Mortal Coil

by Reeve

IV - Arrival

Author's Note:

Part 2

Daybreak Landing was a small town spread over a wide area; the entire Dawn Coast was pretty bare. The ponies living there had no delusions, they knew ponies arriving from Equestria weren’t there to visit them, just stop for a quick bite to eat before setting off beyond the Wyvern Heights for more interesting places. As such the town itself was no more than several dozen houses and inns dotted sparsely along the absurdly long harbour. Maybe they once had ambitions of being as formidable a port as Mule, but considering ours was the only ship present, I could see why they might have given up on those ambitions.

Actually that did surprise me quite a bit, I had never visited Daybreak before, not having any reason to, but I was sure it was supposed to be busier than it was that day. From what I knew the majority of transport ships from Equestria, like our own, travelled there rather than swinging around the entire country to get to Mule. As well as that I figured they saw some trading vessels, so the complete absence of boats was a bit confusing. I reasoned that tourism was hardly going to be booming right after a war, and maybe overseas trading had declined a bit as well.

I wobbled a little as I stepped off the gangplank onto the pier, having forgotten what steady ground felt like. I felt a rush of wind through my mane as Lyra galloped past me, straight off the pier before collapsing to her knees and kissing the sand. Rolling my eyes I began following after her, tightening the straps on my pair of satchels as I did. I was going to make some wise crack about what she had just done, but before I could get the words out a voice addressed us.

“Good to be home Rarity?” Feather Duster asked, stepping up to my side.

“Very good,” I confirmed, smiling at him.

“We’re gonna unload the ship now,” he explained. “You could probably wait over in that tavern until we’re done.”

I nodded in agreement before carrying on my way, scooping Lyra up as I went who was spitting sand from her mouth. Most of the town’s inhabitants had come out to see the arrival of the ship, some of them glanced our way and began whispering among themselves, I’m not sure what they thought of us. Choosing to ignore it, I did as Feather Duster had suggested and made my way into the tavern that looked straight out at where the ship was now tied up.

Like all the buildings in Daybreak it had whitewashed walls, wooden tiled roof and slatted shutters closed over the windows. The inside was a little bleaker, the shutters making it so very little light penetrated the spacious tavern. There were round, wooden tables dotted around, each with a few stools around them, there was a cleared path to the bar that sat directly opposite the door we entered from.

As I led the way over to it I noticed the place was entirely empty except for one dark corner where half a dozen bulky stallions sat, their eyes following us as we made our way up to the bar and took a pair of stools. The barman stepped out from what I assumed to be the kitchens just as we did; he seemed surprised to see new customers there.

“Oh, what can I do for you?” he asked, I immediately picked up on the excitement in his voice.

“Two glasses of water please,” I requested pulling out my money purse.

His face dropped slightly at that, which Lyra seemed to pick up on before me.

“Actually Rarity,” she began quickly. “This is a pretty important occasion, why don’t we celebrate with something?”

“I suppose so,” I agreed a little warily, I had been putting off having a celebratory drink until I got home, but it made more sense to do it then when I had someone to drink with.

Lyra made the order, a bottle of red wine, a brand I wasn’t familiar with but she assured me it was a good one. We each paid half while the bartender poured us our glasses, definitely looking more pleased.

“Has business been slow?” I asked, taking my first sip.

“Like you wouldn’t believe,” he replied, wiping up a small spill with the cloth he had draped over his shoulder. “Used to be we’d see several ships a week, ponies passing through almost all the time, a pony could make a living. But when the war started, business dropped like a cannon ball in water, hasn’t picked up since.”

“That sounds pretty bad,” I replied, taking another drink, it was pretty good. “Didn’t you ever consider moving?”

“Nah,” he replied. “The lack of business had a silver lining, this town wasn’t considered all that useful so we managed to stay well out of harm’s way during the fighting. I doubt much fighting happened at all this side of the Heights.”

“So do you know how badly the rest of the country got it?” I asked, edging forward in my seat.

