//------------------------------// // Land-Ho // Story: Same World, Different Realities // by Mocha Star //------------------------------// Princess Twilight Sparkle; personal log. Voyage Day 17. 13 Harvest, 1007 Five days crossing this forest is depressing me. I maintain my smile and joyful exterior but Rainbow Dash knows as well as I do that there’s only so much a pony can handle. Even with me on board it’s like being at a sea of water only instead of water it’s a never ending sea of trees so densely packed that there shouldn’t be a forest here!  I haven’t been willing to stall our progress to explore the forest below because I need to get the crew past this. I have to be the leader and symbol that inspires them, Princess Twilight Sparkle will be there when they need me. I’ve sent a letter to Spike letting him know of the drudgery he’s not missing and I image if he were here he’d be asleep or complaining about coming along. Rainbow Dash is doing that enough for my stress levels but she’s keeping the other ponies in shape by running near constant exercise routines that if she’s not leading she taking part in. I make sure she keeps a few pegasi on constant scouting duties ahead of us in the general direction we were pointed by those poor poor earth ponies we left behind. My mind keeps going back to their poor lifestyle and what we might encounter ahead of us. Celestia sent me a letter informing me that the ponies were found but gathering them to return to Equestria had proven difficult, that is until they were shown the variety of food we have to offer beyond grasses, tree leaves and bark, and other such absolute basics. Now they’re in a small new settlement to help them adjust to life as Equestrian ponies. They’re skittish of every non-earth pony and have thankfully gained friends of all tribes as well as much needed weight and cleanliness. I had to chuckle when I found out that they were trying to modify their homes with their droppings to add to the sturdiness and familiarity which led to a rushed explanation and training in toilet use and social etiquette on the matter. They’re learning quickly and with the changed role of unicorns helping to teach them and keep them clean it’s really showing them that they’re not subservient to others any more than others are superior to them. Spirits are holding but waning across the entire ship and we all look forward to the moment we hear the words- “Land Ho,” a message relayed through shouting reached her ears. She dropped her quill and closed her journal, sealing it with a spell as she teleported herself to the stern and looked excitedly at the end of the treeline. The very sudden end of the treeline. She narrowed her eyes at the distant end and flew higher to see better, taking her spyglass to her eye she hummed. “What’re you humming about, Twilight? It’s an end to this sea of trees! I totally think you’re not excited enough about this. It means we can actually see something different,” Rainbow insisted as she turned to the horizon with a grin. “That’s just it. There’s an end to the forest of impossibility here, only for an endless plateau of what appears to be a rocky desert for as far as I can see, even with my magic. That’s worse than the forest because if it’s all there is then we could have essentially reached the end of the world. We can’t resupply on tree flora alone to cross a desert for a crew of four-hundred.” “Whatever! Let’s just go back and take a left next time at the middle-ish place. Gotta be something somewhere that isn’t all boring and never ending.” Twilight lowered her spyglass and narrowed her eyes at the edge of the forest in the far distance. “Something feels wrong about this. Dangerously wrong. Rainbow! Go gather the captain and command staff in the ready room while I get something I need from my room,” Twilight insisted. Rainbow nodded and took off below the envelope while Twilight charged her horn and teleported to the ship’s wheel. “Full stop,” she said to the startled colt at the helm who barely registered her appearance before she vanished again, this time to her room. Gathering several blank scrolls and writing equipment she teleported to the officer’s quarters’ meeting room and began to write a quick letter asking for another ship to come to their aid as soon as possible. Twilight cast her spell and sent the letter to Spike, knowing he’d know what to do. She began writing on three pages at once, mumbling to herself as thoughts and ideas flowed through her mind about possible outcomes and resolutions. She snapped her attention to the source of a jab in her side. “Twilight, you’ve been zoned out for like, ever.” “Actually, we just gathered, your highness. What has you so perturbed?” “Captain, I apologize for not noticing