Author's Notes:

BOOK 1: PART 4: COMMITMENT

Shadow was on Cardinal Spitfire's wing. It was easier this way as they were heading to her home and he only had a vague idea of where he was.

“Can you smell the apples?” She asked.

Shadow took a deep breath in. “Nope.”

“The oats are looking good,” She commented.

“They do,” Shadow replied.

“Can you see the trees?”

“Yes,” Shadow said.

Cardinal Spitfire began to glide and Shadow came up besides her.

She smiled at him. “I am glad you said to visit. I would have regretted it.”

“You say that now,” Shadow laughed.

They may have been side by side, but Shadow joined Cardinal Spitfire as she quietly pulled up and then flipped around to land in the street and right in front of their sidewalk. Unlike Shadow's community, the houses were barely set back from the street.

Cardinal Spitfire knocked on the door and waited. She knocked again.

“I'm coming!” Spearmint yell from deep inside the house.

The door opened by it was not Spearmint. It was Fire. He was bigger than shadow, but his rear legs were shaking and skinny. He was aptly name give his coat and mane color.

“Hey Fire!” Cardinal Spitfire said with a big smile on her face.

“Cardinal Spitfire, what are you doing here?” He stumbled.

“Trying to visit. Duh.”

“Sorry, come on in, both of you! Just can't believe it. Mom and Dad went to your graduation only a two months ago.”

“I thought it was longer,” Cardinal Spitfire replied.

“Because it has been ten weeks,” Shadow stated.

“We are in week nine and ACS is ten weeks,” Cardinal Spitfire said confused.

“Now its eleven.”

“Oh, right, but Shadow, this is my brother, Fire. And Fire, he was my battle buddy and now teammate in my current school.”

“Nice to meet you Fire,” Shadow said shaking his hoof.

“The same to you Shadow,” Fire said. “Glad you could make it. I heard a bit about you and saw you in the photographs.”

“Fire! Who is it?” Spearmint Spitfire called out.

“She is in the kitchen, scrambling to make snacks,” Fire explained. “Dad and Auburn are dealing with and issue with the trees and many other farmers are here, trying to help.”

“Fire?”

“Sorry Mom,” Fire called out. “We are in the living room. It is Cardinal Spitfire and a friend from training.”

“I thought she was in training?”

“I got unexpected leave mom!” Cardinal Spitfire yelled.

“Give me a minute. Got to pull these out of the oven.”

“This is a farm house?” Shadow asked walking around a bit.

“Oh boy,” Cardinal Spitfire rolled her eyes. “Lets not get into housing stories. I know this is big.”

“Please,” Shadow chuckled. “My sister's house is big. 11 bedrooms plus the master. With a bathroom in the master bedroom, one at the end of the hall, another one by the stairs and and just the toilet downstairs. They went outrageously big, but are a Homestead.”

“My parent's house is average. It is only six bedrooms. Both are two stories, with the stairs attached to the living room and the walkway overlooking the family room. Standard design. My parents have been planning on putting the addition on that was designed two generations ago when things got tight. And with Lunar pregnant it is probably going to happen in a year or two.”

“I never pictured you living in such a big house,” Cardinal Spitfire said shocked. “I mean, its… everything is simple for you.”

“Simple until it comes to family,” Shadow chuckled. “Then things get complicated fast. But houses are simple, big, but simple.”

“I wish we had a room downstairs,” Fire added. “It would make things easier.”

“Understandable,” Shadow nodded. “Big houses or not, we really just care about being together with a roof over our head. Few houses have downstairs rooms. We go up to allow more room to grow crops.”

“Which isn’t always the best idea,” Shadow admitted.

“There you are dear!” Spearmint Spitfire said coming over to hug Cardinal Spitfire.

“Mom,” She hugged her back.

“You undid your hair?”

“It was really starting to bother me being up. But you remember-”

“Flair, Yes. Black Flair.”

“Close,” Shadow smiled. “Shadow Flair.”

“Now, unexpected leave?”

“It is complicated Mom,” Cardinal Spitfire said. “Several days off, so to New Cloudsdale. It was where everypegasus on leave goes. So really easy to flip out here. It is now a really fast flight.”

“How fast?” Fire asked.

