Day one...
"Honestly, it's a bit better without the sweaty guards loafing around." Valey kicked a leg in the air, balanced on her back with the sound stone laying on her belly. "We unstacked those extra beds in the bunk cubbies, so there's actually room to sleep in them without laying flat on your side. Felicity, you'd still think it's the worst, but it's surprisingly manageable."
"Glad to hear it, darling," Felicity's voice sounded from the other end.
"Well, we've been real busy," Amber's voice added. "Jamjars is wandering around being weird, so I've pretty much spent today tailing her and making sure nothing is going on. And then Shinespark's got her projects with the ship and Meltdown... But aside from that, it's been quiet."
Valey nodded along. "No Celestia yet?"
"No sign of her, I'm afraid."
"Yeah..." Valey rolled over. "Much as you all say she's cool, I kinda want to meet this chick and get a feel for what she's like myself. Still feeling a little iffy about only being there for the meeting using sound stones."
"Shinespark has this covered," Amber assured. "She's... doing much better. I think. She might just be working through her issues, and by that I mean keeping herself working so she doesn't have to deal with them, but still... You can see it in her eyes, you know? She's more determined."
"I guess Meltdown's just really good for her?" Valey shrugged. "Honestly, I sorta wish I could light a fire in her the same way... but not if it comes at the cost of being a damsel in distress. Bananas, I hate doing that."
The sound stone crackled for a moment. "It's who Shinespark is," Amber replied. "She helps ponies less fortunate than her, and that's just hard when she's the one low on fortune. I'd say the best thing you can do for her is support her in that and help her help those others."
"Goals for when I get home, I guess." Valey kicked idly again. "Not much I can do aside from encouragement and advice while I'm cooped up on this ship. Scientists say we're making good progress, at least."
"Wonderful, darling. We're all wishing for your speedy return."
Day two...
"I've been staring at this long enough to make my eyes fall out," Professor Sea Star said, standing in the instrumentation portion of the ship that was no longer off limits to Starlight and her friends. "But ever since I mandated that you four carry all your luggage with you everywhere you go, I'm reasonably certain the harmonic disturbances interfering with our equipment are isolated to the four of you."
"Umm..." Maple watched her. "As in all four of us are culprits?"
Caballeron nodded, having adjusted his sleep schedule so that his and Sea Star's periods of being off duty yet awake were aligned. "Which is absolutely fantastic because it tells us nothing at all."
"On the contrary, my dear professor." Sea Star grew a slight smirk. "If we can say all of them are harmonically unusual, it supports the hypothesis that northern ponies themselves might be to blame. We're losing out on the functionality of our equipment, but it investigation of this leads to a discovery of biomagical differences between ponies in the north and south..."
Caballeron gave her a look. "You do not suppose that relates to why their border is so famously uncrossable, do you?"
"It's possible." Sea Star shrugged.
Maple cleared her throat. "Well, myself and Valey and Starlight all have unusual interactions with magic. But Nyala is different too? She's a normal pony..."
Valey subtly poked her. "Except for, uh, the last seven years, you know..."
Maple blushed. "Right. Never mind me..."
Caballeron raised an eyebrow at the duo. "Sometime it would behoove us to know of these magical differences you already suspect yourselves subject to. It could ease our research immensely."
Valey yawned and fanned at her mouth. "She's got a pony in her cutie mark, I'm a zombie, Nyala's been a zombie in multiple different places at the same time, and Starlight punched a goddess monster in the face."
"Please," Sea Star sighed, rolling her eyes. "We're trying to be serious here. If you're not going to help, you can keep your secrets. Right now we have nothing but time."
Valey snickered and strolled away.
Day three...
"I've been thinking," Maple said, laying on her bunk. "About what you said yesterday. Our situations really are so absurd, there's nothing we can do short of proving it to make anyone believe us if they're skeptical."
"Eh. Not our loss." Valey hogged the bunk opposite hers, playing with her tail to pass the time. "Show me a case where we actually need to convince someone windigoes are real or whatever for something important, and then we'll solve that problem. Honestly, I like being able to hide behind audacity. Makes me seem cooler if ponies think I can make up stuff like this on the fly."
