I heaved a sigh of relief when I plopped the chest down between the two lounge chairs in the forward section of Blossom’s lower deck. While I’d activated the spell to let us see outside, there wasn’t much to see, save for the nearly horizontal rain blasting by the Skyport’s spotlights.
We’d been lucky to find the Airtours team waiting for us on the small cliff. The rain had already started when we’d scrambled up the slope to them. They had looked like they’d been minutes away from leaving and had only given us extra time because of the appearance of the To Dream in Colour. The flight back to the town of Canter Basin had been bumpy and chaotic, so loud that we could barely hear ourselves think, let alone talk.
After saying our goodbyes to the crew, we’d sprinted across town to the Skyport, trying to ignore the stinging rain coming from on high. After a brief stop to talk with High Winds about the Blossom’s repairs, we’d made the final dash up the elevator and to the hold of my airship.
Now, Minuette was in her room, drying off from the rain. As for me, I had wanted to get the treasure squared away first, but with that done, I floated a towel over from a cabinet and vigorously tried to cleanse the water from my mane, tail, and coat. By the time I was done, I probably looked like a giant cream-colored cotton ball with hints of purple and red for a mane, but at least I wasn’t shivering from the cold.
I threw on a sweater—our jumpsuits were hanging in the head—wiped down the chest, and then opened it once more.
The crystals of Celestial Iron glinted back at me. I didn’t actually know how much this stuff was worth, but… it could change a lot of things for me. It could be the first really good thing that happened to me with no strings attached.
I didn’t know if I deserved it, though. Considering everything that had happened back in Canterlot before my abrupt departure, not to mention that this whole thing was Minuette’s idea.
Silly, excitable Minuette. When we’d been fillies, she’d been the one to constantly drag me out into actually doing more than staring at a book. She’d also been the one to try the longest and the hardest after… well, after the first incident years and years ago.
And now, she was here. One of the best clockmakers in Equestria, now on a little airship with a former librarian in the middle of nowhere.
I floated up one of the crystalline minerals in my magic and watched the cabin lights reflect off the rosy facets.
Why was she here?
She didn’t need me. Okay, maybe on this trip she needed me, but she didn’t need me in general. Did she? She’d been cagey when I first asked all the way back in Vanhoover and I wondered if now was the time to figure out what was really going on.
Then again, that might lead to her asking the same questions about me. And that wasn’t a risk I was willing to take just yet, even though she might deserve a few answers. After all, the reason a small fortune in Celestial Iron sat at my hooves was because of her crazy idea.
I heard her door open and turned around to see an annoyingly well-groomed Minuette step out under the cabin lights. She grinned when she saw me watching and struck a ridiculous-looking pose as if she were some catwalk model or something.
I burst out laughing.
She tried to look offended but broke down into giggles after less than five seconds. As she walked toward me, I decided that despite how her jumpsuit fit her, I think I liked her better without it. Just her for her. It was nice.
“Checking out our amazing haul, huh?” Minuette said with a grin as she plopped down onto the opposite lounge chair.
“Something like that,” I said, floating the crystal over to her. She snagged it in her magic. “I… I’m still having trouble believing it’s real, to be honest.”
Minuette’s eyes went huge. “You don’t believe ever after—”
“No!” I raised my hooves in self-defense. “No, not that! I can’t really deny it anymore. I mean… I guess it’s surreal? Like… us finding something people have sought for nearly six hundred years?”
Minuette smiled warmly at me and she levitated over her saddlebags, then extracted the Waystone. “We did have a pretty big advantage.”
“Yeah, I suppose we did,” I said. “Never thought I’d be grateful to a griffon for a huge treasure stash.”
“Hey, that’s a stereotype!” She giggled. “But until a few years ago, a pretty accurate one.”
“Yeah, well… even the griffon on that Waystone isn’t anything like I’d imagine. I didn’t even know they had mixed crews back…”
I trailed off and realized I was avoiding something. Something important.