“Can’t say for sure,” he admitted. “The little bits I heard didn’t sound good though.”

I pursed my lips and stared down at my glass.

“Still,” he continued, probably trying to change the subject quickly. “Maybe you ladies coming here is a sign that things are about to get better.”

With that he turned and made his way back into the kitchen. I looked to my left at Lyra but noticed she was looking a little pale, not touching her drink.

“Is there something wrong?” I asked, worried she was about to be sick.

“Those guys are still watching us,” she whispered back.

I froze as soon as she said it, my fur standing on end. There was a mirror on the wall opposite us, I managed to angle myself so that I could see the corner table and confirm that the stallions were indeed staring directly at our backs. I also noticed for the first time that they were decked out in some mean looking leather armour, each carrying some kind of weapon at their sides. I was about to whisper to Lyra that we should slip out now, if we could get outside they surely wouldn’t try anything in front of the sailors.

Before I could do so however, one of the stallions stood up and began marching over to us, he was carrying a bearded axe across his back. I began shaking as my thoughts started racing at a million miles a second. Should we run? Should I call for the barkeeper? We couldn’t fight him, we wouldn’t stand a chance, and if his friends joined in…

I was so panicked I didn’t even realise how quickly he covered the distance between us and them. Before I knew it he was standing directly behind us, I could see his mouth opening in the reflection in front of us. Desperate, my eyes landed on the bottle in front of me, reaching out with my magic I picked it up and raised it over my glass as if to refill it, ready to swing it around and smash it across his head.

“Excuse me; I hope I’m not disturbing you.”

The voice came as such a shock to me that my magic fumbled and I almost dropped the bottle, catching it just before any of its contents were spilled. The voice had definitely come from the stallion, but it was so soft and measured I couldn’t believe I was hearing him right.

“P… Pardon?” I stammered, turning around slightly to face him myself.

“I’m sorry, I was looking for a moment when you didn’t look busy so I wasn’t disturbing you,” he continued in that soft voice. “I was wondering if you two were part of the crew of that ship outside, the Siren is it?”

“Crew? Ship?” I repeated, still a little dazed by what was going on. After a few seconds my mind cleared enough for me to set the bottle down and address him properly. “No, we were passengers on it, the crew are still unloading.”

“Alright, my mistake,” he apologised. “I’ll go out there now, I need to speak to a… Mr Sundial about the travel arrangements to Pivot.”

“Of course,” I replied. “He’s the one wearing the tricorn.”

“Thank you,” he said, giving a small bow of the head. “I’ll let you ladies get back to your drinks.”

With that, he turned and marched off; making for the doors while his friends went back to their own drinks, no longer paying us any heed. I turned to meet Lyra’s eyes and saw that she looked as bewildered as I felt.

“Wow…” she uttered.

“Wow indeed,” I agreed, taking a large mouthful of wine.

“Talk about not judging a book by its cover,” she continued, turning in her seat back to the bar.

We stayed there for a while longer, chatting and trying to forget the awkward encounter. Eventually Feather Duster entered, informing us our bags were outside. We managed to convince him to have one drink with us as a thank you for the help he had been for the last few weeks. When we were finished, we said our farewells to the barkeep and made our way outside. The other five stallions had left earlier and were now loading the luggage onto a wooden cart.

The sixth stallion who had spoken to us was talking to Sundial while the other passengers were rounded up by the crew and brought to the front of the tavern. When the stallion and Sundial shook hooves and the latter marched away towards the ship, Feather Duster glanced over at us; I could tell what was coming.

“Well, I guess this is goodbye,” he said. “I must say, it was a lot more fun than I was expecting it to be, but then I wasn’t expecting the passengers to be so friendly.”

“Well that makes two of us,” I replied, before glancing at Lyra. “Or three…”

“Nah, I was pretty optimistic about the whole thing,” she said waving her hoof dismissively. “Plus I didn’t throw up so that was a major plus.”

