//------------------------------// // wanderlust // Story: Lets Talk // by odeeyou //------------------------------// Big Mac released a breath he felt like he’d been holding for most of his life. He was tired. Nopony knew just how tired he really was. He knew that this wasn’t what life had set out for him. No. This was the life he’d set for himself. He wouldn’t trade what he had now for anything in the world. No would he ever wish for anything to be different for fear that it might come true. Sometimes though, he wondered what might have been. What might have been if his parents hadn’t died in that accident so long ago now? He could guess though. Oh lordy he could guess. Few ponies remembered all the trouble he’d gotten into a colt. Fewer still remembered the wanderlust that ran deep in his veins. It was a wanderlust that he’d inherited, his father had told him. Toughened muscles of over two decades of hard work gave no signs of weakness as he climbed the tallest tree in the orchard. His usual calm expression lit up slightly as he looked to the midnight horizon lit up in moonlight. He could feel it calling to him. He fought back the painful memories of his parents death until he reached the more pleasant ones were they still lived and would continue to do so. His father was a farm pony. He was a hard worker and neither he nor anypony else could ever remember him wanting for more than he needed. That is until a chestnut mare with gold hair walked into town. Barely aware of the town around her, he joked as she marched through with full saddlebags, camping gear, a sword across her back, a compass around her neck and a map in her hoof. According to his father, she appeared to be headed straight toward the Everfree Forest and looked to be cutting through the orchard in whatever direction she was headed. In fact she was so busy looking at her compass that she didn’t even see him until she near walked into him. He said she was the prettiest pony he’d ever laid eyes on and was so flummoxed that he’d said the first thing that came to thought. “Will ya go out wi’ me?” He said he must have blushed crimson at having said that to a mare he hadn’t even been properly introduced to. She looked surprised and confused for a few moments, looking back and forth from him to the compass. After a minute of awkward staring she looked at him with a small laugh and a smile that lit up a fire in his soul before speaking a word that would forever sweeten his life more than any apple could hope to. She said “Yes.” His father always had been a hopeless romantic. He said his mother never told him what it was about him that made her say yes. Times that he’d ask she would just give a little mysterious smile and laugh. His mother was an adventurer and according to her, it ran in the blood. Oh, the stories she would tell him… and the pretend adventures he would have reenacting them got him in so much trouble… “Some day.” She would tell him. She had even begun teaching him the basics of her sword art. Then suddenly, like a flame extinguished… they were gone. Adventures were over. He’d gotten his cutie mark that day. Applebloom had only just been born and Granny would be too busy taking care of the foal to help around the farm. She was too old to be bucking apples anyway. Applejack was still just a little thing herself and just starting school. It would be two years before she left to Manehatten to find her cutie mark. That left him to take care of the family. His desires and wanderlust were nothing to his family and he’d made sure they never wanted for anything just like his father had before him. And so, time passes on. Granny had passed on a few years ago peacefully while napping in her rocker. Applebloom got her cutie mark and finished schooling. Applejack was engaged to a smart young stallion and was running the farm well enough on her own now with the help of her stallion friend and Applebloom. Yet neither of them had ever shown the wanderlust he’d had. Applebloom came closest in her youth what with crusading with her friends but she had eventually grown out of it. When they were younger, he had told them the stories mother had told him in his youth but they just laughed and shook their heads. And he… well… As he came back to his wits, he looked out at the horizon again and realized he’d been up there all night. The first rays of light were just beginning to creep over the hills. Climbing down the tree he made his way to the far corner of the property where a collection of cut stones stood from the earth. He paused but a moment before continuing to a small shack in the corner that held tools to keep the small plot clean. Amidst the tools hung a sword. Brass handle and griffin steel and completely unembellished. “No sense in making something fancy that was made for something dirty.” His mother had told him once. Next to the sword was a specially made adjustable foreleg bracer with a chain that attached from the bracer to the sword hilt. Both were enchanted by a unicorn smithy up in Canterlot. He’d saved up twelve years of his wages to pay for them. With methodical precision he began to fit on the bracer, attach the chain, strap on the saddle bags and secure the sword over his back. Precision that came from years of practice in the Everfree. He hesitated for a second as he reached up to the yoke around his neck. The yoke had been around his neck for most of his life now… He pulled it off and hung it on one of the hooks, releasing a sigh as he did so. He’d been afraid he wouldn’t be able to let go. Just as he was about to step out he saw something else hanging on a hook that he never paid much mind to before now. His Grandpa’s old battered fedora. With an amused huff, he pulled it from the hook and squared it on his head before stepping out of the shack and into the sunrise. From the saddlebag he pulled an old compass. Broken some would say, but his mother had told him that the compass knew where to take you. The needle that had long pointed to the farm… turned suddenly to the south. Turning to face the needle’s direction, he gave the farm a last glance and smiled before stepping out into his own adventure. “Eeyup.” It was time.