passage. She would conquer it thoroughly and make it out with the chalice set firmly between her teeth.

She had to.


~


She wanted to cry openly. But her overwhelming sense of disappointment stemmed the tide of tears, and she simply stood there sniffing slightly to herself.

Her cheeks burned as she stared at Dominus Arlington and the two hooded figures that flanked her from across the table. She was only waiting for the invigilator to speak, but the wait was what was unbearable.

“So, that’s it, then?” The teacher clarified, poring over a set of documents on the table in front of her.

Haley didn’t respond, sufficing herself to fail at keeping her sadness bottled in.

“Alright. Step by step. What happened?”

Haley let loose a small cough.

“I didn’t make it, ma’am. I didn’t get to the end. I f-failed the test.”

“I didn’t ask you what you think’s going on, Haley. I asked you what happened.”

Haley swallowed and closed her eyes. She didn’t know what to say. There was nothing she could have said to make the situation any better.

“I entered the dungeon,” she explained. “And made my way to the middle chamber.”

“And?”

“And I tried a few paths. I was not able to get past any of the tricks, and so I had to leave because the lantern was going out. I was unable to get the goblet, ma’am.”

“What do you mean by ‘tricks’?” Arlington asked.

“Well, ma’am, when I looked at the paths, I saw there were things that I needed to do to get to the end. There was some kind of puzzle or something for each of them.”

“And why were you not able to get past any of them?”

Haley couldn't help but roll her eyes at the question. It was completely unintentional, but she had no means to stop it.

“I just… couldn’t, ma’am,” she offered as an answer.

“I’m going to ask again,” Arlington said, narrowing her eyes. “Why were you not able to get past any of them?”

Haley huffed. She pressed her eyelids together, a new emotion pushing through. It burned a little. It rose with the heat in her throat and escaped from her mouth in the form of an exasperated sigh.

“Listen,” Arlington said, snapping sharply. “Hey!”

Haley pulled her eyes open in shock, focusing on the Dominus.

“Listen up, kid,” the tester said, frowning, leaning forward over the table. “There’s two ways you can go about this now. I ask questions, and you answer. You answer straight and true, and you quit all this other nonsense. Otherwise, as I said during the briefing, you’re free to leave.”

The Wild Rose cocked her head toward the tentflap.

“There’s the exit. Get out if you want to, and maybe you can save yourself a little face if that’s what you really want. You’ll be free to try out again next year, but right now I’m giving you the opportunity to leave by your own terms and not waste our time.”

Haley’s mouth gaped open slightly.

“I can… just leave?” she asked softly.

“Yeah. I gave this option to a couple of your friends out there. I’m sure you’ve noticed that some have taken it.”

Haley sighed again, eyes wandering as a stray thought floated through the heavy miasma in her brain.

Perhaps it wouldn’t be that bad. After all, she failed, hadn’t she? She’d only have to come again in the future with more preparation. She clearly didn’t have what the others had. Maxville and Loveday had qualities they were looking for, and from the way this interview was going, she certainly didn’t.

She stepped to the side, unconsciously, shifting her stance toward the flap that led out of the tent.

“So I’m going to ask you one last time, Haley,” Arlington said again. “Why did you fail?”

“I’m sorry, Dominus,” Haley uttered, shaking her head.

One last sigh.

It was the sigh of conclusion.

The young girl bowed to the teachers, politely, as her mother always taught her to do, and with an air about her, pushed past the flap and left the tent.

The sun blinded her as she stepped outside, and she felt an anger she hadn’t felt for quite a long time. She felt a burning deep within.

Through blurry eyes she saw Maxville standing a short distance away, a smile on his face slowly turning to one of surprise and sadness.

She saw Loveday who looked up for just a moment from her seat under a tree, only to turn away again in disgust.

She was angry.

But she wasn’t sure what she was angry about.

A churning, bubbling feeling came up, a turmoil of emotion, a slew of confusion. It set her rooted on the grass upon which she stood, and as much as she wanted to turn and hide her face from everypony else, she found that she couldn’t.

Something felt wrong about what she was doing.

She had seen others leave in a similar fashion. The ones who had tromped off in a state of anger, or the ones who had slinked away in a fit of tears.

It seemed wrong.

She took off her hat.

And then put it back on.

She pushed it up on her brow and stared vacantly through the crowd to the skies beyond.

But that unseen, invisible force pushed her, and before she realised, she had taken one single step in reverse, moving backwards toward the tent.

It was then when she turned and, with unnecessary force, burst through the tent once again, planting herself firmly in front of the table, seething with a quiet anger – or was it something else? – regarding the three figures who stood there.

The dominus was surprisingly unperturbed. The two hooded characters too, said nothing, remaining silent as they had throughout the entire process thus far.

“I…” Haley started.

But she stopped. She hadn’t thought this much. She barely knew what she was doing.

Arlington drew in a breath of her own, tilting her head back and to the side and returning to regard Haley with a wry, pursed lip.

“Why,” the dominus said, with a calmness that was oddly unreflective of the situation, “were you not able to pass any of the trials?”

