Sunny Smiles walked out of Sugarcube Corner, holding a half-eaten slice of cake. She did her last-minute shopping and even asked around to see if she couldn’t find anyone in town who might know where she could get some climbing gear, but now she couldn’t wait any longer.
Her train was getting ready to leave, and she had no more time to waste. So, taking another nearly-too-big bite out of her cake, she rushed headlong to the train station and found the train heading for Las Pegasus waiting for her.
Sunny clambered in as the conductor made the last call and checked her ticket. This time she had been relegated to the more public passenger car and would be sharing her space with nearly everyone else on the train.
That suited her fine, though she was going to be packed in with a dozen different ponies all dressed up as tourists and ready to gamble. Which vaguely threatened some discomfort, but she could put up with that.
Especially with this cake.
Admittedly, Celestia found it somewhat surprising that Pinkie Pie jumped into everyone’s personal space the same way she did for the Princess. It made her feel that much more, well, normal. However, the Quills and Sofas clerk treated her kindly enough, and Rarity—of course—made her feel like a Princess anyway at Carousel Boutique.
There was so much irony in that.
Now armed with a new belt that could double as a climbing harness for its strength—while also looking fashionable—a few carabiners, a small knife to match the machete, and a canteen, she felt far more prepared. Of course, nopony could harbor any doubts that Las Pegasus wasn’t her final stop, and that may get her caught up in some conversation on the train, but Celestia was okay with that.
After all, of the two sisters, Celestia had always been the more social of the two. Nevertheless, Luna often bemoaned that, even though they built their first castle in the middle of a wild forest, ponies still managed to make their way in and bug her.
However, in their defense, most of those instances were ponies trying to get their attention for an emergency.
Still, Celestia always knew she was the extrovert of the pair.
The question she suddenly found herself asking, though, was Sunny comfortable with talking to so many ponies? Perhaps not. Maybe Sunny was an introvert at heart? Perhaps she got tired of conversation quickly?
Celestia toyed with the idea before deciding against it. She couldn’t get away without talking to someone for days on end like Luna could. The disguised alicorn would have to keep some of Celestia in Sunny, after all. Keeping the two of them totally separate was a skill she just didn’t have.
Yes, Sunny probably was just as bubbly and friendly as Celestia herself. She could talk and talk about this or that until everyone else got sick of talking. She was more than ready for any conversation the—
The passenger car had no one in it.
Sunny blinked.
How...how was nopony here? Nopony? Not a single soul heading for Las Pegasus?
Sure, it was a Monday, but Las Pegasus was the city that never slept, the city of eternal lights, the city of second chances, or even the city of Lost Wages. So how could nopony be heading to Las Pegasus?
“Well, well,” a ticket collector said as he stepped up behind her. “You lucked out, miss. It’s nearly impossible to get an empty car to Las Pegasus. I think I’ve only seen this happen twice in my entire career. Anyways, you have your ticket, Ma’am?”
Sunny sighed and presented her ticket.
The collector punched it and haded it back. “Have a pleasant, quiet trip, ma’am.”
Sunny sighed and took her seat. She picked one in the middle and sat by the window, staring out of it as the Ponyville countryside slowly pulled away.
Looks like she didn’t have much in the way of options. So, without much else to do, Sunny Smiles closed her eyes to sleep.
---☼---
“Miss, Miss.”
Sunny started awake, and the ticket collector stared back at her. “We’ve arrived, ma’am. Welcome to Las Pegasus.”
“Oh, thank you, thank you,” she said, waking up.
“Not a problem ma’am, we typically make a last check through the train anyway, and I figured I’d give you some time to sleep. Traveling’s a terribly tiring business.”
“Thank you, but I do need to go now. I have a boat to catch.”
“Best of luck then, ma’am!” the collector said with a smile and a tip of his hat. “I think a carriage to the dock’s only a couple of bits, and they’ll get you down there with time to spare.”
“Thank you!” Sunny said, running off the car.
Las Pegasus hovered above her, with a paved stairway supported on clouds that reached the proper city’s casinos and hotels. Beneath the marvelous clouds sat the more natural city, the place where ponies actually lived.
Sunny gave it a passing glance before noticing the carriages that sat in a row not five feet from the station.
“Excuse me,” she said, smiling as she looked up at one of the drivers, any way you can take me to the docks?”
“Four bits, Ma’am, and I’ll take you anywhere you want,” he replied with a smile.
“That sounds like a deal to me,” she replied before reaching into her saddlebags with her magic to pull out four gold coins. “Here you go, good sir!”
“Thank you very much, Ma’am!” the driver said before he opened the door to the carriage. “To the docks!”
The carriage took off, and Sunny smiled as she watched the evening sun slowly set over the South Luna Ocean. She was almost there, so close to the frontier. She nearly stood ready to explore the unexplored and be an adventurer again, if only for a little while.
Yes, she could almost taste the adventure.
The docks had very little going on at this point in the day. For the most part, the boaters—a handful of wealthy locals that lived beneath the clouds—had packed in for the night, and it looked like the only actual activity seemed to be entirely localized around a single boat. A gaggle of college students partied on the deck of a paddleboat named The Crystal Flare, celebrating as college students were wont to do.
