"Slowly… Slowly… A bit to the left", Sun Squall called down.
She hovered over my sloop as it drifted through the air toward Smile Harbour's pier.
Breeze and Wave looked to me for direction, so I shrugged and waved for them to shift her left a little. It wouldn't make any difference, other than making Sun Squall happy, and that was a good enough reason. Her sleek hull, gleaming with a coat of hayberry red, sank below the waves — it was almost a shame to hide our hard work.
I crouched to leap aboard and throw the lines ashore. I'd scuff up her renewed deck, but that was bound to happen sooner or later, so it might as well be-
"Hang on", Chill Wave panted while pushing me back with a hoof. "Bro, you got the bow?"
Breeze nodded. He looked blown, with head hanging and dripping sweat, but his horn sputtered to life and drew the coiled bow line into his hooves while Wave took care of the stern.
I grudgingly grumbled, "Thank you", to Wave as I paid them.
"No problem, dude. Happy to help."
Everypony was so muffin polite to me these days, so concerned and sympathetic, and it felt as if they were grinding sand into a fresh cut. The twins trotted off into their dockside shed to dunk their over-heated horns in buckets of ice water.
Sun Squall wrapped a wing around my shoulders and we gazed at my sloop's bow gently bobbing in the harbour's waves — she looked pleased to be back in her element. Taking her out tomorrow would be so, so, very, very… nice.
Not thrilling, just a relief.
"It's going to be a little weird", said Sun Squall.
"Hmm?"
She gestured with a wing tip at the looping, fancy letters in white paint on her prow: 'Мαяλ' and below that a smaller 'Mayree', for ponies like me who hadn't learned to read human.
"If anypony asks me, 'Where's Mainstay?' I'll have to tell them-" She sang, "Out riiiding Maaayree, o'er the bouncy main!"
She snickered as I slugged her shoulder and grumbled, "Don't be so blintzing crude." But I cracked a smile and chuckled while nuzzling her ear.
We had to take what joy we could when we could.
Tomorrow I'd bring the traps down, and 'Mayree' and I would go out to try our luck catching the last of the ice crab. The town's weather team were already corralling wild clouds for our first big snowfall, which was scheduled for next Moon's Day. Soon everypony would be huddled indoors around crackling fires, sipping hot cocoa, and chewing the hay over everything that had happened this season. I hoped my teeth were up to it — we'd had a busy year.
Sun Squall pranced and fluffed her wings. "Come on! Bet I can beat you to the post office!"
I rechecked Mayree's lines and nodded. "Alright, but hooves only, no flying."
She grinned and crouched, wagged her rump in the air, and pawed at the dock. "Deal! Loser has to clean the dishes."
My sides were heaving by the time I staggered into town, and I'd be doing the washing up again. That was okay. Sun Squall had won fair and square, and the run had blown the last gloomy cobwebs out of my mind. As usual, there was no mail for either of us. We'd both written a letter to Princess Luna to ask, beg in my case, for any news of Mayree, but she'd hadn't replied.
Not yet anyway.
After I found her note, we'd searched the hills and cliffs, desperate and dreading what we might find, before galloping into town and raising the alarm. Sun Squall went to her friend, the Mayor, to organise a search while I ran from door to door, yelling my foal head off. Thank the stars Tin Whistle had spotted her boarding the noon train to Los Pegasus! Relieved and furious, I'd immediately gone to buy a ticket for the next one, but Sun Squall talked me out of it. Her special talent, or more likely commonsense, told her that Mayree just needed some alone time to think.
Where could I even look for her? Canterlot? Earth?
I could only hope Sun Squall was right and Mayree would return when she was ready.
After a splash in the public baths we trotted around The Hump and settled down in my old shed to make dinner.
Moving my bed and few possessions back had been quick and painful, but I couldn't stand living in Mayree's house. My heart ached every time I didn't hear her working at her typewriter, didn't smell her cooking a fancy human dish in the kitchen, and didn't find her curled up with a book in my room. Her scent was everywhere, going stale, and photographs of her smile reminded me I might never see it again. The photo she'd torn a human stallion off of made me want to scream!
It was dark by the time I finished washing up. Sun Squall lazed on my bed, reading a glossy magazine from Earth, and after stoking my stove I crawled under the warm blanket with her. I wasn't looking forward to living in my drafty old shed through winter.
I nuzzled her mane and asked, "Will you come out with me tomorrow?"
"Mmmmm", she hummed as I nibbled an ear. "Love to, but I can't. I promised to help hang Hearth's Warming decorations on the lane."
"So early?"
I turned the wick down on my lantern as she tossed her magazine on the floor. "Well, we want to have them up before the first snow."
"Ah, I guess that makes sense. See you in the pub for lunch then?"
She nodded and snuggled up beside me. Sun Squall usually stayed the night these days because she 'hated leaving me on my own'. But being alone was like an old shoe to me — dirty and worn and uncomfortable, but familiar. Not that I didn't enjoy having her here, but I'm sure it was more that she needed my company, despite living in a mansion full of servants and family.
We kissed and cuddled, and that's as far as that went. Maybe someday one of us would propose, but not today.
Hopefully not tomorrow.
Not until we were certain Mayree wasn't coming home.