The five ponies sat around the table, lamp swinging above them to cast shadows across all their faces. The mood was dark, the expressions on the ponies faces darker still. Things were serious now. It would all come down to this.
Applejack’s cool nerves helped keep her from sweating. She didn’t want to let the other ponies see any weakness. She looked across the table at the lone adversary left, the other three already defeated and watching in silence, watching to see which of the two ponies would come out victorious. Her opponent took a long drag on his cigar and puffed the smoke out the side of his mouth, his steely black eyes betrayed nothing. If he was nervous she couldn’t tell.
With a slight lick of her lips she waited for him to make his move.
His salt and pepper mustache twitched. It was finally time.
“Got any threes?”
Applejack slammed her face onto the table and weakly offered up the lone three in her hand. With a smirk the opposing stallion took it and laid his last cards on the table.
“Looks like I win.”
Applejack groaned as all the stallions chuckled good-naturedly.
“I thought I was gonna win for once!” Applejack said as she pulled her face off the table. “Find a card game that I don’t need to bluff in and I still can’t win!”
The victor, an older stallion named Card Sharp, smiled at the farmer. “No need to feel upset, sugar pie. Not everypony is a card player.”
It was the third day of Applejack’s trip on the barge Melody’s Pearl. In that time she had befriended the rest of the passengers going downriver and had made a name for herself as “The pony who couldn’t bluff to save her life”. But it was all in good fun. Card Sharp and the other gamblers enjoyed having a fun new gal around that they could relax with and try to teach a thing or two about cards to. And Applejack appreciated having something to do to kill time with while the trip went on.
She liked just being able to kick back and relax for a few days after… everything. She might not have been actively looking for a way back home while she went down this river but everypony needed to take a break once in a while. And being able to just sit around chatting with new ponies and playing card games was a nice way to get rid of any stress.
“What say we go up to the dining room and have some grub?” Silver Tongue, a fat earth pony who had also been playing cards suggested.
“Eating in these rocky waters?” A unicorn by the name of Sapphire responded. “You’ll end up throwing it back up in an hour, wait till we get out of the rapids.”
Sapphire was right, Applejack thought. The barge was big but the choppy waters were still making it sway back and forth. Every second the room they were all sitting in tilted one way and then the other. Applejack was thankful that she didn’t get sick from this even though she wasn’t used to it. Must just be her strong constitution.
“Well I’m hungry. And I’ve had enough of Card’s smoke filling up the room.” Silver Tongue said as he got up and stepped to the door. “If anything it’ll be nice to get some fresher air.”
The rest of the ponies in the game room grumbled in agreement, Card Sharp putting out his cigar as well as they all packed up their things and cleaned up. Applejack got out of her chair and stretched, following them out the room and up the stairs. The dining room was on top of the barge, situated right behind the bridge. You could walk outside along the deck of the boat or just eat inside, the dining room had plenty of windows one could open for fresh air either way.
As the five card playing ponies made it into the dining room from the stairs the last member of their group, a midnight blue stallion called Paint Tin, yawned and headed right for the bar.
“The cards have been fun, now it’s time for me to really relax.” He gave them a salute as he sat down and ordered his first of many drinks.
“Drinking myself under the table doesn’t sound very fun with the ship moving like this.” Sapphire said as he raised an eyebrow at Paint Tin’s choice. “I believe I’ll go out on deck and watch the view go by, farewell for the moment my friends.” Sapphire waved to Applejack and the others before doing as he said and walking out the door near the front of the dining room.
That left Card Sharp, Silver Tongue and Applejack to take a seat at their own table. Card Sharp opened up the window next to him and pulled out another cigar, lighting it with a match and taking a few long puffs on it.
“I don’t know how you can stand those.” Applejack said as she scrunched her face at the cigar. “The smoke and smell alone were getting to me in that room.”
He just smiled knowingly at her. “It’s something for a bit more mature ponies to enjoy.”