“Because I didn’t know how!” Haley screamed, determinedly, the words bursting open a flood. “I-I-I simply could not! Some of them required more than one pony to accomplish or some other sort of trick! I’m not very strong! I’m not very smart! I couldn’t get past them, and I couldn’t think of a way to figure out some of the tricks! That’s all it was, Dominus!”

“And what of the route with the wadjet?”

“I was scared if you must know! I didn’t even try!”

“Why not?” Arlington continued with that odd air of calmness.

“Because I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it alone!” Haley huffed, still manic in her explanation.

“Hm.”

Haley was left there breathing heavily, sight dizzying slightly from the torrent of catharsis. She could only pant while the dominus gave her a quizzical look.

“Must have been pretty hard for you to say that,” Arlington commented casually.

“It was very hard!” Haley belted, shaking her head and catching her breath. She repeated her words, this time with a softer air and a calmer disposition, the end of her tirade.

“It was very hard.”

“So why did you come back here just to tell us that, then? You left because you failed, isn’t that what you think? Why put yourself through this?”

“Ma-may I speak freely, Dominus?” Haley asked.

“A bit late to ask that, really, but yes.”

“Because it wasn’t right.”

“Explain.”

“I do not know, Dominus,” Haley tried, letting the swell of emotions within her ease off into a gentler stream. “I just don’t know. But when I left I felt… I felt that it wasn’t right to have left. You asked me a question. It was only right that I answer.”

“You ‘don’t know’ why?”

“I do not. I can not explain. I am sorry, Dominus. And I am sorry for my… conduct.”

“Ah, so polite. Yeah, no problem. We have to deal with that a lot more than you think. Alright, lads, what do you think?” she said, turning over her shoulder to regard the silent figures behind her.

The first one, to her left, nodded. The other hood shook left to right.

“Looks like a tie. Guess I’m going to have to-”

“Um…” Haley muttered.

“What?” Arlington replied.

“What… may I ask what is going…?”

“We’re discussing if you pass or not. Well. I say discussing,” Arlington explained.

“But… I thought I’d already failed, ma’am.”

The dominus snorted, putting a hoof on the table.

“Listen, kid,” she said, pointing the hoof towards the young girl. “As long as you’re standing in front of me, you’ll always be considered. You’d be wise to realise that not once did I ever say that you failed. You just assumed that yourself, and that’s something of your own problem. Not mine.”

“But I left!” Haley blurted out, before she could stop herself.

“Yeah? So? Ponies make mistakes, right? Who would we be to turn everyone away just because they made a mistake? This isn’t what it’s all about. It’s not about making mistakes. We don’t want the ones who walk away from them. That’s the difference. You came back for a reason, and maybe we don’t know what that reason is, but it’s something worth exploring.

“So here’s where we are. My friend over there says you’re alright by him. My other friend thinks you should return next year. Guess what? My call. So why don’t you give it a bit of a thought and tell me why you decided to come back?”

“I suppose I just… didn’t want to lie, ma’am.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I don’t know. I can’t really explain it. I just feel that… when I was standing out there, I remembered the others who left. They could have left sad or angry. I could have walked away sad or angry. But I didn’t want to. You said that by leaving we’d be leaving on our own terms. But I didn’t believe that was true. I think that leaving on my own terms means that I’d have to… tell the truth. I would have to say what I needed to have said, because if I hid it, it’d be… sort of lying, I guess. I don’t know.”

Haley shuffled slightly, placing her weight back and forth from leg to leg.

“I don’t really mind if I fail, Dominus. I just wanted to come back and answer your question. I’ll come back next year if I have to. Maybe I’ll have learnt how to pass in time. I’ll practice, surely. I’ll read up more and have mum teach me a few things.”

“Yeah, Caspia knows a couple tricks. She’s a smart one, she is.”

“Yes, ma’am. My mo-”

Haley stopped.

“You know my mother?” she asked, finally hearing what had just been said.

Arlington stared down the length of her nose at Haley, remaining silent. It was at that moment when she herself looked quite focused, as if giving something quite a lot of thought.

“You know, you’re putting me in a spot here,” Arlington told her. It seemed off-script, but Haley couldn’t be sure. “The way we test ponies here is either through skill or conviction. They’re both pretty straightforward. For example, the ones you were hanging out with earlier – Maxville shows conviction and intelligence, and that… weird one with the hair was pure skill through and through.

“On the other hoof, you’re something I can’t quite classify. Don’t get me wrong. You’re not special. In fact, you’re a little bit more unremarkable than most who pass by. But I don’t usually have this much trouble pegging someone this far down the road.

“So on one side somepony wants to give you a chance. Perhaps he sees something in you a little bit more. On the other side, perhaps you’re just a little bit too unremarkable. So what do I choose, Haley?”

“I want to be in the Adventurer’s Guild, ma’am!” Haley cried out sharply.

“But you couldn’t even do any of the trials yourself!” Arlington shot back.

“I’ll… I’ll bring a friend next time!” Haley implored. “Why do we have to do things alone? Aren’t we allowed to make friends?”

The dominus reared back, the edge of her mouth curling up strangely. It was a sort of incredulous smirk, the kind that one gives when one is bemused at an unlikely occurrence.