“Just over an hour cruise for us,” Cardinal Spitfire said. “He can keep up with me. Mostly.”

“Yellow is out in the orchard with troubles?” Shadow asked.

“Yes,” She said nervously. “It has everypegasus around her concerned because we do not know what is happening.”

“Fire, can you show me where they are?” Shadow asked. “Let them catch up.”

“Yeah. Follow me. They are not far.”

“Hoe and shovel for your cutie mark,” Shadow pointed out. “Skilled on the farm?”

“I was when I got it,” Fire sighed. “But not anymore.”

“How did you get it?”

“Working in the orchard. We were replanting trees. Disease struck and we quickly chopped them down to stop it.”

“Good call,” Shadow nodded. “So you know planting and cloud soil.”

“I was learning. I loved it. Although here we don't call it cloud soil.”

“Why stop? You need a good top layer, be it below in the dirt or in the clouds. Good name.”

“What? I can't… It's not proper.”

“What would be proper? How you see it changes how you farm. As soil it makes more sense.”

“It doesn't matter for me anymore,” Fire said dropping his head.

“Are you unable to learn and master the cloud side of cloud farming and passing on your knowledge?” Shadow coaxed. “Back in my community, we knew who had the best knowledge about certain things and we would go to the experts. Many were old and well past their field years. But they consulted and passed down their knowledge.”

“I am not a good farm pony, but I know most everything,” Shadow continued. “I know how to plant and keep them growing, however they just always die on me. I have a black hoof.”

Fire laughed with Shadow.

“Fire, Who is our visitor? Wait, you were Cardinal Spitfires friend, Shadow something.” Yellow said.

“Yes sir. Shadow Flare. Cardinal Spitfire and I got an unexpected leave and followed the others to New Cloudsdale.”

Shadow laughed. “The city scares me, so I came out with her to visit. She is inside the house. But you have a farming problem?”

“Ah, yes. Shadow Flare is a real farming pegasus,” Yellow said to the dozen others with him.

“What do you mean by 'real'?”

Shadow chuckled. He began to talk about home. Turnips, parsnips, cherries, and what their farming entailed. He had captivated them all.

“I now get real,” One said. “So you have to be pretty strong despite that size. ”

“I have my strengths,” Shadow nodded. “But not for plowing and harvesting. I still do harvest, but slow. My three older sisters are bigger than me. As big if not bigger than you. Lunar Harvest is bigger than any of you. My younger sister was my size when I left for Basic, the same time as Cardinal Spitfire left, and should be much bigger than me by now.”

“You have four sisters?”

“Yep,” Shadow said, launching into the explanation. “And we are not overcrowded and there is room for more farms in places. The Enclave doesn't bother us so far out as long as give them our food tax. Which we more than happily do. It is our duty.”

“But my sisters. Lunar is getting the farm with her husband Buck. Buck is the second son of my Dad's best friend. His farm is secure. Spice is now married to Rift who is an only pony, Early Blossom started a Homestead with Cherry Tart further out. Dream Cather will never run a farm. She is a really good healer and spends her time doing medical work and tending her medicinal herb garden.”

“You said pony?”

Shadow chuckled. “Impossible to get rid of. That is how far out and old our roots are. We still use that term rather than pegasus. Yes, it is a problem as a soldier. I am given leniency on the matter thankfully. I slip back to it when I do not focus on the change. Like talking farming.”

Shadow shrugged to change topics. “But lets see what this problem is.”

Shadow was shown the row of apple trees leaning over a perilous angles.

“We fixed the first three a week ago, now this,” Yellow said. “Today we found them all like this.”

“Rain?”

“No more than usual.”

“Liters per year?”

Nopony knew.

“First, you need to know how much rain you get,” Shadow coached. “You can not trust the weather teams They know nothing about farming. They don't even do anything for us other than push stuff our way. The north brings in whatever it wants.”

Shadow looked around the first tree. He hopped a bit and then put his head down and looked at the row. He knew he was getting odd looks from it.

“You have no irrigation,” Shadow announced. He picked off a piece of cloud, tossed it up and it immediately fell straight down. “It should not do that. Not for the top layer. It should float a bit.”