Applejack frowned in annoyance and waved a dismissive hoof. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.”
After gesturing for the waitress to come over, Silver Tongue decided to open up a new conversation. “So where are you two getting off on the river anyways?”
Card Sharp puffed out a circle of smoke and decided to answer first. “Next stop actually. Visiting my sister and her good for nothing husband. Money problems. Again.” He rolled his eyes to himself. “Nice town at least, plenty of folks that love a good card game. Plenty that are actually good at cards too.” He winked at Applejack.
Applejack ignored him. “Well, I figure I’m just gonna go to the end of the line. Didn’t have much of a real destination in mind when I came on board.”
Before the conversation could continue the waitress came up to their table. “What’ll you have?” She was an older, heavy-set, mare with thick lipstick and a curly auburn mane. “Coffe? Tea? Anything harder?”
“Actually I’d like to eat something.” Silver Tongue said. “How you doing for pies?”
“Well we’ve got cherry pie, pumpkin pie, pear pie, raspberry pie-”
“Scuse’ me, sorry to interrupt.” Applejack said as she put out a hoof to cut Silver Tongue and the waitress off. “But do you have apple pie?”
The waitress, who Applejack now realized was actually a mule and not a pony at all, looked to think for a second before answering. “Sorry, but we don’t got any pies like that.”
Applejack sighed and reclined in her chair. “Figures.”
Card Sharp and Silver Tongue both shared a look and shrugged before Silver Tongue turned back to the waitress.
“Got any strawberry pies?”
After a staunch refusal to eat any strawberry pie Applejack instead ordered a slice of pear pie. That was alright. The rocking of the boat wasn’t so bad that any of them lost their meals afterwards and in a few hours the waters calmed down and the sun was starting to drift below the horizon. Applejack stood at the bow of the barge, watching as they sailed down the river. It had widened up quite a bit, almost enough that from cruising down the middle one would have trouble seeing either shore.
It was a nice view. The surface of the water was so calm and placid, aside from where the barge was disturbing it, that it perfectly reflected the light and the sky above it. She almost wanted to inflate an old inner tube and just lazily float downstream.
Getting some exercise she jogged a few laps around the top deck. After that she decided on a change of scenery and stayed by the back of the boat for a bit, watching the huge rotating paddle push the barge along. So maybe “sailed” was the wrong word.
“Whatcha thinking about?”
She heard the voice of Card Sharp behind her and turned to see him puffing on the last bit of his cigar.
“Nothing much. Just trying to enjoy myself for now.” She responded, looking back out over the stern of the barge and the waters being churned up by the paddle.
“You seem like the kind of pony who needs a whole month of a boat ride to nowhere.” He said as he came up to stand alongside her.
“What do you mean?” Applejack glanced at him.
He chuckled, almost coughing slightly thanks to the smoke. “I just mean that I can’t remember the last time I’ve met a pony as stressed as you.”
“Mm.” Applejack just hummed. “I’ve been on a long trip.”
“I figured as much from what you said earlier. Where ya headed?”
“Home.”
It was so simple to think about, even though she had come out here to not think about anything serious here she was talking about it with some pony she barely knew. Well in some ways it felt nice to just talk with a random pony about it, especially since they would be going their separate ways soon and she wasn’t planning on getting dragged into anything else.
Applejack thought a bit about what he mentioned earlier, it may not have been her place but she decided to speak up.
“So, sounds like you don’t get along the best with your family.”
He frowned slightly, rolling the cigar stub around in his mouth. “Well, I’m not fond of my sister’s choice of a husband, nor much else she does.” Card Sharp closed his eyes and puffed out another ring of smoke. “But they’re family, I’ll be there for them even if we don’t get along.”
Applejack smiled up at him. “That’s good at least.”
Card Sharp looked down at her, returning her smile with a happy grin. “Hope you get home to your family soon too.”
The two of them stood out there for a while longer, watching the river and whatever else came up pass by until the sun fully set.