your arrival. All of you,” she looked at the assembled leaders, “but we have to halt progress immediately and wait for assistance from Equestria.” There was a murmur amongst the crew in the room. “Your Highness,” the Quartermaster began, “our supplies may not last that long. The Galaxy is a very special ship designed by you for this mission. There’s no other ship that could get to us in time before supplies ran low.” “Low,” Twilight turned to face them, “is the key word. The ships that will come are not going to have to slow or stop like we have because I’m sending them the exact path we’ve taken and a direct line to us from the moment they clear the mountains. They’ll be here in seven days instead of the seventeen it took for us to get here because of the course adjustments and maintenance we’ve had to perform.” The crew mumbled amongst each other. “Princess Twilight, I don’t advise this course of action. I’ve been in much more dire straights than this and we’re nearly at the cusp of discovery or more travel. I don’t see any reason to stop or turn around that you seem to be so intent on.” “Navigator West, I understand what you mean and I don’t want to make it seem like I’m using my status as weight in this decision, but there’s a reason I’m doing this and it’s because I have experience with life and death scenarios and would prefer not to risk any lives because my instinct in this matter wasn’t taken seriously,” Twilight rolled three of her pages into scrolls and sent them to Spike with a flash of purple magic. Commander Sharp was the first to speak up. “I believe we’re wasting resources just hovering here. Your Highness, how about a compromise? We wait four days and then go ahead with our journed at one-quarter speed. That will offer us headway and time to explore this patch of forest while offering them time to catch up, assuming they were ready to go to begin with,” he added condescendingly. “That’s a fair compromise, as long as the rest of the departments agree as well. I won’t take complete command of this voyage while there’re still plenty of capable ponies like all of you here so I want you to defer to each other when making major decisions, except for when the crew could be in danger. That is a choice I won’t allow to be made lightly and neither will any of you, correct?” There was a silence for a moment before they began to agree with her. “Good, now that we have that covered I’d like to take this time to go over our general plan for the next few days while we wait for our friends to arrive.” There were groans in the room that Twilight rolled her eyes at before starting. “Okay, I need three teams of ponies to begin to scout the canopy below us and set a perimeter so we can see why the forest is so dense. I’ve done numerous scans as we’ve transversed and so far I’ve sensed nothing out of the ordinary. My thought is that-” The mares and stallions in the room looked amongst each other and several pouted, one leaned to her friend and whispered, “Her lectures are legendarily long. We’ll have grand foals by the time she’s done.” The other mare snickered but nothing was going to stop Twilight during her lecture on her recent field notes of forest density as a chalkboard appeared behind her, blocking the window with the best view out into the world as she truly began. Possibly two hours later the door burst open. “Captain, we’ve received a response-” the mare stopped and moved around the chalkboard and balked at the whole command crew snoozing as Twilight looked at her, waving a hoof intending for her to carry on. She stood tall. “Cap’n, report in from Hoofington. Your daughter’s ill, as are the children, parents, pets, and neighbors of each pony in this room, excluding your highness.” Twilight gasped and stomped her hoof. “Everypony, listen up! This’ no time to lecture, hurry and write letters. I’ll send them to be distributed, family’s more important than this,” she teleported the chalkboard away as the command crew scrambled out of the room giving the messenger a smile and pat on the shoulder as they passed. Once the room was empty Twilight nodded to the mare. “Thank you for that, I know I get carried away sometimes. But,” she smirked, “next time I tell you to make an excuse to stop me, try not to wait so long. I think the cook was about to cry a few times.” The mare trembled but nodded. “Y-yes, m-ma’am.” “Dismissed, carry on, go have some fun,” Twilight urged the mare out and closed the door behind her. She lifted a scroll and wrote on it. Note to self, remember that few ponies have your interests and to thank, among other ponies, Rainbow Dash for suggesting the interruption method. It worked well on this date and I plan to use it again in the future on other dates as well, as needed.