"Still, though." Maple stared at the ceiling. "It got me thinking about how to prove it... and that got me wondering what would happen if we took your pendant off."
Valey frowned. "I'd probably turn back into a dormant shell like I was before it."
"And then if we put it back on, you'd turn back into you." Maple nodded. "I was there when it happened. The empty you didn't resist. It's probably something we could do safely if we had any reason to."
"Like convincing someone?" Valey shrugged. "Yeah, that would actually probably work out nicely."
Maple hesitated. "Well... I was also thinking, you know how you used to wear the pendant with Nyala because you said it could let you share your body with her?"
"Yeah. She doesn't have any memories of that." Valey huffed. "A shame, too, because the coolest thing I ever did with her was kicking Herman's rear. Maybe we'd be better friends now if she remembered that."
Maple nodded. "Well, actually, I was thinking... if you ever have any doubts about yourself being a good pony again, we could always ask Felicity or Nyala if they'd like to wear your pendant for a moment and see what you're like without any memories of us at all."
Valey blinked hard. "That's... a little creepy to think about. And kinda intimate for my tastes, you know?"
"You do it to other batponies," Maple pointed out. "You carried Nyala around for a while, and you went through to see who all was in the crate of moon glass we got in Ironridge. Remember? That time in the tournament where you were doing all that?"
"Yeah, I guess you're right..." Valey's tail drooped. "I dunno. Maybe it's just that I don't worry about that anymore. I'm not a saint, and I'm cool with that, because I don't need to be to keep you guys as friends and be an overall decent pony."
Maple glanced away. "And it's kind of like how I'm carrying Glimmer in my cutie mark. I wonder if there's any similarity to what I'm holding and what moon glass holds... Aside from her and Starlight, I've never tried pocketing a pony before."
"Sounds like you're not eager to change that," Valey replied.
"It's one of those things you make manageable by not thinking too hard about. And I'll have her out soon."
"Yeah. Four more days..."
Day four...
"What are you doing?" Nyala asked, pacing up behind Valey at the submarine's lone workstation, the biggest and freest space on the ship that was available.
"Making my brain hurt." Valey pored over an open suitcase, the heavy one she had lugged aboard as a backup. "And hopefully making Sparky proud, and hopefully not saving all our rears if stuff goes really south."
Nyala looked hesitantly over her shoulder. "Is that a machine?"
The suitcase sat open at ninety degrees, an immensely compact amount of mechanics and mana circuitry exposed inside. In fact, the wiring looked to be part of the case itself, like it was less a machine in a suitcase and more a machine that was designed to close in a clamshell and become portable.
"Its technical name..." Valey grunted, using the spokes on her wings as precision instruments to deal with the insides of the machine. "Is a KarmaTech Thirty-Four. And yeah. You could say that." She stepped back, turning to face Nyala and wiping her brow. "What's up? Need a hoof?"
Nyala shook her head. "I was just curious." She stared past Valey at the suitcase. "So that's what the ship's terminal looks like. I've only ever seen it on the inside."
"Heh..." Valey chuckled, turning back to the machine. "I knew you'd know what this was. Yeah, this is the innards of the ship's terminal that got fried by that harmony storm while we were crossing the border. I can't believe Sparky's engineers actually stuck an old portable consumer-grade thingamajig like this in that fancy ship of theirs. No wonder it got busted. But hey, that's good for me, because it means I can haul it around and try to fix it up while we wait for this trip to finish."
"The make and model are more than ten years old," Nyala commented. "I was surprised to see its specifications too when I connected to it as Braen."
Valey scratched her neck. "Yeah, I didn't even know what it was until I pried the dashboard open to get at it and found this thing back there. Maybe it could do everything she needed and she didn't feel like wasting resources on a custom option? Though I'm guessing she liked it for airship purposes because it's small..." She tested the hinge and winked. "Or because when you close it, it makes a pretty solid table."
Nyala shook her head. "Actually, I bet she did it so she could recover it and carry it and its data with her if the ship ever crashed. The case is very armored. That's part of why it's so heavy. And there were important things on there..."
"Yeah." Valey frowned at the machine, holding a hoof to her chest. "Like the schematics for this pendant."