Shadow took another piece off the top, this time from the row over. It fell quickly, but not straight down like the other.

“That one is better, but still soaked. You have to make sure the clouds do not soak up too much. If they do… well a bad storm when I was young had me chasing down a row of floating turnip sprouts before they disappeared on us. That was a tough year. We recovered, only loosing twenty percent of the crop.”

“But your rows are flat. You have no dip to slide water into. If you do not irrigate properly soon, then the rest will go. Your roots look solid, but I am not a tree expert. The cloud soil looks good for trees as well. I was learning that before I left. I was living with my sister and their cherry farm. Do you have fertilizer?”

“In the barn we do,” Yellow said.

“We can pop a little beneath the trees to help regrow the roots. And when you dig your irrigation rows, you can pile the soil up on top of the tree row.”

“Dig?”

Shadow rolled his eyes. “Right, forgot everypony here is ‘right’ by the Enclave. Yes dig. Not deep, but you have to get the water to channel or it will rot out your crops, topple trees and other problems. That same year with all the rain, the wheat farm right by us lost half it's crop when the wheat rows completely slid and crushed half the crop like a mudslide.”

“A mudslide?” One of them asked.

“Right,” Shadow sighed. “Sorry. It is a bit fun trying to translate things. My family is one of the first cloud farming families. Our farm has stood in the same spot since cloud farming began. We still use some soil techniques and the terms that are passed down. Nopony knows irrigation here?”

Cardinal Spitfire started laughing behind him. He had no idea that she had come out.

“You never will be normal,” She decreed. “But I assume you know the problem.”

“And explained,” Shadow smiled. “But teaching irrigation takes time. Something we don't have ourselves.”

“Who would know?” Yellow asked.

“My Dad and Black our the irrigation experts in my community. That is a 9 day trip for them. If they can leave the farms. I do not know if they know anypony else closer. Worth the call. For now, we need to get these trees anchored. At least three ropes per tree. Four preferably.”

“Yellow, we will head home and bring ropes after lunch.”

Yellow nodded and they left.

“We spend a lot of time irrigating,” Shadow explained. “The root crops have the most trouble in the clouds. It is so easy for them to be picked up and carried away or rot out.”

Yellow sighed. “This will be interesting. I can't afford to lose the crop. Can we call your father?”

“The houses there don't have phones,” Shadow replied, thinking. “But we could call the clinic. I could get a runner from a pony we know.”

“We need to mail those things,” Cardinal Spitfire added. “We would have to get that number in town.”

“It would be very much appreciated if you can go inquire?” Yellow asked.

“Crops first, we can mail later,” Shadow stated. “Be right back.”

Shadow launched straight up, Cardinal Spitfire jumped to join him. She hadn't learned the launch yet. She needed power armor to learn. When they landed, they were pointed to the post office for the call. Only they would have such an obscure number. Cardinal Spitfire did the packaging while Shadow made the call.

“This is the El Nino clinic. How can I help you?”

“I need to get a hold of Turnip Lance of the turnip Homestead. This is his son, Shadow Flare. I know my sister Dream Catcher-”

“Oh, you just missed them. They headed out for lunch. Lance is doing what he can to get to know him. Where did they say they were going. Oh right, Sids.”

Shadow got the number and called it.

“Sids. They best place to sids for lunch.”

“Hey, this is Shadow Flare of the Turnip Homestead.”

“No way. Heard about you and what you are doing. What do you need?”

“I have a question for my dad, Lance. I was told he is there for lunch.”

Shadow could hear yelling in the background as he called for Lance.

“Shadow?”

“Hey Dad. Nothing wrong. All good.”

“That is a relief with you calling.”

“I am on leave for a few days, visiting a friend's family, they are farmers.”

“This is Cardinal Spitfire's family?”

“Yes. We ended up in the next training school together. New Cloudsdale is where everypegasus goes on leave, but her home is only an hours flight for us. We fly fast, and the city scares me so she had me tag along.”

Lance was chuckling. Shadow was fast and choppy to get to the point.