A gust of wind rattled the ship a little, but only a little. Minuette glanced outside and shivered before turning her attention back to me.
“Moony?”
“I guess I owe you an apology,” I said, staring down at the treasure and pointedly not at her.
“What? Why?”
I laughed. “Only you would ask ‘why’ to that statement, Minuette. Because… I didn’t believe you. I kept pointing out how silly it all was and… I wasn’t exactly a great friend.”
“Now you’re the one being silly,” Minuette said with yet another laugh, one that finally made me look up and meet her eyes. “I didn’t… well, I didn’t really believe myself until we saw the chest. But… with everything that’s happened to me in the last couple of years, it’s just something I needed to at least pretend to be real, if only for a little bit.”
I wanted to ask why, but something held me back. Maybe it was her glowing smile. Maybe it was her shining eyes—though they had dimmed for just a moment when she’d mentioned ‘the last couple of years.’ Maybe it was the way her entire being vibrated with pure happiness.
I couldn’t take that away from her. I knew life would eventually do it anyway, but there was no harm in letting her enjoy this win.
Celestia knew I needed more wins in my life. Everypony did.
Then, despite my best efforts, the joy faded anyway.
“But…” she said slowly, her eyes flickering around us. “I guess that means you’ve fulfilled your part of the deal. It was originally for Whinnyapolis, but then got shifted to this, even though you never really formally agreed to it. You’ve taken me to a destination, given me an adventure and a few days off. So if you want to head straight to Whinnyapolis now… I would understand.”
I gaped at her, trying to process what was going on in that crazy blue head of hers. Then again… she was mostly right. I hadn’t agreed to be her tour captain or anything. She wasn’t paying me. I didn’t have any reason to keep going with this craziness. And selling the Celestial Iron, even half of it, would net me a tidy sum.
I could go back to my plans.
Well, plan. Singular. Because the only thing I had wanted to see before I left Equestria entirely was the Crystal Faire. And that wasn’t for a few weeks.
I looked down at the Celestial Iron. Despite everything else, it didn’t really matter to me. Bits were nice and all, but… I had the skills to work off what I needed to. It would take more time, of course, but that was okay.
I closed my eyes and sucked in a breath.
I kept wondering why I should help her.
But then I wondered why I shouldn’t help her.
“Yeah, right,” I said with a smirk as I snatched the Celestial Iron crystal from her grasp. “Like I’m going to let you get filthy rich tracking down the rest of the treasure without me.”
A spark of life returned to Minuette’s eyes, though it was hesitant. “What do you—”
“And somepony has to keep you out of trouble! For all I know, you’ll rent a second-rate hot air balloon and get yourself stranded next to some forgotten train track.”
“Hey!” she protested, but that spark grew brighter with my every word.
“And I’m pretty much the only shot you have at beating those wannabes on the Colour.”
“They’re nice! Mostly!” The spark had become a fire.
“So yeah, I think you’re going to end up being stuck with me for a little while longer, Minnie.”
I had no warning, even though I should have known. A speeding blue bullet slammed into my chest and bowled me right over into the narrow space between the chair and the bulkhead. I yelped when I banged my head, but my assailant didn’t seem to notice. She was too busy trying to crush the very air from my lungs.
And she managed to do all of this while babbling, “Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!”
“Minuette!” I gasped, trying to pry her off me. “Minuette!”
It seemed like hours before I got a response. That was probably the oxygen deprivation. Probably.
Her blue head popped up less than a few inches away from me. “Huh?”
“Air!” I wheezed.
“Oh, right!” Minuette disentangled herself from me and grinned sheepishly. “Um… sorry.”
I conducted a refresher course on breathing to my lungs through the use of several deep lungfuls of wonderful life-giving air.
“I’ll live,” I coughed a few times, but still offered her a weak smile. “Probably.”
She stuck out her tongue at me.
And that’s when I realized we were inches apart, with her on top of me, tucked in a narrow space between a bulkhead and a chair with a storm raging outside.
