//------------------------------// // Back to Ponyville // Story: A new chapter // by Ponelover //------------------------------// Ponyville has certainly changed. Its streets are now paved with asphalt, and I see more than one car parked on the sidewalk, cars which ponies are driving occasionally. Yeah, that… ponies in cars, yeah, that felt weird. And it seems to me that I wasn’t the only one that was very confused about the whole thing, Sonata Dusk was having wide eyes, and perhaps most importantly, sparkly eyes. Seeing the whole change from a Siren that has only probably seen Equestria back during its medieval days. I imagine it’s going to be much more impactful for her than for me. “Yoooo, Sunset!” Sonata said. “Take a look at THAT! Is that a TRUCK?!? A truck in Equestria?!? Y’know, like the one Applejack has in her garage? What?!?” “Yes. I see that clearly Sonata. In fact, that truck seems a bit too familiar.” I want to change course, probably inspect the truck and probably meet a mare I haven’t seen for far too long. But I shook myself out of that thought, i’m not here to meet the old Element Bearers. I’m here to potentially scout new element bearers -if it’s at all possible. We followed Starlight into the School of Friendship. Apparently that is a thing now, just as we are about to enter though, I noticed that there is a parking lot with a rather peculiar sign post in front of it, I took a short detour, and promptly laughed a bit before motioning Sonata to follow me. “Yo, Sonata!” I said, Sonata quickly following me and promptly bursting out laughing alongside me. “Hmm? What’s wrong?” Starlight asked. Walking towards us. “No no no. It’s nothing, c’mon, let’s get inside and check on where Ocellus’ friends are.” I said, silently giggling much to the confusion of Starlight Glimmer. The sign reads ‘No Student Parking in the Faculty Lot.’ “Hmmm. 1022, 1023, 1025, Aha! Class of 1027. Graduated by 1031. Obviously Ocellus and her friends didn’t graduate.” I was busy looking at Starlight’s personal office, an office with a good variety of potted plants, books and other miscellaneous objects lying about. The purple mare promptly brought the book to her work table, setting it down and opening the book. Pictures of Mares and Colts belonging to various species raced through my eyes, before finally I looked at a picture of 6 individuals. A Yak, A Griffon, A Pony, a Hippogriff, a Dragon, and a Changeling. All of them grinning widely within the picture. ‘Best Friends Forever’ read the bottom. A rather charming bunch of friends aren’t they? “Let’s see.” Starlight said, now flipping page after page within the yearbook. “Aha! Where they’ll go! I know this isn’t the most comprehensive search ever, but let’s see here.” “So, we have Yona, who said that ‘Yak want to go see the world! Share Yak wisdom and culture of smashing! Yona thinks she would go to Griffonstone and then to Centaur Lands next!’” “Well, we know where she would go. Centaur Lands huh…. so, Rainbow Harbour?” I asked. “Definitely Rainbow Harbour. Now, let’s see here. Ah! Gallus says that ‘I don’t know, maybe I wanna stay in Equestria for a while. I heard that there’s a bunch of Pony Nations outside of Equestria to the east of Griffonstone, so I might wanna go there, go on an adventure, do odd jobs on the side.’ Interesting, so, Eastern Pony Lands.” “Ah, Gallus is going to the Riverlands! Never been to River Cities before, might be interesting.” “And we have Silverstream, says that she’s ‘super bummed out by our sudden breakup, but it’s okay! I can make new memories in Equestria! I heard that Princess Celestia is building something veeeery secretive and veeeery important down in Southern Equestria, and I definitely want a part of it!” “Southern Equestria? That’s an interesting choice.” I further commented. “Although, no idea about this whole ‘secret’ project though.” “It’s probably the rocket site. The rocket site in Yucca island.” Tempest responded, seemingly unaware of my reaction as she finished that sentence. “Rocket… Site?” Myself and Sonata both asked. “Equestria has a rocket site?” “Well, yeah! Where have you been? Living under a rock? Oh...” “Yeah.” I responded to Starlight’s inquest. “I was living on another world when Equestria decided that a rocket program was worthwhile or something. Seriously, what’s that about?” “I mean, yeah, what’s that about?” Sonata commented as well. “I know that, back in our world we have these weird things called ‘space programs,’ I always kinda get confused whenever space is mentioned. But for realsies? Equestria has a space program too?” “Yeah. We do.” Starlight responded. “It’s still in its