The sun never moved here. It sat eternally just below the horizon somewhere between night and day. Time just didn't seem to flow the same as it did in the world above. Fluttershy had already lost track of the hours and days as she wandered the castle and its gardens, getting to know the place in which she now lived.
There were great halls, a thousand rooms, winding corridors and stairs that never ended, balconies and towers. There were flowers and trees, lakes and hot springs, hills and fields going on forever. Animals frolicked in the gardens, and servants were never far if she needed them but politely out of the way when she wished to be alone. And it was all hers, he had said, if she wanted it. Fluttershy had never wanted to rule anything, she had been happy in her cottage with her animal friends, and her pony friends visiting. She missed her friends, all of them.
But everything had to end, and it wasn't bad. Fluttershy was no stranger to death. She had buried many of her animal friends over the years, but she had not expected it to come so soon for her. She had cried a little, sometimes, but the fear was gone now. She already felt at peace here among the quiet trees and animals of the garden. And she felt safe, for the first time truly safe.
She had picked her own room, a small one near the ground, near the gardens with a view of the forests. It reminded her a little of her cottage back in Ponyville. She wasn't sure what was expected of her. Terra seemed nice. She found him easy to be around. He sometimes joined her in the gardens or invited her for dinner, just the two of them, but mostly he left her alone—because deep down she wished to be alone right now, she suspected. She had a lot on her mind.
Princess Fluttershy, ruler of the underworld?
She paused at the gates of the garden, looking out over the fields where the dead worked and, well, lived in a sense. It was hard, thankless work to tend the earth but it did not tend itself. This was true in the world above where the pegasi managed the skies and the earth ponies the soil. Even the sun and moon needed a gentle hoof. But how many ponies thought of the dead? From death sprung new life, and indeed all life. The unicorns tended the heavens, pegasi the skies, earth ponies the soil, and the dead … tended the very earth itself.
Fluttershy realized, she had never truly understood this until now when she gazed out over her domain. The rulers of the underworld were the dead, who worked its fields, who made the world tick and things grow in the world above. And a princess … a princess should be kind, a princess should care for and guide, not rule her subjects … thankless jobs needed the most thanks, and who better to give it?
Princess Fluttershy, shepherdess of souls … she found herself smiling, a smile of contentment, as she trotted down the path towards the fields of the dead.
***
The river meandered through the swamp, the little dingy boat steered by invisible winds upon its waters. Dinky hung over the edge of the boat, tiredly watching the water around them and lighting up the dark until she could no longer keep her eyes open. Slowly the young unicorn slipped into the bottom of the boat and fell into a deep slumber, the light dying out from exhaustion. Derpy lay down next to her and wrapped a wing around her to keep her warm.
Time seemed to pass. Derpy was sure she had not slept, yet she could not say how long it had been. She looked up at a dark, rocky ceiling. Somewhere along the way the swamp had faded behind them and become just a winding river through tall, jagged cliffs. Only, there was no sky, just rocks. Derpy tried to remember when she had no longer been able to see the sky, when they had left the world above, but there seemed to be no transition. Perhaps she had closed her eyes for just a second, she thought, but didn't really believe it.
Caves and tunnels drifted by as the river widened and split off into smaller rivers and streams. Here and there on the rocky shores shadows wandered, ponies walking about as if in a dream. None of them seemed to notice the boat or its occupants.
The winding, cavernous tunnel opened into vast reaches of sand. The ceiling receded upwards until there was nothing but blackness above. One by one little stars blinked into existence upon the sky. Ahead of the boat the river disappeared into the ocean upon whose dark waves the setting sun painted its dying embers. Dinky awoke and peeked over the edge of the boat as the shore disappeared behind them, faster than it should have, as if the whole world moved around the boat, leaving nothing but water behind and in all directions around them.
The two ponies glanced into the depth. The abyss seemed to open up and suck them in, fill them up. They pulled away from the precipice, hugging each other in the middle of the boat as the hours trickled through the hourglass.
Derpy's stomach was the first to break the silence with a low rumble. Dinky's followed the cue. The young pony looked around the boat. “We don't have anything to eat or drink,” she said with the sinking feeling of realization.
Derpy looked at the edge of the boat and said, “There's water.” The shivering in her voice stressed that she didn't want to lean over and drink of it if she could at all help it.
“You can't drink sea water,” Dinky said, as if that was the least concern should you be daring enough to lean over and take a swig. “It makes you sick, I think.”