"You said you're trying to fix it as a backup," Nyala said. "I don't know if its old memory contents physically exist anymore. It wasn't designed to fly through that storm. Nothing is. That's a big part of why the ship's so broken."
"Eh." Valey shrugged, flipping a miniature spark gun that was intended for ship hardware repairs. "Once upon a time, like three years back, I tried to hack the entire Stone District Defense Force surveillance system. It didn't use this exact same thing, but it was still KarmaTech... That was Dangerous Karma's dad's company. Did mana tech stuff, especially power distribution and these things. Corporate family dynasty. Point is, I thought it would be real hilarious to hard-wire every single display in the command center to show only cameras I stashed in the Earth District to point at the biggest, best fruit trees I could find. I got away with it for like two days, too! So if there's anyone who knows how to hack this thing back into order with brute force, it might be me."
Nyala bit her lip. "Don't get your hopes up too far. If the states on its memory have been wiped by the storm's energy, no amount of skill can bring it back. It's gone."
"Nah, I'm not too worried." Valey turned back to the machine. "Thanks for the concern, and if you wanna help, I'm super down. But even if I don't get what I want out of this, I can still get it up and running for Sparky. And if all else fails, bananas, I need a hobby. But I've got a few other ideas for it up my sleeve."
Day five...
"So there's still no sign of Princess Celestia?"
"I'm afraid there isn't, Miss Maple," Gerardo Guillaume replied. "I've been cavorting with some of the guards in your absence, and they seem to be getting mildly anxious themselves. They are the ones taking responsibility for us not being back across the border by now, after all. It's a large risk they're taking for us, I understand. All we have to look forward to is instruction on what our futures are permitted to contain. They're the ones who have something to lose."
Maple sighed. "Well, I hope they're alright."
Gerardo chuckled. "I think that's a first for you. How far we've come in the world that we're hoping for guards' safety rather than being run ragged by them, hmm?"
"I've forgiven you for getting me arrested in Ironridge, but don't press your luck," Maple warned. "That was not how I dreamed of starting my adventuring career."
"How many times did you say you've been arrested, Gerardo?" Slipstream's voice chimed in. "You were just telling me the story the other day..."
"Anywhere between five and eighteen, depending on a large number of definitions and technicalities," Gerardo replied. "Scrapes with authorities tend to be a staple of adventuring, particularly in Varsidel where the authority tends to be whichever faction has the most fighters and weapons."
"Well, that's..." Maple sighed. She had no clue if it was different. "That sounds stressful."
"It becomes a badge of honor after some time. You have enough close shaves under your belt to count as well, do you not? Imagine the day when we settle down, form lives and friendships with non-adventuring civilians, and you get to serenade their wondering eyes with tales of the first time you got arrested assisting with the smuggling of contraband cargo."
Maple almost gave a good-natured retort... and then blinked. "Wait, we settle down? I thought you were..."
"Planning on adventuring more?" Slipstream cut in. "Well, it's not like we'll be starting a family and settling down, I mean, griffon and pegasus, but..."
Gerardo cleared his throat. "Last I was aware, the plan was to found our town on that plot of land you obtained in Grandbell, yes? The one we could use as a fuel source for our ship, or a new one based on the same technology? I don't see myself losing my love for the horizon any time soon, but I can absolutely see us turning such a town into a home base of sorts. Come back, refuel, spend a week swapping stories, fly out and return again four months later! True, there would be goodbyes, and we wouldn't spend all our time there, but I think it could be called a home..."
"Heh." Maple wiped the corner of her eye. "On days like these, that dream sounds more and more like it's just around the corner."
Day six...
"That's it." Valey strolled into the room where Nyala, Maple and Starlight were crowded around a tiny lunch table, tucking the sound stone back beneath her hat. "News of the day: Sparky's work is going well, ship is half disassembled and looks like a skeleton, Gazelle hasn't stopped breaking into the archives, Jamjars is apparently living in the Laughter dorm now because some kids took pity on her and gave her a room, Felicity is shockingly a week more pregnant than she was when we left, and still no Princess Celestia. One more day, and we'll be in and out of that palace before she actually arrives."
Maple blinked. "It both feels like it's been forever and no time at all..."