“Heh. Do you know why we spread out what we teach across twelve guilds here? Why we only allow students to pick one for a year?”

“I… I don’t know, ma’am, but I have been asked this just earlier today!”

“Yeah, we ask this a lot,” Arlington said snidely, her eyes darting to the left for just a split second. “It’s the first thing we teach students here at the Guild. The reason is simple. The first rule of the Guild is that we are never alone.”

“Ma’am?”

“The one thing that we try to instill in our students is the one thing that is most easily overlooked. No pony is an island, as they say. We need to rely on trusted friends for help. We need not be embarrassed or ashamed of asking for it, and the trials that we encounter may not always be conquerable through sheer determination alone. Sometimes it takes a bit more than face to ask for help. We teach our students to work with others and not for themselves.

“We only allow students to pick two masteries at most because we want you to learn from each other. To make friends in the right places and have them fill the gaps in your life where you lack. We want you to be… a team.”

Haley stood there silently, listening. It was not the time to respond. It was clear that the dominus was thinking deeply. Her head was bowed and there was a little noise that she was making as she sucked air over her lower lip.

With a final click of her tongue, she nodded somberly, her wild red mane bobbing to her movements.

“Right. I’ve decided. Some might call me silly for doing so, but I believe that skills can be taught. Knowledge can be learnt. It’s only hard work and perseverance that will push you past those boundaries. What’s impossible to teach is spirit and heart. May the Gears help you if this is all an act, but I think you’ve got a strong heart. It takes a strong heart to throw your pride away in the pursuit of truth.

 “But you’re not going to choose your chapter, do you understand? You’re going to be monitored very closely. You’re going to have to work very hard and learn a lot of things and train a lot of other things to keep up with everypony else, and it’s not going to be easy.”

Haley tried to keep still. But what was being said was nearly unmistakable, and Haley felt a swell of emotions coming in the other direction.

“So, congratulations. You’re in the Adventurer’s Guild,” Arlington said, writing something down and sweeping a green piece of paper across the table to Haley.

Haley stopped it from flapping about with a hoof like a cat pouncing on a toy, grabbing it to see her name printed across the certificate.

“It’s gonna be a long, hard road ahead, but there’s a silver lining,” Arlington continued.

“Y-yes ma’am?” Haley asked, unable to take her eyes off the sheet of paper.

“I’m going to be the one who’s making sure you’re sticking in line all the way,” she said with a crooked smile. “Welcome to the archaeologists.”













“Oh my!” Fluttershy gasped. “That must have been incredibly nerve-wracking.”

“Yeah,” Haley chuckled. “It was, a little. I’m glad I did what I had to do in the end, though. It wasn’t the best result, but it never is, is it? Still, it was a step in the right direction. And… it was for the best.”

“And what about your two friends? How did they manage to pass?”

“Oh, well. Loveday was just… I do not know. She’s just an absolute boffo genius when it comes to making things. We became rather good friends in the end, as did I and Maxville. We were quite the trio back in school! Loveday sort of made a mechanism to fetch a cup for her. Passed merely through that alone and was admitted to the tinkerers quite easily.

“Max, on the other hoof, well, he simply deduced that the test didn’t necessarily matter. He told Arlington that he realised they were being vague on purpose as to the goal of the tests, and that he wasn’t able to pass any of them, but he knew how to, given he had the adequate resources. I think somewhere along the line he must have impressed them, and he was actually asked to join the Outfitters. Kept him quite busy, indeed, but we’ve had our adventures together!”

“Oh, friendship is such a lovely thing. And stories are such a good way to pass the time!” Fluttershy chirped. “Thank you very much for telling me the tale, Miss Haley. I’m nearly done with my tests, but so far, there doesn’t seem to be anything at all out of the ordinary. You surely aren’t made of ink or anything of the like. I’d like to run a few other tests, however, just to make sure that the trip over here hadn’t made you sick or injured in any way. So if you would please…”

“Surely,” Haley responded, walking over to her.

“All I have to do is-”

The bang made both Haley and Fluttershy jump, Fluttershy a lot higher than her counterpart.

The door peeled itself off the wall, creaking forward, as a figure, chest and back heaving, stood in the frame.

Gaping mouths and wandering eyes flew around the room. Neither of the three wanted to speak. But one made the first move.

Rainbow stepped forward, rushing into the room. She wouldn’t take her eyes off Haley. It had been a while, but Haley still couldn’t help but feel slightly stiff in regards to the pony who had uttered certain comments not too long ago.

“Daring!” Rainbow said to Haley directly through gritted teeth, standing on edge, shoulders raised and wings ready to flap. “We’ll talk later, alright? There are… There’s things I gotta say, but there’s no time now! I need your help! If you’re really the Daring Do that I know, you’ll come with me now.”

“Wh-what is it, Rainbow?” Fluttershy asked.

Rainbow threw a hoof to the door, and in the backdrop of day, a thin stream of black smoke rose up through the air like a spear, cutting through the clouds and plunging itself into the sky.

“The library’s on fire!” Rainbow yelled.





To Be Continued ––––––––––––>