“Is that your party, ma’am?”
“Sort of,” she said. “They need somepony responsible watching over them.”
The driver smirked. “Well, you said it, ma’am, not me.”
“So I did,” she replied with a smile.
The cart pulled up, and the driver shook his head once more. “I hope you manage to get some sleep at least.”
Sunny did frown at that one. But, on the other hand, her chances were reasonably slim on getting a good night’s sleep tonight. “They’ll probably calm down,” she said.
“I hope you’re right for your sake, miss.”
The driver stopped the carriage and let Sunny step off of the carriage. “Thank you so much.”
The driver nodded. “Best of luck, Ma’am!”
Celestia smiled as the driver peeled off and mulled over the idea of setting up some kind of transport pony appreciation day. A lot of them certainly deserved it, and...actually...actually, that would be Twilight’s call these days.
Well, she could certainly write a letter to suggest it, anyway.
She focused back on the boat and sighed. The gangplank was down and easy enough to cross, but the ship’s deck was filled with the moving bodies of young adults who thought they knew better.
Sunny shook her head before she walked aboard, dodging the various ponies as they drank and danced about the deck. A simple set of cheap speakers blared music so loud, it sounded like the poor, beat-up amplifiers would blow themselves to pieces.
Sunny paid it as little attention as she could get away with and made her way to the ship’s back where the Captain’s quarters were. It took a few tries knocking on the door. She had to pound on it with all her might before the door opened. She nearly stumbled inside, where an old, wizard sea pony stared at her.
She stepped inside real quick and closed the door, muting some of the incessant poundings of the music. “Sorry for intruding,” she said, as the music thumped behind the door, but I don’t know if you’d be able to hear me through that.”
“Ain’t that the truth?” the stallion that she assumed was the Captain muttered. “What are you here for, though?”
“I’m Sunny Smiles. I chartered to go with your trip independently.”
“Hm...Sunny Smiles, ey?” he asked before moving to the deck that occupied the back of the room.
“Yes, sir.”
The old stallion, an earth pony, dressed in a blue turtleneck sweater, cracked open a book whose cover looked as leathery as his face. “Lessee here. S, S, Sugar, Sundrop, Sunset—”
“I’d, uh...probably be under the Royal Conservation Committee,” Sunny interrupted. She charted this trip before she had a name after all.
The salt-crusted pony sighed and flipped over the Rs. “Royal Conser’ation Committee, 1 member, TBD.”
“That sounds like me, sir.”
The stallion shrugged. “You have the receipt?”
Sunny produced the hoof-written bill of travel.
The sea pony looked it over. “Well, that looks ‘fficial ’nough. So wel’ome’ board the Crystal Flare, I’m Captain Crusty, and I own this-here ship. You’ll have cabin 38 on the starb’erd side next to the rest of the ‘aperones and responsible ponies. Hope the kids don’t tire you out too soon.”
“Not at all. Thank you, Captain.”
Crusty nodded. “Hope you grabbed everything you need. We set sail at dawn.”
“I’m prepared, if a little late,” she replied with a smile.
“Good, sum’pony competent’s fernally’ rrived.”
Sunny gave a slight bow before she turned back to the door that led the deck, which occasionally shook with the song’s beat. “You, uh, don’t have a back way out, do you?”
“T’ the Captain’s Quarters?” Crusty asked. “Not on yer life.”
Sunny sighed. “Alright, thank you anyway. Wish me luck.”
“All the luck of the sea go wif ya.”
She opened the door and slipped out through the thundering music and silently hoped that the speakers would finally give out and maybe explode. Sunny crawled her way across the deck, trying to move through the undulating mass of ponies. She pushed her way forward, unfortunately moving closer to the infernal squealing machines because whoever set them up managed to flank the door to the lower decks.
She finally pushed past the door and clawed her way to safety, where her ears wouldn’t be assaulted by every beat and note. She sighed as she leaned against the door, as though she could barricade it against the sound. Finally, without anything else to slow her down, she began moving down to the ship’s starboard side and soon found her cabin, cabin 38.
Sunny slipped inside and found a hammock, a footlocker, and a private bathroom.
“All the comforts of home,” she said with a smirk.
She set her bags down on the floor by the footlocker and used her magic to open the hammock a bit before slipping inside with a small pillow. Sleep would be nice right now. After all, that ticket collector said it best: traveling was a tiring profession.
As she lay there, with the faint thumping of the music from just beyond the door, she found herself thinking about the pegasus from the train trip.
She...she might have been more than a little rude to Mr. Marble Venture. If he really wanted to just keep her from getting hurt, then she kind of dragged the whole thing out more than she needed to. It wasn’t like he was Discord or anything. The draconequus could get under her skin just by opening his mouth. Marble had simply turned down good information then tried to save her from a bag of letters which probably weighed at most a total of eight pounds.
Sunny was probably just holding onto this more than she needed to and had to let it go. But, of course, it’s not like she had a chance to apologize anymore. Marble was long gone at this point. He could be heading to Abyssinia for all she knew.