Nyala nodded. "I'm almost afraid of us arriving. It's not a place I want researched..."
"And I will go to bat for you the moment our science friends poke their noses anywhere they don't belong," Valey promised, stepping around her and taking a seat in the middle. "Personal news for me, that KarmaTech Thirty-Four is as restored as it's going to get. Should be able to load new data, but you were right about the old stuff. It's gonzo. Oh well. Biggest shame is I won't have it to work on for the trip back." She nudged Maple's cutie mark. "Hope we'll be busy messing with our new friend instead."
Nyala looked uneasily at the interaction.
"You know," Maple said, "we probably need to talk about how we're getting inside, don't we? Sea Star, Caballeron and Anemone are counting on us to have a plan for entry."
Starlight shrugged. "The other trees have responded to my magic. The first one even made an opening in the castle wall for us to climb through when we came back the second time, remember? Maybe I can ask it to let us in."
Valey nodded at her. "Pretty sure we don't know enough about what we're up against to have a concrete plan, and pretty sure this is the kind of magic plans don't work on anyway. But Starlight's probably right. If we're supposed to be there, I suspect it'll just work. And if not... Well, the place is intelligent, right?"
"One more day, then." Maple held out a hoof. "We are going to get that filly back and get some answers about this bad future."
Valey bumped it, but didn't draw back. "We're gonna own her and make her tell us as much as we need for Starlight to be happy again."
Hesitantly, Starlight joined her hoof to the joint pile. "I'd like that."
Valey glanced at Nyala.
"...Alright." Nyala slowly added hers. "If you're thinking about bad futures, though, messing too much with the root of the world might be a good way to cause one."
"Yeah." Valey's brow shadowed. "That's why no matter what we find, we're gonna keep that place protected and not just leave a way back in. But fortunately, I think the professors know how gnarly that could be too."
Day seven...
"All of you should be prepared," Anemone advised, passing through to the cockpit from the instrument room. "The lifestream's readings are growing much stronger, enough to overpower some of the interference. We're very close."
"Is there a way to see what's outside?" Starlight asked, stepping forward. "I might need to see it to get us in."
Anemone nodded. "We'll turn the panel in the lunch room to the underwater camera feed. But I'd guess it's less than an hour away."
"Guess again!" Caballeron's voice called from the cockpit. "I believe we are nearer than you think!"
Valey, Nyala and Maple rushed ahead, but Starlight stayed put, closing her eyes and concentrating. They were low. They had been low for a while, but now, brushing the seafloor... She couldn't quite feel the lifestream like she had before, but knew they were close.
"Is that a canyon!?" Maple's surprised voice came from ahead.
"An undersea ravine," Sea Star's voice confirmed. "The seafloor is deep, but the structure we found is deeper still. It's at the bottom of that."
"Descending," Caballeron confirmed.
Starlight ran to the cockpit as well, stopping in the lunch room and staring at the display on the wall. The entire seafloor was flat, strewn with a carpet of kelp and sea life so thick, it had to have some unnatural energy source to survive... and that source manifested itself in the form of a tear in the ground, long and jagged, that rose up around them as they slowly descended.
The camera feed was bright, but it wasn't the ship's illumination, she soon realized: it was the canyon walls.
Slow, sluggish traces of midnight-blue energy welled up along them, bleeding through veins in the rock on an inexorable journey to the surface. She had seen these before, in the Ironridge palace very near the bottom... Why were they always midnight blue? The flames had colors of their own. Whatever this was had to come from the lifestream. Twin uncomfortable realizations that probably meant nothing pressed in on her at once: midnight blue was her color, the color she always remembered flashes of after pushing herself far, far past her limits, and the lights were far brighter here than they had been in the north. Shouldn't the water have dimmed them? What if it was dimming them and they were just that much brighter? Did that mean that here, the energy given off by the lifestream was stronger than it was in the north?
The Arc Manta sank rapidly, the sound of its engine changing as it worked to keep pressure constant despite the change in depth. Starlight kept her eyes fixed on the screen... until a tiny light drew her attention downwards, shining up through the floor like a faint orange star. Hadn't there been one of these in Ironridge, too?
It was another Tree of Harmony, and it was calling her.
Starlight was coming.