They looked with dismay at the distance. The void seemed only to grow, within and without. It was hard to tell if the boat was even moving or simply sitting in the middle of the ocean, forever lost. Derpy licked her dry lips and closed her eyes. After a while she fell into a restless sleep.
Days, maybe weeks went by, drifting away behind them without a change. Derpy sank a mouthful of sand, or so it felt, and opened her heavy eyelids. For a time she couldn't remember where she was, she wasn't even quite sure who she was. The only thought in her mind was that of the gentle lapping of water against the side of the boat. Blessed water. She crawled across the bottom of the boat and hauled her head over the edge, staring into the clear blue ocean. Her tongue hung out of her mouth as she leaned over, closer, closer to the water. Blessed, refreshing water!
Dinky opened her eyes, blinking feebly. Derpy was leaning over the edge of the boat. Dinky lay in the boat and stared, her body aching with thirst and hunger. Derpy leaned a little more, hanging precariously on the edge for a moment. Dinky blinked, slowly, her mind still far away in the lands of sleep. There was a brief moment of panic as Derpy balanced on her stomach, then fell over the side with a splash.
***
Dinky's mind snapped to attention in one horrified instant. She half jumped, half stumbled over to the edge where her mother had disappeared. “Mom!” she cried in terror as she looked over the edge into the black-blue emptiness. Dinky hurried to the back of the boat and squinted her eyes hard. There was nothing to see, no sound nor sight as far as the eye could see. It was like the shore, as if the whole world moved around the boat and disappeared in its wake. Whole continents could have disappeared in the blink of an eye, what hope had a single pony?
Dinky collapsed in agony and sorrow, crying dry tears as she rolled up in a tight ball. Around her the world rushed past as it always had.
***
Derpy gasped as she broke the surface and emerged into the cool air, but only for a second. Before she could regain her bearings a current dragged her down again, pulling her deep into the choking depths of the sea. Her lungs were screaming, her body was aching as she flailed wildly, trying to fight free of the relentless pull of the water. She was losing her strength, and the battle. Darkness crept in all around her, grasping her in its merciless fingers. The world fell silent around her as she sank.
***
The boat hit the shore and scraped against hard rock before coming to a halt. Dinky opened her reddened eyes and wiped her nose as she looked up. Vast stretches of sand and fields met her vision where before had been just water. In the hazy dawn—or was it dusk?—she could make out several figures silhouetted against the fields. Dinky crawled out of the boat weakly and staggered half in dream towards the nearest figure. “Please …” she begged, before collapsing in the sand.
She wasn't sure how long she had been lying there when she felt somepony press something against her lips. Cool, refreshing water poured over her lips and tongue. She sank every drop greedily.
“It's alright,” a soft voice said. “Don't worry, there's plenty more.” The empty bowl was pulled away briefly but soon returned with more water.
Dinky opened her eyes. There was something familiar about the voice. She turned a little and looked up into a pair of sorrowful cyan eyes peering back at her with kindness. Dinky blinked. A yellow pegasus was sitting next to her, holding the bowl. Her long, pink mane was crowned by a wreath of golden leaves and emeralds. She seemed to shine against the fields behind her as she smiled mournfully at Dinky.
“F-Fluttershy?!”
***
Derpy coughed until her chest hurt, then continued coughing violently, spitting out water while desperately trying to breathe. She was on a floor. Somepony was beating her on the back.
“That's it, get it all out, mate,” a deep voice said.
Slowly she became aware of other sounds around her, hooves trotting back and forth on hard wood, ponies muttering to each other as they worked. She managed to open an eye and look around between coughs. She was lying on the deck of a ship which looked like it had been hammered together from pieces of driftwood. Several scruffy-looking ponies were milling about, currently busy sorting out a big net woven from old clothes and different-colored ropes.
Derpy looked up at the pony beside her. He had a big jolly face and wore a hat with an old and somewhat weathered feather. He held out a hoof to her. “Big Crabbe, Quartermaster,” he said. “Welcome aboard the Queen of Roses. Good thing young Merry Melody in the crow's nest saw you out there. Not a good place to be swimmin', mate,” the big, jolly pony said.
Derpy looked up at the crow's nest where a young, wild-maned pegasus was peering through a rusty old telescope. Derpy stood up unsteadily and shook off some water and seaweeds stuck to her flank and mane. “Um, D-Derpy Jones,” she said, still too confused to think clearly.
The ship went silent. Big Crabbe was looking at her flank, so was everypony else. Up in the crow's nest Merry looked down, then focused her telescope on Derpy's flank. There was a bit of murmuring from around the ship, the words “bubbles” and “Derpy Jones” repeated more than once.