infancy, but if I know one thing about Silverstream, it’s that she will not stop unless she knows absolutely everything about the thing she’s interested in. I do wonder if she works in the space program… that’s a potentially scary thought.” “Well, we also have Smolder, saying that ‘I really don’t know, maybe I wanna go back to the dragonlands, a part of me wants to go to the Northern Griffon lands though, or maybe Zebrica… hmm, definitely Zebrica. I heard that there’s a long lost tribe of dragons there. That’s definitely going to be a fun ride!” “Alright, so we have Yona and Smolder potentially going to Zebrica, Silverstream and Ocellus staying in Equestria, Gallus going to the Riverlands, and there’s one other friend in the group, right?” “Right, now. Sandbar entry is… huh, that’s… WHAT?!?” “What’s wrong Starlight? You look like you got spooked or something.” “Uhh, Sunset. You might wanna read this.” The purple mare said, handing the book over to me. Curious at Starlight’s sudden outburst, I flipped the pages and finally, the entry for Sandbar appeared. ‘Honestly. I think I wanna go exploring. I heard that there’s this mysterious land past the world ocean! And I really want to check out whether this ‘mysterious land’ is real or not. Maybe with our current technology we might actually find out! Fingers crossed, but I am confident!’ “Huh… is… is Sandbar planning to circumnavigate the globe? Wait, seriously?!?” Alright, a lil bit of exposition here. First off, no, the world isn’t flat, sorry to burst your bubble, but mathematicians and scientists have, very conclusively, proven that this world is round, and we also know that exact size of the planet as well. Doing the calculations to figure out the size of the world is laughably easy at this point. Or at least I imagined it being so. What is not so simple though, is trying to chart out every single corner of the planet. Charting from Equestria to the Griffon Lands is relatively easy, charting the lands of Zebrica even moreso. But past the Griffon continent, if you continuously move westwards, that’s unknown territory. Why is it unknown? Well, there is indeed a sort of ‘shroud’ covering up the ocean beyond both the Western Side of Equestria and Eastern Griffonia as well, it’s commonly called the world ocean, and a constant within this world ocean is this ‘shroud.’ Ships would enter, and they would never leave, like, it’s almost as if it is a constant. You never, ever try to circumnavigate the globe, or the shroud will just eat you up. Speaking of circumnavigation… “Starlight, Tempest. Is that Rocket Project thingy designed so that we can now know what our world looks like?” I asked. “I mean, props to ingenuity at the very least.” “Well, you hit the mark right on the head.” Tempest replied. “We are not going to risk sending modern Aircraft Carriers, Warships, even Scout Planes worth millions of bits into this ‘shroud,’ not worth the lives nor the bits. So, Celestia decided that a space program, designed to see the shroud from beyond the planet’s boundaries is warranted. It’s originally a very top secret project, but it slowly opened up to the public as time went by.” “...Huh. Sonata, you think that’ll work?” I asked. “Uhh, why are you asking me? I’m not the sciency type.” Sonata responded, definitely confused by my question. “Why ask me in the first place?” “Eh, just wanna know.” So, we have this Silverstream girl probably doing something with rockets, Yona and Smolder going on an adventure in the Zebrican continent, Gallus venturing to the Riverlands, and Sandbar probably mounting an expedition that’ll likely cost his life. “Well, since we know where they are now, or at least a rough approximation of where they are. You think that they’ll be there, Starlight?” “Hmmm, I can’t say for sure. But it is worth an attempt at least. I think Tempest can call S.M.I.L.E in the event that one of the members is missing or something.” The maroon mare only raised an eyebrow at Starlight’s suggestion, clearly not amused by it. “Starlight, I would like to inform you that SMILE isn’t a-” “I know I know! Say that it’s a ‘person of interest’ or something! We’re clearly looking at potential Element Bearers aren’t we?” “Well, I cannot say that. That’s a State Secret.” “Then tell that we have… y’know what? Nevermind, we’ll just search for all these Element Bearers manually if we have to.” I chuckled a bit, the spat between Starlight and Tempest reminds me of the time I spent with my friends. I can always recall Rainbow Dash arguing with Applejack over who's the most athletic. Anyway. “Now then. Where do we wanna start?” I asked. “Silverstream is certainly