If I hadn’t been such a prolific reader, it might have been romantic. Instead, I found it a little bit cliché.
That didn’t stop me from blushing like mad as she scrambled off me with a dozen or so more apologies.
Eventually, we found ourselves back in the lounge chairs, grinning like idiots as we looked between one another and the Celestial Iron. I took a deep breath and yawned. It was only a little past seven, but it felt like midnight after the hike, the crew of the Colour and us running all over town.
I knew I wasn’t up to actually cooking anything in the galley, so I levitated out four granola bars from the pantry. I dropped two of them on Minuette’s lap and then began to scarf down one of them myself.
“So… what now?” Minuette asked after she’d devoured the first one.
“Sleep,” I muttered, halfway through my second. “Then we ask the magic eight-ball what else it knows.”
“We can’t find out tonight?” Minuette pouted a little. “Please?”
I shook my head emphatically. “No way. We need to get some rest and I don’t want to stay up half the night trying to figure out the next mystery.”
“Come on, Moony!” Minuette begged. “Please?”
I looked at her as I finished my last granola bar. Her bottom lip was out in the biggest pout I’d ever seen.
“Fine,” I grumbled as I gestured for her to do the honors.
With a grin, she floated up the Waystone in her magic and placed it right on top of the Celestial Iron. The blue arrow instantly appeared again, this time pointing straight down. It flashed numerous times before it exploded into a small nebula of teal-colored light. A second later, there was a familiar flash of yellow magic as Commander Garth once again appeared.
Whatever had happened between the first message and this message hadn’t been kind to the griffon. He had an eyepatch over the right eye and both his right foreleg and right wing were in slings. A single eye glared down at us from his grizzled beak.
“Getting this down now before we get too far. Don’t wanna lose sight of our latest stash. Cap’n had the good idea of stowing the port cargo pod landside so we could escape the Armada, but the way things are going…”
Commander Garth shook his head sadly.
“I got a feeling this ship ain’t gonna be in for a graceful landing when we’re free of that feathered bitch Fairweather. So, this one be a better note. We did a dive through the Coltumbia Gorge, found a pretty little waterfall, reminded me of the veil Taproof’s missus wore on her wedding day. Good spot to hide. Gorge so big and long, no one’s gonna think to look behind some random waterfall. The Egg knows there’s hundreds of them here!”
He coughed a few times, a claw to his beak before looking back at us through time.
“We just gotta make it to the Moon, then we’ll be okay. Might need to scuttle the ship, but treasure’s no good to ya if yer dead or behind bars. We’ve still got the aft pod and what’s in the hold. Even if we never manage to get the other pods back… we’ve got enough to retire. Maybe get that kid some help.”
A bell sounded near the commander. It didn’t have the frantic energy of an alarm bell, but it seemed important somehow.
“Aye, looks like we’re going to make a break for the next wild storm. Hopefully, this’ll be the last one of these, Egg-willing.”
Then, his picture fizzled out entirely, leaving us alone in the lounge.
“What do you think he meant by getting to ‘the moon’?” Minuette asked.
I shook my head and tapped a hoof on my chin. “That’s not the important question.”
“Then what is?”
“Where that waterfall is.”
“But like he said, there are hundreds along the Gorge. And that’s going even further north. The wild storms are going to be even worse.”
“Maybe,” I shrugged. “But it’s not going to be like trying to thread the pass. Anyway, he told us exactly where to look. Something that looked like a veil.”
“A veil?”
“A bridal veil,” I said with a grin. “In fact, that’s our next stop. Bridle Veil Falls.”
“You… know where it is?”
“You don’t stay a bookworm as long as I do without picking up on a little bit of everything,” I replied with a tiny bit of smugness. “Now, let’s get some sleep. Tomorrow, we leave Canter Basin. And this time, we’ll be officially treasure hunters.”
She leapt at me for another hug.
One of these days, I’d start to see them coming.