Derpy felt suddenly rather shy. A reddish tint covered her cheeks. “Um,” she said as she looked around for cover.
Big Crabbe looked around. “Get back to work, you dogs!” There was more murmuring as everypony went back to work, but more slowly than before. The quartermaster turned back to Derpy who had meanwhile sidled off to hide her hindquarters behind a rickety old barrel which contained, from the looks of the cracks, seaweed. “You, er, said your name was …”
“Derpy,” said Derpy, uncertainly.
The big pony nodded. “Derpy … Jones?”
“That's, um, just a silly name. Not … not my real name,” Derpy explained. “Jones, that is. Not my real name. Derpy is my real name. Derpy … Hooves.”
Big Crabbe studied her again. “You don't, er, remember where you got that name?”
“My name?” Derpy was uncomfortably reminded that she often forgot things she ought to remember, but until now at least she hadn't forgotten her own name. Her eyes searched for something to remind her of what the other pony might be talking about. “My mom gave me it. Not Jones, though, I … just came up with that as a filly.”
“Hmm,” Big Crabbe scratched his scruffy chin. “You better come, there's somepony you should meet,” he said and gestured for her to follow.
The crew watched as Derpy followed Big Crabbe below deck. They passed through a long room with one long table on one side and crude hammocks and piles of dried seaweed on the floor for bedding on the other side. It all gave the impression of having been created from nothing more than what could be gathered out at sea, and yet some effort had obviously been made to make the place as homely and comfortable as possible given what they had to work with.
“Aye,” Big Crabbe said, reading her face, “it ain't fancy, but it's our home. Whatever it lacks in facilities it makes up for in good company. You'll like it after a time.” He stopped in front of a crooked door and knocked carefully. “Missus Rose?”
There was a pause, perfectly measured. “You may enter, mister Crabbe.” It was a mare's voice, with the kind of refinement that suggested age and nobility. More than suggested, in fact, it seemed to cultivate it. For some reason it reminded Derpy of miss Rarity back in Ponyville, only much older.
Crabbe took off his hat and held it in front of him as he opened the creaking door. The room beyond was sparsely and cheaply decorated in the same manner as the rest of the ship, and yet gave off an impression of richness. An elderly unicorn was sitting on a pillow made of old clothes and patches in the middle of the room, painting on a piece of bleached wood in front of her. She was old, at least as old as Granny Smith and perhaps even older than that. She was dressed in clothes resembling high fashion but made like everything on the ship from scraps. And yet she sat with perfect grace as she turned to look at the two with a warm, welcoming smile.
“Missus Rose, this is miss Derpy, er, Derpy Jones she calls herself,” Big Crabbe said as they entered the room. “Derpy, this is our first mate, missus Pacific Rose, standing in for the captain while he, er, she is absent.”
Rose stood up and adjusted a pair of small glasses to have a good look at Derpy. “My, is it so?” She walked slowly but with grace, her eyes shining as she looked at Derpy up close. “Derpy Jones! It really is, isn't it?”
“So it's true?” Big Crabbe said excitedly, fumbling with his hat. “The story is true?”
“Did I ever give you reason to doubt my word, mister Crabbe?” Rose said, fixing him with a stare.
“No! Of course not,” Crabbe said hurriedly. “I never meant to suggest …”
“Um,” Derpy said uncertainly. She was feeling very lost, and still both wet to the bone and completely exhausted. “What are you talking about?”
They looked at her, then Rose gestured for her to sit down. “Mister Crabbe, see to it that our guest is fed and accommodated,” the old mare commanded. Crabbe bowed and galloped off. Rose turned to a small cabinet. Her horn glowed and an old flask, half full of a greenish-brown liquid, was pulled out along with a pair of wooden cups. “I am very sorry if our accommodations are not exactly royal, my dear,” she said and offered Derpy a cup. “But I hope you will find them adequate. Here, this will do you good.”
Derpy sipped the drink. It didn't taste very good at all, but as she sank the drink a pleasant heat flowed down her throat and out into her body and limbs. Rose gave her a grandmotherly smile. “I remember in the old days when I was but a filly we had the most delightful pear trees. Every year our neighbor made pear cider with a hint of rose and other flowers for the whole village,” she gave a longing sigh as she sat down opposite Derpy. “Seaweed cider just ain't the same at all, but of course the crew does their best with what they've got. They are a very good bunch, like family, when you get to know them.”