Oh well, missed opportunities and all that.
Celestia sighed and rolled over, eager to go to sleep after a long day of work. But, unfortunately, she had a few days of lazing around on a boat to get through.
---☼---
A deep chugging sound, something that thudded in the back of Celestia’s mind, woke her, along with the light of the rising sun peeking in through the porthole of her cabin.
She got up, nearly rolling out of her mattress for a second before she caught herself and untangled herself from the murderous bed. Then, shaking Sunny’s turquoise mane, and let it hand loose for a moment or two, allowing it to relax for a moment before she began working it into a braid.
She tried letting it just hang loose on the train, but she just wound up with too much hair in her mouth. After braiding her mane, she threw it behind her head and walked out of her room. Silence echoed across the halls of the paddleboat, and only the distant, ever-thrumming chug-chug-chug of the engine disturbed the quiet. All of the college students, it seemed, were sleeping off the aftereffects of the previous night, and the blessed silence that followed in its wake left Sunny smiling as she climbed up the stairs to the top deck.
Ocean stretched for miles around her, with only a faint, distant haze that might be confused for land at the very edge of the horizon behind them.
“M’rning there, Ms. Smiles,” Captain Crusty called from the helm. “Welcome to the South Luna’ Cean.”
The warm ocean air greeted her as she stood on the deck, and she smiled as she felt the wind pass by her. “A good morning indeed, Captain.”
Crusty just nodded.
“We’re a little far out, aren’t we?” Sunny asked.
“There be a current,” Crusty said. “That runs west-a-way, an’ we’re a usin’ it to save on coal as we head that way. Unf’rtunat-like, though, it turns south. It ain’t gonna do us any good to ride it then, so we’re on’y gonna run until there, and then we’sa gonna turn north and then ‘ead ’long the coast. Then it’ll be smooth sailin’, sure as the tides.”
“Okay,” Sunny said. “I’ll trust your experienced wisdom.”
Crusty gave her a smile. “The ‘aperones and responsible ponies are taking bre’kfast up on the o’servation deck up yonder, if’n ya want to join them,” he said, pointing to the bow of the ship, where a few ponies sat at tables outside of a cabin built on the front of the boat.
“Thank you, Captain,” she said with a smile before she gave him a flourishing bow and then made her up the stair to the raised deck.
Sunny made her way to the tables and smiled as she greeted the ponies there. A few pleasantries were exchanged before she walked up to a table with a few pastries set on it. Captain Crusty, at least, seemed to have exquisite taste in provisions.
She turned to pick one up and paused when she noticed the pony on the other side of the table. A cream-colored stallion sat on the other side of the table, a pastry held in the feathers of his wing. Marble Venture stared up at her, his mouth agape even as it was about to receive the tart he had.
Sunny stared back at him.
Then, in unison, they said, “What are you doing here?”
---☼---
Caramel and Rolling stood in front of the gate, just behind the crowd of paparazzi that forever crowded the outside of the Two Sister’s Manor.
“She wants us to go in?” Rolling asked, looking at the journalists that swarmed the gate. “How?”
“She...she didn’t cover that,” Caramel replied, staring up at the crowd, and shook his head. He didn’t know how they were going to get inside, much less through the gate.
“Do we just push our way through?” Rolling asked.
“Do I look like I know?” Caramel asked. “It’s not my fault the Princess decided to ask me if she could play O&O with us.”
“Ex-Princess,” Rolling noted. “What do we call her then?”
“I think it’s Lady?” Caramel offered tentatively. “She said to call her her Ladyship when I called her your majesty.”
“Lady is correct.”
Both ponies froze and turned to see Luna standing just behind them.
The Lady’s eyes glinted with mischief before she raised a feather to her lips. “Shh. They haven’t noticed yet.”
“Um...hello, your Ladyship,” Rolling said.
“Greetings, I assume thou—sorry—you are Rolling Ivory, the Game Master.”
“Uh, yes, your Ladyship.”
“We can dispense with the titles for the time being,” Luna replied. “Let’s get you both inside.”
Caramel felt his stomach lurch as the alicorn teleported them both inside. He shut his eyes as the world swirled around him, and he took a moment to breathe and regain his balance.
“For future reference, Rolling—may I call thee Rolling?”
“I...yes?”
“The gate is enchanted to let those we have invited in while keeping others out. All thou need do is walk up to it, and you should be able to come in without having to worry about the...gathered crows outside the gate.”
Caramel finally had a moment to open his eyes and couldn’t help but blink. A jeweled goblet sat in front of him, reminiscent of an artifact in a temple, on a pedestal right next to a thick, heavy oak door.
His breath caught in his throat as he stared at it, and an image of selling it for enough money to start his own coffee shop jumped into his head. He shook the thought away and turned to see a golden statuette of a stallion knight long passed. It had to be worth thousands of bits.
Caramel tore his gaze away and watched as Luna and Rolling walked into another room with a large table and golden candlesticks before he realized that he missed the conversation entirely. He caught up as quickly as he could and slipped into the room as they began to talk.
But that thought was in his head now, and he couldn’t shake it loose.