Of course they didn’t fly straight from Seaquestria after that. There was one place left for them to go—a promise she’d made to be kept.
It wasn’t hard to find the Harmonizing Heights, particularly when every creature in the city couldn’t say enough about them. After being forced to sit through the court proceeding that might abruptly take away her ability to go home, Summer was thrilled to be out moving again, with her hooves on solid ground.
“Hopefully you haven’t been too bored,” Sharp said conversationally. “It’s been ages since I’ve had tools like this. We probably could’ve left sooner if we weren’t taking advantage of it.”
She shrugged. “I’m glad the Horizon is finally getting the attention she deserves. We’re going to need her in good condition if your old flame decides to burn us down.”
His ears flattened a little, apparently recognizing the expression. “Yes, well. We’ll be more than prepared if that were to happen. It hurt me to do it, but we’ve replaced my custom engine with two hippogriff motors. They’re… good enough. I could do better with more time, obviously, but that’s the one thing we’re better off not spending. I get the feeling that those engineers might not let us leave if they realize how good at this we are.”
Emerald flew along ahead of them, turning to glare back at them. “You can hear the peak! We’re almost there!”
She was right. Summer closed her eyes for a moment, listening to the wind through the stone. It was as beautiful as she’d imagined, a low hum mixing with high whistling. There’s no way this is natural, right? Somebody set this up. If you could build roads that sung to you, why not a clifftop?
The hippogriffs had made it easy to know they were going the right direction with a set of carved stone heads facing the trail, ancient and worn. And beyond them…
By the orange light of sunset, it looked like any other park. A few carefully directed streams, lots of flowers and trees, and a gravel path leading through to keep wearing on the grassland down. There were a few ancient stone statues scattered here and there, many slightly overgrown with their faces hidden.
“What did those court fish even want to know, anyway?” Emerald asked, landing on a large boulder and grinning up at her. “More about your world?”
“A little,” she said. “They didn’t seem like they wanted to listen to what I had to say that much. But I tried to tell them everything I knew. They’re preparing some kind of… message, for me to bring back to Earth. Honestly it seems like the best option. That way I can hand it off to someone who actually knows what they’re doing, and…” go back to my life. Is what she would’ve said. But the words felt strange on her tongue, and she couldn’t bring herself to say them. For the last several months, her life was here.
“Too bad they aren’t giving us an escort,” Sharp muttered. “My ‘old flame’ won’t have given up when some of her ships didn’t return. If I know Kat-ate, I know she gets even with the ones who upset her. You must’ve really upset her if she sent a lightning-canon after us.”
“She wants Equestria to herself,” Summer said, walking up to the boulder and resting one claw on its moss-covered face. As she got close, she realized it wasn’t just a rock after all, but the top of an ancient statue. There was a head under there, something that would’ve been thirty feet tall or more. It didn’t look that much like a hippogriff, but that was probably just the angle. “I can’t blame her for wanting to stay here. Equestria is wonderful. Its cities are… like something out of a better time. Its creatures seem kinder, if they aren’t trying to push you into the ocean, or… blast you out of the sky.”
She winced. “Okay, maybe there are evil creatures here just like back home. But still. I can see why she wanted to stay.”
Sharp sat down on his haunches just out of reach, raising an eyebrow. “You sure it’s Kat-ate you’re talking about. That all sounds… specific. Kinda like those are your ideas, and not hers.”
She winced, turning towards Emerald. “I promised you I’d sing, sweetheart. Are you sure that’s still something you want? I’m not good at it. Being here isn’t going to make me any better.”
“I think you’re wrong,” Emerald said. “Every creature can sing, but some of them just don’t know it yet. You’ll see! Just pick something from home. I’m sure the magic here will make it sound good no matter what it is.”
She couldn’t really put it off any further. Summer sat back and sang. It was something simple, a tune she’d heard from her mother when she was a child. She hadn’t really been into much music, and she didn’t think her attempt at folksong would go over very well, no matter what Emerald said about magic.
She had no idea how she was doing, though there was something strange about the valley. It wasn’t her imagination, it really was making some sounds louder. It seemed like there were more of her, and that her voice was carrying across the grass. She didn’t feel like she was struggling to stay in tune, either.
Then she finished. Her last few notes echoed across the hills. The first thing she saw were the faces of her companions, staring at her. Emerald bounced and giggled, gliding down off the ancient stone to land beside her for a hug. “I told you you could sing, Summer! You didn’t need a stupid mountain. I didn’t understand that, but it was pretty!”
Sharp was staring at her too, with a very different expression in his eyes. She’d never seen that look before, though she didn’t need to be told what it was. Oh shit.
Then he kissed her, and she didn’t regret singing quite so much.
Their package from the court arrived early the next morning, a single wooden crate tightly wrapped with waxed paper and a note of instructions. Summer didn’t know how they could write anything for her underwater, but the penmanship was clear enough.