“Isn’t that a bit of a contradiction?” Feather Duster began, scratching his head before shaking it off. “Anyway, important thing is you’re heading home now, and tomorrow so will we.”

“Do you think you’ll ever come back?” I asked. “It would be nice to catch up again sometime down the line.”

“Uh, not likely,” he replied, glancing away from me, muttering something under his breath.

“Pardon?” I asked, quirking an eyebrow.

“Nothing, it’s not important,” he stated quickly. “Let’s just say this is goodbye for… for who knows how long.”

“Well if this is the last time we should meet, it was a pleasure to meet you.” Against my better judgement I leaned in and gave him a small kiss on the cheek, which resulted in him blushing slightly.

“I’m not going to kiss you,” Lyra stated before levitating the almost empty bottle of wine. “But if you come find me when I’ve finished this off I might feel differently.”

That got a hearty chuckle from both me and Feather Duster.

“Goodbye to you too Lyra,” Feather Duster replied with a little roll of his eyes.

There was a call from one of the crew members aboard the ship and Feather Duster turned to leave, but before he got more than a few metres away he stopped. He turned his head back to look at us, but something had changed about his demeanour. His smile had faded, replaced by him biting his lower lip as if he was trying to bring himself to say something. Before he could however he seemed to change his mind, shook his head slightly before turning and continuing back to the ship.

Of course I realised he was struggling to say something, perhaps something he shouldn’t have been saying. At the time I had assumed he was going to try and confess his apparent feelings for me, and so I felt letting it go unsaid would have been the best thing for both of us. It feels weird to think how different things could have been had he told me then and there, but I digress. With Feather Duster gone we joined the rest of the passengers who were assembled in front of the cart of luggage, the stallion who had approached us in the tavern was standing a top it getting ready to address us.

“Is everypony present?” he began, still in that bizarrely soft voice that somehow managed to carry over the fifty heads facing him. “We’re running a bit behind time so we’re going to need to get moving soon if we’re to reach the pass before nightfall. For those of you who don’t know, my name is Hammerhead, this is my team and we have been charged with escorting you safely from here to Pivot.”

I should have pieced it together sooner than that, Sundial had said they arranged a caravan to transport us to Pivot, and Hammerhead did ask for Sundial by name. Perhaps the thing that threw me off was how well armed they were. I looked again over their weapons and armour, that was probably the first time I was really concerned about what I was walking into. I knew there would still be some tensions following the war, but the idea that we needed an armed squad to protect us while travelling between towns suggested a level of danger that I hadn’t comprehended before.

It seemed I wasn’t the only one in the crowd who had picked up on this as a number of ponies began exchanging worried glances. Whether Hammerhead noticed the slight panic or not, he carried on as if he hadn’t.

“The ponies who got you this far have paid us good money to keep you safe,” he announced. “So I can promise you you’re in the safest hooves, we take this job very seriously. We only ask two things in return, the first being that you do not slow the caravan down. We will be taking it in turns to pull the cart; all you have to do is walk. The second thing is a slightly more sensitive matter…”

My ears perked up at that.

“We would greatly appreciate it if you refrained from telling anypony who paid us to protect you,” he finished in a firm tone. “If anypony insists on dragging the rest behind or poses a threat to our security, we will ask them to leave and make their own way home. Now, if there are no questions we shall set out now.”

Plenty of ponies seemed to have questions, but Hammerhead apparently only asked as a formality, for as soon as he finished speaking he turned and began leading the way out of the town. Lyra walked on ahead of me, not realising that I was still frozen still at the back of the group. If I wasn’t suspicious from the weapons, I definitely was after Hammerhead’s rousing speech. He didn’t want others to know they had received payment from the Equestrian government; I was starting to get the feeling that we would find little love for Equestria once we reached the major cities.

It also explained why the Siren had dropped us off at the more obscure Daybreak Landing as opposed to Port Mule, that barkeeper had said himself that they had remained fairly well out of the way during the war, perhaps staying out of the way and under the radar was exactly what the Siren was attempting to do. It all made me wonder, if there was such negative feelings associated with Equestria that they couldn’t even travel to the major port town, and this band of stallions felt at risk if their loyalties were revealed… then how would ponies react to us?