“I am surprised we caught you in the city. They farm apples, and a row is leaning bad. About to be unrecoverable. They need to irrigate immediately, and I only have today. I can't teach them in such a short time, and they have no idea what they are doing, or anypegasus to ask. It was quite a few of the surrounding farms there to try and figure out what to do. Its that rain year bad, and I was getting that the other farms are in trouble. Do you know anypegasus nearer who can help?”

“When was the last irrigation?”

“I am in their local town, its a long distance call meaning we had to get it at the post office, but everything is flat and soaked.”

“Damn,” Lance said. “We all know irrigation, enough to cover our crops. I do not know of anypony who could teach it out there. Can you call the clinic in an hour?”

“Yes,” Shadow said. “Thank you.”

Lance just hung up.

“So?” Cardinal Spitfire asked.

“Call the clinic in an hour,” Shadow answered. “This is the number.”

“We can call that from the house,” Cardinal Spitfire smiled. “Lets get this package sent and head back.”

It was a suspenseful hour, and it was still too early for lunch. There wasn't much on their minds other than the call, even though they had their daughter back for a day and a visitor. Nopony minded.

“This is the El Nino clinic. How can I help you?”

“This is Shadow Flare, calling for Lance.”

“Let me get him.”

“We are back at the farm,” Shadow said.

“Well then, let me talk to the farm master.”

“I am on our second line Sir. My name is Yellow. My son, Auburn is on our third line.”

“Well Yellow and Auburn, I am Lance. Lets get down to the problem.”

Yellow was only able to answer about half the questions Lance asked.

“Well Yellow, you are in a tricky situation. And Shadow believes the other farms in the area are as well.”

“Probably. We had no idea what Shadow was talking about.”

“Good to know you still remember Shadow.”

“They can add more knowledge, not remove it,” Shadow chuckled. “Besides, I will be back.”

“Business,” Lance said thinking. “Buck and Lunar can handle the farm. Black and I are slowing down. Just slowing. I have even been coming into town once a week to meet with Dream Catcher's courter.”

“I can head out in the morning. Rain Jubilee will probably want to join me and Black and his wife, Golden Harvest, very well may be able to join.”

“All the way here?” Yellow said shocked.

“Is that a problem?”

“No Lance. Just surprised. It is a long flight.”

“And you are a farm in trouble. Black and I have both made long trips before for various farm troubles and huge projects.”

“We will pay you to come out,” Yellow said. “And I know others will pitch in to help so they can learn while you help our farm.”

“We can discuss any payments when we arrive,” Lance said. “Save the farm first. Feed the pegasi first. That is what matters.”

“Doing this for us, when we barely know Shadow-”

“I am not doing this because you know Shadow,” Lance said cutting him off. “Farms first. I know about your problem through Shadow. That is all. Shadow wasn't born when I flew three days to help stop a big disease that was decimating the carrot farms south of us. All Black and I knew was that they needed all the hooves they could get as fast as they could. That is our duty. To feed the Pegasus Race.”

Yellow was speechless.

“You are redefining duty to me Sir,” Auburn said.

“Wonderful,” Lance replied. “The more with a strong sense of duty, the better things are.”

Lance had to pull the phone away from his face to cough.

“So, we are good to have four to come leaving tomorrow?” Lance asked.

“Absolutely. This is a wondrous gift.”

“Thank me after the work is done,” Lance said. “Shadow, it sounds like you can handle securing the trees?”

“With all the others helping, it will only take a few hours,” Shadow replied.

“Good. I wish I knew more about talking on the phone.”

“No you don't,” Shadow said laughing. Lance joined in.

“You take care son. I am proud of you.”

“The same Dad. Safe flight.”

Lance hung up without saying anymore.

“Well, he is all business,” Yellow commented.

“That is my Dad,” Shadow replied. “And Black. When there is an issue to deal with, their minds is on solving the problem. But they both are talkative when things calm down and a good plan is in place. I do not know how many times my Dad has used a phone. If he ever has.”

“It is very appreciated. Thank you.”

“I didn't see him leaving the farm,” Shadow admitted. “I thought he could hop us to a closer farmer, who could redirect us to a closer one and such. I don’t even recall the closest Homestead.”

“I should have know that you would end up doing some work Shadow,” Cardinal Spitfire said bored. “I had to explain what leave was and practically drag him off the base. It is all work.”