Do not open this box until you’re presenting it to whatever diplomatic envoy of Earth is appropriate. We have protected this container against swim, snow, or storm. I trust you will give us the same respect we have shown to you.
-Queen Novo
They had one last meal at a treetop restaurant, where the chef insisted on preparing her a fish fillet despite the early hour as soon as he learned they were going back to Equestria. “I’ve made plenty for leftovers. Don’t starve, young bird. Come back home soon.”
But where is that? As she climbed up onto the new and improved Horizon, she couldn’t answer that question herself.
At least the Horizon looked impressive. With both engines restored to her hull, fresh paint, and a set of wide cloth fins protruding from below, the similarities to a hippogriff ship were obvious.
Sharp caught her staring on the deck, and he nudged her shoulder. “It’s exactly what it looks like, Summer. Feather has to see us to try to kill us, and looking like this… they’ll think we’re hippogriffs.”
“Until we dock somewhere,” she said, following him up the ramp and onto the deck. “Sooner or later we’re going to have to stop for supplies. As soon as we step into an Equestrian port, word will get back to Feather, and the chase is back on.”
“Well… maybe.” Sharp led her along the deck, pointing at the strange gutters running off the side. “See those? When rain drains off the balloon, it’ll fall into those, into the cistern at the bottom deck. We’ll… have to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t sink us.”
The signs of the Horizon’s crash were almost impossible to see. Anywhere the water had warped was sanded and varnished. There was an entirely new control-box beside the helm. And down the steps, the kitchen now had a sink and faucet. She turned it, and water flowed. “No more pump?”
Every shelf and inch of storage space was packed with supplies. Not just the leftover dried apples that the farmers had left them—these were all covered in military marks, cans and bags and barrels. One glance down to the engine room told her the hold was filled to the brim as well. “I didn’t know the Horizon could carry this much.”
He beamed. “Most of it is dried. It’s how the Seaquestria navy makes long trips. Mix in some water, heat it, and… we’re good. The math says it should last all the way back to Sleighsburg. If we follow the wind, we won’t even have to stop for fuel.”
“Damn,” she whispered, flinging her forelegs around him in a tight hug. “Thanks for doing so much for me, Sharp. You could’ve left me in Sleighsburg… let them shove me into the ocean. I wouldn’t have even found someone friendly to talk to in all Equestria if it wasn’t for you.”
Sharp rubbed his head up against her. “When you say it like that, it’s almost like I got nothing out of this. But that’s not true. You showed me relics of another world. You told me what was on the other side of the Doorway. If we’re lucky, I’ll get to see it for myself.”
“I hope you do,” she said. “It’s… a frozen wasteland on that side, same as Sleighsburg. But the world over there has its own wonders. My family… I haven’t seen them in months. They probably think I’m dead. By now they probably had a funeral and everything. I wonder what they’d think if I told them I was a girl…”
He held her for a few more seconds. “Whatever your decision, I’ll support you. I can see why a creature wouldn’t want to give up everything they knew. But if you are looking for a place in Equestria…” He trailed off, then gestured around the room. “I’ve got an airship.”
The rest of the Horizon looked the way she’d first expected it to—instead of mostly empty and old furniture, now the bedroom was richly appointed. Its master bedroom looked big enough for all sorts of things she should stop thinking about right now before she got herself into trouble.
She let go, shaking herself out and tucking in her tail before her body made her do something she’d regret. And more importantly, something that might hurt Sharp. It would be one thing if she was staying, but… her old body was waiting over there. Once she got it back, this relationship would die too.
“How long?” she asked. “Err… how long is the trip? If we get good weather and don’t have to stop?”
He slunk past her, back up the stairs to the helm. She followed, nodding to Emerald as she passed. The filly was standing by the railing, taking a few last pictures of Seaquestria before they left it behind. She was on Summer’s last memory card by now. They would actually have to delete some if she stayed in Equestria much longer.
“I’ve charted a course that will take us along northerly currents most of the way. We’ll be over open ocean for the majority of the trip. Little chance of Feather finding us for a raid, but… also little chance for help if something goes wrong. It’ll be just Emerald and I to get things working.”
Too bad I wasn’t prepared for this like Kate. I’d kill for my Switch and a few terabytes of movies. Maybe she would take a break from being an evil CEO to loan Summer a hard drive or two. “Good thing you’re so clever.”
As they made their final preparations to shove off, Summer expected a military envoy from the court to arrive any moment, with a sudden injunction against her departure. Some ashamed part of herself wanted the call to come. If she wasn’t allowed to go home, then she could rage and be bitter about it for a little while, and not have to feel guilty that she had stayed.
But none came. They filled their last few bags of ballast, Sharp checked the brand-new lines holding their gasbag in place… and then kicked off the dock. Mt. Aris fell away below them as they joined dozens of other airships in the sky. Engines began to hum, and they were moving forward. Not towards adventure this time—but home.
Summer Ray made her way to the bow, where she could watch Mt. Aris retreat into the distance. Military fortification though it might be, scarred with cannons and lightning, it was still beautiful.