We walked for hours to get to the pass that would take us through the Wyvern Heights, the huge mountain range that stretched all the way from the south to the north of Panchea, and into the heartland of the country. The Dawn Coast was a long stretch of featureless grassland, the path we followed was mostly flat, but occasionally Hammerhead cut away from it over patches of hilly terrain. It wasn’t as easy on our legs but I knew he was trying to take us the most direct route to the pass, indeed when we finally did reach it the sun had already disappeared behind the mountains hours ago and the light was fading fast.

Walking in the shadow of the mountain for so long had resulted in us becoming quite cold, worse so when a strong wind picked up. It was for that reason that when we finally did reach the pass and some of our company looked ready to pass out from exhaustion, Hammerhead insisted that we move further into the valley before setting up camp so we would be more sheltered from the cutting wind. He had made the right decision I felt, when we were finally permitted to stop walking and rest while him and his men set about securing the area and gathering fire material, I did notice how much better sheltered we were there than if we had stayed at the mouth of the pass where we had initially planned on setting up camp.

One of the stallions reported that there was a stream nearby and I gladly went along with several others and refilled my canteen. I was quite content as I lay on the hard earth while Lyra played a little tune, I had never been one for hard work, but I could appreciate the feeling of satisfaction you got after seeing something through, I figured I might get used to it yet. Few others were as happy as me after learning that they would be expected to kip out under the stars as there were no actual tents.

Indeed the stallions had only brought a dozen bedrolls which had been offered first to a pair of elderly ponies and mother and her young filly before being doled out randomly among the rest. Lyra had been lucky enough to receive one of the bedrolls, which she received a few envious glares for, but she just stuck her tongue out in response. She offered to share it with me but I declined, I’m not going to lie and say I did it out of being noble or selfless or anything, it was just because it wasn’t particularly big and it would just bother me to have to share it with somepony else. It actually stirred some amusing memories of a past partner I had where I would constantly hog the bedsheets.

As I watched the dozens of other ponies, loudly voicing their discontent with the travel arrangements, it made me think long and hard about the kind of ponies I was travelling with. When the war broke out and Equestria offered protection for citizens who didn’t want to be dragged into fighting or get caught in the crossfire, the offer had been far from free. Truth be told it was probably quite selective, most of the ponies who could have afforded passage to Equestria or had the right contacts with the right ponies, were probably not the same ponies who went out camping as a hobby.

My father had dragged me out several times in my lifetime, when I was Sweetie Belle’s age I absolutely hated it, but as I grew older and Sweetie Belle herself joined the family and came along with us I became more favourable to the trips. Maybe it was because I saw how happy Sweetie Belle was and how much fun she had when we were camping that I was willing to take on a different perspective. Thinking about Sweetie Belle being so far away hurt, it was my first day back in Panchea without them and I was already wishing they were there with me. I thought fondly of what we would be getting up to if they had.

Father would probably be rushing on ahead of the rest of the caravan, shouting back and calling us slowpokes. Mother would probably have found dozens of obscure plants and fruits that she would then cook up over the fire Hammerhead and his men built, she always knew more about plants than anypony I had met up to that point. Sweetie Belle would probably be hunting for fireflies or shouting to hear how her voice echoed in the pass, and me… I would be watching on, just happy they were there with me.

Even with Lyra snoozing by my side, I felt so alone in that moment. I didn’t feel alone for long though, as I pulled out my father’s compass and spyglass from their pouches and hugged them close to my chest. Even after my initial objections, I was very glad I had taken them from my father before I left, having them close always made the nights feel a little less cold. I don’t think a single day went by after that where I didn’t feel slightly homesick, or family sick rather, but I would always clutch my treasures close and then I wouldn’t feel so bad.

I was able to drift off smiling that night, and I might have woken up smiling too… except I woke up the sounds of screams and the clashing of swords.