Shadow chuckled. “Time off never existed. If we didn't need it, we often went to help another farm. I do not know what to do with more than a few hours break or such. Even the really light days, we stayed home. Maybe head out to a family's or friend's farm down the way for the day, or overnight. But never just open freedom.”

Yellow smiled. “It is better to know a life of only work and learn to relax than to relax and have to learn to work for your life. But I think Lunch is ready.”

It was a typical farm lunch, light and fast. Just sandwiches with your choice of vegetables.

“Shadow, do you know this stamp?” Cardinal Spitfire asked. “It is the jar of canned cherries my mom used for the cherry tarts for the help.”

“Yeah,” Shadow laughed. “That is the original Cherry Homestead. Cherry Tart was sent out by her family to found a new Homestead out west. They gave her a similar seal since it still is the family farm, just the west one. It is good to see that the food is being evenly redistributed across the Enclave.”

“Told you he would know,” Cardinal Spitfire said to her mother.

“You don't have to rub it in. I am impressed.”

“I know a lot of farm ID Tags from working harvests,” Shadow continued. “Nothing special. Now, when I can tell you where something is from, that is another thing. But I can really only do that with turnips and parsnips. Every cloud farmer who grows turnips got their seed from our family and each cloud mix tastes different by region.”

“But, lets get out to get these trees fixed,” Shadow announced. “Then we can relax. Oh, and Fire, when my Dad comes, let him know your cutie mark and he will make sure you learn it all. Become the local expert about irrigation and anything else he passes along.”

“I certainly will,” Fire grinned. “If he is willing to go this far, then I know I can learn and actually serve a purpose in the community.”

“That would be perfect for you,” Yellow backed him up. “You are a smart one Shadow. We all were at a loss.”

“Thank you Yellow,” Shadow smiled. “But I just was raised to look to better help the community. And I grew up the weakest, always getting the scraps and trying to find out how best to fit in. You will all see a big difference in our idea of community from what I have gotten from Cardinal Spitfire. It works for us out there, if it will work here or not, I do not know. Each community is different and unique. Each has different needs. Each has it’s own beauty.”

“It is good to know my mother is coming out,” Shadow commented. “Even with Lunar expecting, it will be wonderful to get her out of the house. And Lunar isn't that far along.”

“I am coming to watch,” Cardinal Spitfire stated. “I want to see how weak he actually is.”

Shadow laughed. “It will be fun to gauge things from outside my community.”

They got the ropes and fertilizer from the barn and Shadow made sure Fire was there to learn. Shadow didn't see him as crippled and it was obvious Fire really loved it. Shadow believed their entire family was seeing Fire differently, even in a span of a few hours.

More came than where there earlier, including fillies and colts. Shadow put the young ones to work putting some fertilizer beneath the roots.

Once that was started, Shadow began to teach them how to secure the trees. He had learned from Cherry Tart. If you just pulled them upright, they could easily be pulled the other way and be totally removed. They had to have a pegasus or two hold an anchor rope in the back, Once the primary ones were secured, they could secure the ones on the other side.

“Shadow,” Cardinal Spitfire called. “Show me what you have, cover one side of the pulling.”

Shadow grabbed a rope and he was no help. He quickly had to be rescued for the sake of the tree. Cardinal Spitfire was the only one laughing.

“I know he can be the anchor,” She chided.

Shadow looked at her and shook his head. He was still panting from giving it his all. He roped the next tree, set a bowline knot and slipped into it. They began to pull the tree up and it quickly became evident that Shadow needed to let up a bit.

“Damn son,” One of the other farmer said scratching his head. “You can't pull, but you are a stubborn one who can't be move.”

Shadow chuckled. “My instructors hated me in Basic. I just kept going and going. It is the same for my wings too.”

The trees were quickly pulled back into alignment. To be safe, they secured a few others they were concerned about. They took a bit to relax after the work and enjoy the cherry tarts.

Yellow spoke to the others about Lance and Black coming down. They were excited and appreciative, showering Shadow with thanks.

“Don't thank me,” Shadow said waving it off. “Thank him when they are done. You are going to be worked and worked hard. Saving a farm like this isn't easy. He will have dozens of stories about doing the same to other farms, no matter where. This has nothing to do with me and everything to do with saving farms and feeding ponies. Our duty as farmers.”