She sat for a time looking at Derpy as if thinking of old times. “Do you know the story of old Derpy Jones?” she asked finally.
Derpy looked around as she thought. She always looked around when she thought, as if her eyes might find the answer written on the wall somewhere. “Um, not really, missus Rose.”
“You may simply call me Rose, my child,” she said, smiling. Her horn glowed again as she pulled out a small golden locket in a chain around her neck. She opened it carefully and glanced at the old pictures within. “I shall tell you the tale, then, of Derpy Jones and his crew of lost souls.”
***
Fluttershy helped Dinky up and hugged her. “Oh, Dinky, I can't believe you're here. What happened? Poor Derpy must be devastated.”
“We … we came to f-find you, Fluttershy,” Dinky said weakly, shivering from the cold water. “Mom felt so terrible about w-what she had done, so we came to bring you b-back. She r-really l-likes you, Fluttershy.”
Fluttershy wrapped a blanket around the young filly. “You … came here to find me?”
“Mhmm,” Dinky nodded and sniffed sadly. “She didn't mean to hurt you, she just d-didn't know better. She just wanted you to k-know how she felt and thought the flowers were a good idea. B-but now she's gone and I don't know if I'll ever see her again,” Dinky cried.
“G-gone?”
“She f-fell off the side of the boat. I … I couldn't stop her, it all happened so f-fast.” Dinky buried her face in the blanket.
Fluttershy held her tight and looked out over the ocean. Some got lost along the way, she thought. But all find their way across the sea eventually. Eventually could be a long time. “I'm sure she's out there somewhere …”
“But she can't find us, can she? It's just water …” Dinky went silent, then she pushed free of Fluttershy and stood up on shaking hooves. “I can show her!” she said excitedly, her eyes manic as she strode towards the water.
Fluttershy hurried after her. “Dinky, wait. You really shouldn't walk, you're still too weak.”
Dinky ignored her and waded through the sand to the edge of the sea. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth as her horn began to shine. She was not weak, and she was going to do it. She had to do it. For her mom.
Fluttershy trotted nervously around the filly. “Please come with me, you need to rest. I'll talk with Terra, he's the prince, I'm sure he can help us find your mom,” she pleaded desperately. She held up a hoof to her eyes and took a step back as a flash of pure white light reflected in the calm waves and lit up the sky.
Dinky dug her hooves into the sand and lowered her head, ignoring the pain shooting through her skull and spine like daggers of lightning. The light flared, rising and falling like waves. The world was silent around her. All was light, stretched out across infinite reaches.
***
Derpy looked at the two halves of the locket. One half showed a young mare who Derpy assumed was Rose, long ago. The other half showed a dashing young pegasus in a captain's outfit, standing before the wheel of his ship. He looked oddly familiar to Derpy, as if she had seen him before but she couldn't place him. Something about the eyes.
Rose ran her hoof fondly over the picture. “Derpy Jones, when we were both young, and newly wed. A handsome stallion he was, and the finest dancer I ever saw,” she said, smiling softly at the memory. “He of course became famous—some would say infamous, hah, I'm surprised you haven't heard of his exploits. The good old stories of pirates have not gone out of fashion, have they?”
Derpy thought back. Her mother had always read stories to her when she was a young filly, every night. She had liked pirate stories, but she always found it hard to remember things.
Rose went on. “We both loved the sea, of course, and each other very dearly. We traveled everywhere together and he showered me in riches,” she said, smirking. “I could tell you many a tale about how he got said riches, oh yes. But it is his last venture I was getting at,” she said and looked at the little picture sadly.
Crabbe knocked and entered the room carrying a plate of food. He sat it down in front of Derpy and bowed before leaving the two. Derpy was too hungry to look too closely at the food. She didn't even care, if you had been lost at sea long enough even seaweed and rain water would do.
Rose continued as Derpy cleaned the plate. “We were headed for Shanghay, carrying a valuable cargo of ancient treasures, when we ran into an unexpected storm. The pegasi tried to keep it under control long enough for the ship to pass, but it proved too wild. There are freak storms out on the open sea that are not like the storms back in Equestria. It's like the Everfree, things work differently, and you can't always control them. We nailed or tied down what we could and prepared ourselves to weather the storm. I remember that night, as lightning struck the mast and waves crashed against the hull. I remember holding on to him as the ship went down. I don't remember much after that, only one thing …”
Derpy munched on a hoof-full of fried seaweed and listened attentively to the tale. “Derpy told me, just before the waves tore us apart … he swore that he would come back for me, one day he would find me. And I knew he was telling the truth. And then he was gone.”