Summer clutched her necklace about her throat with one claw, feeling the strange outline of the pearl there. When I’m old, will I ever believe this was real?
Some part of her didn’t believe it was real now, standing aboard an airship surrounded by aliens who had become her friends—creatures she could only understand thanks to a magic necklace that now had a part of the sea in it? Or maybe she’d left a part of herself in the ocean? That was still confusing. I’ll probably have to give it back if I don’t stay. Sharp will need to give that to whatever diplomat they send over.
“If we’re going to be flying for a few weeks…” Summer said, walking back to the helm and inspecting the navigational charts pinned beside it. When he said, “charted a course”, he actually meant it, with little pins and numbers scrawled at various points along the map. The sextant tucked away in a drawer not far from the helm wasn’t there for show. “I’d like to go back to language practice, if we can.”
“More… repeating words back and forth?” Emerald asked, groaning. “That was really boring.”
“I’ve had some new ideas since last time,” she said. “Now that I have my tablet, I was hoping to get you to read out some things. Maybe you could help me copy them out of the Seaquestria library. There were loads of interesting books about the history of Seaquestria, but most of them…” She trailed off, turning to Sharp. “Honestly, it felt like they didn’t want creatures to know their history before Mt. Aris. All the books that might’ve had specifics were just… not there.”
“Or they didn’t share them with you,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to speak ill of the hippogriffs after all they did for us, but… they’re not ponies, there’s no getting around it. They’re not as open about sharing what they know. Those engineers wouldn’t give me anything unless I knew what to ask for. I have a feeling that they would have put our engine back exactly as it was, without fixing anything else. But once they were sure I knew, they were happy to help.”
Emerald looked confused. “Why do you care about that, Summer? You didn’t come from Seaquestria.”
“I didn’t…” she began. “But I think Seaquestria may’ve come from… my world? I can’t be positive, because they’ve tucked away everything that would make it certain. It’s big, though. There’s so much information they don’t want to share.”
“Maybe you’re looking in the wrong place,” Sharp suggested. “If we can’t find out more on Equestria’s side, we’ll have to search on yours.”
She nodded weakly. In a world where we didn’t believe magic existed, where there’s never been good evidence of other intelligent life on our planet. There were early human ancestors, but she somehow doubted hippogriffs qualified. She didn’t even want to think about how different her biology had to be.
“If we get the chance,” she said noncommittally. “We still have to get the Doorway to open. And not get blown up by Feather before we get there. We should focus on that.”
It was a long flight. Not quite a month, but close enough that it plagued Summer’s nights with fear over what they wouldn’t find when they reached the Doorway. At least her days were spent productively. She studied old scrolls, and pony language. She practiced her gliding when the wind was still, and there were clouds close enough to land on. She ate lots of dried hippogriff food, and spent her nights with Sharp and Emerald watching the same few movies on her iPad.
Sometimes she sang, not so much because she thought she was any good at it, but because Sharp liked it when she sang. She liked it when he was happy, so she did it anyway, even if it made her feel a little silly.
The Horizon’s improvements made the trip more than pleasant, like a rustic cabin in the sky. Drinking water from a clay cistern made it taste a little earthy, but she never got dysentery. At least rainwater was clean.
Once Emerald came to her late in the evening looking shy, while Sharp was checking the sky with his sextant and pocket watch and updating their position. “Uh… Summer?”
She looked up from the desk, turning off the screen. It took all day with her makeshift charger to get a few hours of use out of the thing, so she didn’t want to leave it on for even a moment longer than she had to.
“Yes, sweetheart?” She swiveled the chair around. “Does Sharp need me up there?”
“No.” She shuffled uncomfortably, her wings opening and closing. She pawed at the ground, but didn’t actually say anything.
Summer reached out with a wing, pulling her in close. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”
“It’s just…” she remained silent for a few moments more, before everything spilled out in a rush. “You’re going back to my village. And if we make it out of there… you’re going home. Aren’t you?”
She nodded weakly. “That’s the way…” she didn’t want to lie. “That’s the way it looks.”
“Why can’t you stay with us?” she asked. “I know you like Sharp. And having you around… I’m not ready to say goodbye yet.”
She reached down, squeezing the filly with one wing. “Me neither, sweetheart. I don’t know for sure what’s going to happen when we get there. The machine might not work. Or maybe we won’t be able to get through. But… if I don’t try to say goodbye to my family, I’m going to regret it forever. I hope you understand.”
“I’ll… try. And in the meantime, you should think about maybe… not leaving?”
Every day she watched the sky for the fleet that would destroy them, and every day she never saw them. Occasionally they passed a pony ship going another direction, which they would signal with flashing lights or flags and be on their way. They were too far from land or any real paths of traffic.
Summer let herself believe, however remote the possibility seemed, that maybe Kate would leave her be.
It was a pleasant fantasy, to go with all the other pleasant things in her life just then.