"Aaand there you are, sirs and madams," the smartly-dressed tugboat captain in a conductor's cap shouted up to the Dream as two burly stallions finished roping it to the side of a dock. "Your location is Red Wharf, Pier Three, Dock H-Thirty-Two!"
"Thank you," Shinespark professionally replied, matching his bow as she trotted down the gangplank to the floating concrete dock.
The captain nodded up at the ship. "You'll pay for your reservation at the harbormaster's office on the way out. Since you don't have a registration, I'd advise considering one as well; ships officially licensed with the Port of Stormhoof receive a slight discount, and you'll be able to reserve spaces in advance and file a claim in event of incident. Please, enjoy your stay."
"We plan on it," Maple assured him, Starlight sticking close at her side.
The captain and his dockhooves left, leaving Starlight alone on the dock, surrounded by the knocking of hulls against wood and cries of wheeling birds. Weird... in Ironridge she hadn't noticed the wildlife, but here it was everywhere. Her friends stood with her, Gerardo and Shinespark already making their way closer in toward the city.
They passed by boat after boat, some docking spaces empty but most filled with crafts big and small. When they reached the end and turned onto a larger section of walkway, the path grew more crowded, stately couples trotting by. Mares and stallions wearing refined jewelry, groups of sun-tanned, laughing teenagers, handsome single griffons in wealthy casual shirts and wrist decorations, along with a constant flow of white-suited dock professionals carrying heavy boxes and equipment moved by, bands of friends sitting on their shipdecks and enjoying the water. Ships came and went, a fleet of identical tugboats guiding the larger ones in and out while smaller ones nosed their way through the crowd. In one place, a pegasus dangled from a harness, scrubbing algae from his hull with a brush, in another, a unicorn snaked several hoses out from a pumplike apparatus on the dock and plugged them into fixtures at her boat's stern. The sky was filled with griffons and pegasi, and under the heat of the sun it was so much to take in that Starlight would have fallen in the water if not for Maple at her side, nudging her when she wandered off track.
That dock turned onto yet a bigger walkway, with motorized vehicles trundling back and forth carrying stately passengers and boxes of cargo, and from there they reached a giant rolling ramp that adjusted with the tide. When the harbormaster's office arrived, Shinespark went to stand in line; Starlight didn't envy her one bit. But Maple found a place where they could wait in the shade, and before she could even finish processing the dock's immense bustle of activity, they were through.
"Feeling a little overwhelmed?" Slipstream asked Maple as they climbed the final, zig-zagging staircase to the city gates. "This is way more active than the Ironridge skyport. I think it's because airships aren't mainstream enough for recreational use. Everything there was passenger or commercial, but here there are a lot of old, wealthy families for whom having a boat is a status symbol. I guess that makes us part of the elite, huh?"
"It could," Shinespark suggested, pacing alongside her. "Though in a city with this much wealth on display, I'm not sure it means anything aside from a bit of validation for the owners. I know something about being famous, and you'll always be better regarded if ponies know you for what you do than what you have."
"Different cultures have different ways of doing things," Gerardo replied. "That said, you are likely correct. I, at least, have felt the call to adventure in the name of thrills and treasure, though putting my findings on display for the purpose of proving something has never appealed to me in the slightest. Certain parts of the Empire, however..."
Maple nodded as they prepared to cross the final stair. "Well, hopefully we have enough money to get by. But where should we go first?"
"My advice? We have two options!" Gerardo happily shrugged. "Either find out where the other citizens are going and go with the flow, or go up! One is always likely to find interesting sights at the top. That said, I'm sure we could simply wander around taking in the view and wait for fortune to strike."
They crested the last ridge, the road turning sharply to the left and passing through the massive seawall in a gate of epic proportions, guardhouses on either side and a complex iron mechanism ready to bar it from all directions come night or all-out war. A white-cobbled street led straight inwards, branching up to the left and then curving right, with doors and businesses lining both sides... and it was completely blocked by a wall of roaring, clamoring griffons and ponies.
"I say, what's going on over there?" Gerardo asked, most of the dock traffic around them either taking wing and flying over the disturbance or pushing past through a narrow gap to the left. The crowd seemed to be pressing in on something at the edge of the street, and when Starlight climbed on Maple's back to look, she thought she saw a pony yelling at the center, but couldn't be sure.
A screech split the sky, and with a rushing of air, a wing of blue-armored griffons bearing the same windy-pawed crest from the flags descended on the crowd. "Order! You are blocking the streets!" one with a mana-powered megaphone called. "Form a line and let traffic by, please!"
Moving with military precision, the squadron separated and parsed the crowd, many creatures breaking off and flying or scampering away. From their eagerness, it looked like some had been trapped in the middle already and unable to escape, and under the armored griffons' oversight, the flow of hoof traffic was soon restored. The griffons exchanged words and several flew away, but two left to guard the spot, just in case.
Shinespark leaned closer as the crowd pushed them along. "What's that they were fighting over? It looks like a news vendor..."
"Oh no..." Maple smiled in resignation. "I hope we haven't arrived on the day before a continent-changing revolution again..."
"Or that our favorite batpony has gone and made headlines," Gerardo added, straightening up. "Stick together. I shall investigate and be right back."
Minutes later, Shinespark had found an alcove next to a fenced-off area for outdoor customers of a diner where they wouldn't impede traffic themselves by stopping to wait. Starlight sat down in the shade of a tall bush growing from a white ceramic urn, resting her cheek against the cool metal of an ornate iron window covering, while Maple paced and Slipstream stood patiently at her side. Jamjars, as usual, was nowhere to be seen, though she was sure the filly was nearby.
"Looks like he's in line..." Shinespark muttered, watching Gerardo intently in the distance. "Almost there..."
"Don't be so on edge," Maple consoled, though Starlight had a half-suspicion she was partly talking to herself. "It's probably news that only affects the Empire. Or maybe it's good news! Or maybe it's pointless, like someone popular doing something silly."
"He's coming back," Shinespark went on. "So it looks like we won't have to wait to find out."
Gerardo glided closer with a newspaper curled in his grasp and something approaching a bemused frown on his beak. "They had quite a few extras," he explained, not unrolling the paper. "Apparently, this news is quite something of a sensation here in the Empire."
"Well!?" Maple, Shinespark and Slipstream yelled in sync, all three showing a mix of eagerness and frayed nerves. "What is it?"
Gerardo twirled the paper. "Who wants to guess what dear, long-lost benefactor of ours has suddenly decided to complicate our situation by choosing now to reappear?"
Everyone waited. "Valey?" Maple asked hopefully.
The griffon's grip loosened, and the paper unfurled in his talons, bearing a big, front-page image of a face Starlight instantly recognized from hours of clearing portraits out of a villa in Skyfreeze. "Oh." Her face fell. "It's him."