“They are going to use ponies a lot, won't they?”

Shadow laughed. “Probably. They do know and will do what they can to blend in.”

Everypegasus left with still plenty of time in the day left.

“Dinner will be well earned,” Spearmint said. “Odd to have our guest working, but well appreciated.”

“You have no idea how much is farming about Shadow,” Cardinal Spitfire chuckled. “You learn to know when it is coming. And when to mock him.”

Shadow and Cardinal Spitfire laughed while the others gave a nervous chuckle.

“On that, Auburn and I have some stuff to do before dinner. Without Shadow,” Yellow said as they headed to the barn.

Shadow and Fire got to know each other more. Fire had learned a lot from the afternoon. Shadow was really enjoying the couch as they talked. Furniture was softer and nicer here.

It was after dinner when things inevitable became interesting. They had gotten to know farming Shadow, now they were moving into life in general.

“Shadow you are all about community and family. What about for yourself?” Spearmint asked right away.

“No one back home finds me fancy, or I fancy them.”

“What about Cardinal Spitfire?”

Cardinal Spitfire's hoof audibly collided with her forehead. “That was way more direct than I thought. And faster.”

Shadow chuckled. “Being in a Unit and worse, a team makes that very difficult. If it fails, then we have to still work together and be in perfect sync. We have a week left. We have survived worse and gotten to know each other very, very well. So we did decide the other day to go for it. We already decided we are stubborn enough to not let distance destroy our friendship, we won't let it destroy us either.”

“Mind you,” Shadow stopped. “We are barely into an official relationship or even remotely being open about feelings. If it doesn't succeed, our friendship will survive. We chose to live with knowing and failing than the more painful life of long regret.”

“Wise words,” Yellow said.

“Taught to me by a Lieutenant back at Fort Wind,” Shadow explained. “Apparently they all talked to me about her, and never asked her anything.”

“Jackasses.”

“Probably because I actually listen,” Shadow smiled.

“Goals?” Yellow asked.

“Survive this final test,” Cardinal Spitfire groaned. “I know we are the best and will pass, but I still hate tests.”

“Same, well goal wise,” Shadow nodded. “We have a few more days of leave left to figure that out before training and then to worlds unknown. To Equestria below.”

“Rhyming now?” Cardinal Spitfire asked. “Really? And you chose that. Stupid recon. Almost got us held up by Enclave soldiers because had to question the cloud in the Cloudsdale Monument.”

“Those were real jackasses,” Shadow replied. “Say that it doesn't look like a cloud and they come down on you. At least my file is already marked up well enough to let them leave us alone or face a very angry Captain and Major.”

“You got in trouble before?” Spearmint said.

“Eh, on break. Me and my sister might have publicly used pony instead of pegasus. And somepegasus brought charges against us that were bogus and beyond belief. Including impersonating an Enclave officer, because I was in my dress uniform.”

Yellow laughed deeply and the others found it infectious.

“He is a magnet of random incidences, yet he wiggles free without harm,” Cardinal Spitfire laughed. “You never know what you will get being around him. Always a good laugh.”

“Stories!” Fire piped up.

“The other day, he sits down to eat in his armor he has worn for weeks and then suddenly is on the floor. His comment? About how nice the floor smells and then facts about lemons since it smelled like them.”

“Our Captain trained us in basic,” Shadow began. “She got promoted in between and she also ran some specialized training for me for a few days. If something goes wrong, even if I am not involved, and she swears, it is 'damn it Filly Fooler'. I do not think she will ever be able to remove my name. Oh, right, Auburn and Fire you do not know the story of my nickname which has been immortalized at the Fort.”

That kick started the long story and plenty of other things from Basic. Aerial Combat School had its moments, especially with Arrow's energy, but it lacked the diversity of their 50 pegasus barrack. Squads of six are tame comparatively.

When bedtime came, it was made clear about Shadow's stance with dating rules. But he did concede to sharing Cardinal Spitfire's bedroom with their spare mattress on the floor. They had shared the same room for sleeping so long, not being in the same room would cause plenty of tossing and turning from the lack of the presence. And it was no different than in the hotel room.