“I woke up again, clinging to the battered remains of a lifeboat. I knew I was dead, I don't know how, I just knew. There was nothing but water to see in every direction, no signs of the ship or any of the crew aside from myself. I drifted for ages, but it didn't matter, time doesn't really flow down here as it does in the world above. I gathered what pieces of wood I could find drifting on the waves and expanded on the boat as best I could. I survived on rainwater, seaweed and anything else I could get from the sea. I had a lifetime of experience at sea, so I knew how to make do. And every once in a while I came across another poor straggler lost at sea. The boat became a ship, and home to the ponies you now see here with us. We are the lost souls of the endless sea, forever sailing in search of our final destination. And all this time … all this time I have waited for a sign, for my dear Derpy to return and lead us home.”
Derpy looked up. “I was named after a famous pirate?”
Rose smiled. “Oh, more than that, more than that, my dear …” she said. “Long before all this, Derpy and I had a foal, a wonderful little colt who grew to become a mighty stallion and built a life and reputation of his own. Deep Blue, we named him.” She looked expectantly at Derpy.
Derpy chewed thoughtfully at her seaweed, eyes scanning the room. Suddenly she stopped. “G-grandpa Blue?” She stared from the locket to Rose. “Y-you're my …”
“Great grandmother,” Rose said, dabbing her eyes with an old hoofkerchief. “You know, old Derpy Jones also had bubbles on his flank. The sea was his life, he always said. But I didn't have to look, you know, because you have his eyes too. They always unnerved other ponies, gave him a fierce reputation they did.”
“Others just laugh at mine,” Derpy said, looking downcast.
“Well, don't you care one bit what other ponies say, sweetie. You are your own pony and there will always be somepony who likes you for who you are, and you know what? That's all that really matters.” Rose reached out and patted her hoof. “It's a shame you had to go and pass away so young, but that's life they say, can't argue with it.”
“I'm not dead, um, I think,” said Derpy, looking up. “I sailed here with my daughter, Dinky, to find somepony … I, um, accidentally gave her a bad flower and I have to find her and bring her back. But now I'm lost and I don't know where Dinky is, or where anypony is.”
Rose lit up in a bright smile. “Traveling to the end of the world to save the one you care for from the claws of death, that's my Derpy! Don't you worry, I am sure you will find your way, and it looks like our fates are intertwined. I never lost faith, I never did. I always knew you would find me one day.”
“M-me? But I-I'm not Derpy Jones. Not really.”
“You have his spirit and good heart. You are here on a heroic quest,” Rose smiled. “It is fate, my dear.”
There was a shout from above. “Missus Rose! Missus Rose! There's a light! Merry saw a light on the horizon! There's light!” the voice of Crabbe called, ecstatically.
Rose winked at Derpy, “Fate,” and stood up slowly. She pulled a shawl off a nearby chair and wrapped it around her shoulders before heading out. Derpy followed.
They emerged back on the deck of the ship. Rose followed the pointing hooves, squinting her eyes. Derpy followed her gaze. A distant light flickered and wavered low on the horizon. Rose looked around at the stunned crew. “Well? What are you waiting for? Scurvy dogs the bunch of you! All ponies at the sails, hard to starboard! Keep your eye on that light, Merry!”
“Aye!” they all cheered and rushed to their posts.
The old mare was grinning from ear to ear. “Aye! Love will find a way, my child. Love always finds a way.”
***
Dinky felt herself falter. Her body trembled violently, her head screamed. She sank down on the cold, wet sand, breathing heavily. The light burned on, brighter than ever. It burned, like a little sun in her mind. She cried, but would not let go. She took a long breath and let out every ounce of air in her lungs, screaming out her pain.
Fluttershy was standing several feet away, as close as she could force herself to be, listening in horror. The light was too bright to look at or approach, the heat washed over her and drenched her coat in sweat. She had debated running for help, but what if the filly collapsed and needed her? She couldn't just leave her.
A sound echoed across the fields, a long, merry horn blowing on the wind. Fluttershy opened an eye carefully, protecting her face with her hooves and squinting at the sea. A small dot rose up over the horizon, growing bigger. “It's … I think it's a … a ship!” Fluttershy stammered. “It's a ship!”
The horn blew again, a jubilant greeting of the homecoming ship.
Dinky's head hit the sand, the light flickered and died with a faint breath of air. There was a breathless pause, then a last flash of light, this time from Dinky's flank.