the closest. And then we can go to Zebrica or something, not sure how we’re supposed to go there though.” “Oh, Sunset you haven’t heard?” Starlight responded. “EquestriaRail has just completed their new ‘Sunset Line’ from Canterlot towards Southern Equestria. We can also take the plane if we want to.” She further suggested. “Wait, plane?” “Yeah! Like an Aeroplane! Not all of us are Pegasi after all.” Well, looks like this trip just got a whole lot more convenient. The tropical humid air washed over my body as I stepped out of the train and into the platform. ‘Yucca Island Station’ it reads. The trip down towards Southern Equestria was definitely… something, the High Speed train plowed through a massive change in scenery. From the forests and fields of Ponyville, and then towards other small towns in Central Equestria, before finally giving way to the Jungles of Southern Equestria. There is one other interesting sight that greeted me as I was about to enter the station though, and as we walked past the crowds of tourists. The sight greeted me like a slap in the face. A MASSIVE facility stands overlooking the entire island, launch pads, rocket sites, even some miscellaneous buildings labeled ‘R&D’, ‘Command and Control’, ‘Astronaut Training Facility’, and even ‘Rocket Build Site’. This all feels rather overwhelming. And the tourists flocking towards this island are now slowly being corralled by their tour guides, I guess I forgot to mention that Starlight told me about how Yucca Island is now a bit of a tourist hotspot due to the whole Rocket Facility thing. Now, where to find Silverstream in all this mess… “You’re right Starlight, this certainly feels… odd.” I said, taking all of it in as I feel the Tropical Heat beam down on me, the Rocket Sites, the hordes of tourists, even the rather modern looking aesthetic of everything on this island. I turned around, my head swiveling back and forth, searching for a Pink, potentially hyperactive Hippogriff in the crowd of ponies. I was taking my group for a rather leisurely walk, blending in perfectly with the tourists due to my relative inexperience with seeing a Rocket Launch site in Equestria, when I suddenly bumped into somepony. The impact dropped both of us to the ground. Slowly regaining my footing, I was about to apologize when the Pony in front of me smothered me with questions. Or rather, the Hippogriff. “Oh my gosh! I’m sorry sorry sorry sorry! I was about to go back to do my R&D when I thought ‘Hey! Why don’t I take an even longer break than usual!’ So I went outside the facility grounds, mingling with everypony when BAM! I hit you! I’m very very sorry, will you forgive me?” “Yeah… I guess…” “Oh thank goodness! I really don’t want to make your first impression of this veeeery advanced facility in a bad light! What’s your name by the way?” “Uhh, Sunset Shimmer. Nice to meet you, miss?” “Oh, Head Researcher Silverstream. I work at the Rocket Site, actually, you’re a tourist right? How about I take you for a ‘I’m very sorry for crashing into you so now I will show you the sights they don’t normally show to tourists’ tour! Whaddaya think?” “Oh… I think that’ll be nice, Miss Silverstream.” I responded, silently processing the sheer inexplicability of this sudden meeting. “Oh, and that’s your group right?” She asked, looking at the other three figures besides me. “Hey there! Wanna come with me! I can show you to SIGHTS! Since, y’know, I work here! Oh… WAIT A MINUTE!” The Hippogriff approached Sonata, her eyes practically twinkling, much to Sonata’s discomfort. “Oh… My… Gosh! Are, are, you an, an original Seapony?!?!? I thought that they went extinct! Oh, you have to tell me where you live, you have to tell me everything!” Sonata, now visibly discomforted by Silverstream’s seeming lack of knowledge of personal space, only looked at me with worried eyes, with me only slightly amused by it all. Her discomfort then turned into anger as she silently asked me to remove Silverstream from her presence, I chuckled as Sonata was practically barraged with a variety of questions from the Hippogriff, before I finally lighted my horn and floated the Hippogriff away from an almost overwhelmed Sonata. “Sorry, but Sonata doesn’t take well to be barraged with sudden questions like that.” “Oh, well, sorry for that!” The pink Hippogriff responded. “I just have NEVER seen an original Seapony before in my life. Anyway, that aside. Let’s go!!!!” I have a sinking feeling that Silverstream might very well be laughter. But i’m going to hold back on my opinions until something confirms it, i’ve been wrong before, and nothing says that I wouldn’t be wrong again.