Movement on the lake was smooth and unimpeded, allowing them to scoot along quickly, the shores in sight the entire time. With that, the river crept up on them, the offramp towards their goal. Dark nodded with confidence. "There we are. The last part will go by very quickly. We'll be going down stream for a change."
"Though our journey presses close to an end." Zecora sat beside Dark. "At least we made a new friend."
Sues nuzzled free a small hip flask. "I'll drink to that." He waved it with a wave of his head. "Join me?"
Jon considered the clutched flask. "No offense, but you being a pony, that flask has been on your lips, probably more than a few times."
"Mondai? I am not ill, nor dirty." He was serving up the others who were less picky about the topic. "You are a stranger in this land, so I samehe." He made a giving gesture of a hoof. "Among ponies, we are quite used to this. Perhaps by need? Still, it is our way, and you are in our lands."
When in Rome, Jon figured he was being told in a roundabout way. "I won't be the stick in the mud." Everyone else was doing it, so Jon surrendered to the peer pressure of his adventuring party. With everyone holding a bit, he raised his little drinking tin. "To new friends."
"To new friends," echoed the others, cups raised before they were set down on the boat surface. Unlike Jon, who tipped his cup into his mouth to taste the interesting new flavor of the pony brew, the others were lapping or sipping from cups laid out in front of them rather than any of them trying to tip it.
Dark allowed a purr that did not fit his pony head. "Mmm, a fine mixture. Where did you get it from?"
Sues tucked his flask away and soon had his drinking cup going with it. "My favori. There is a trader that comes by every half a year or so, and I make it a habit to get a jug or three when she does. I don't know where she gets it from originally." He shrugged at that part. "Merchants get testy when you pry into their secreta."
Sonja licked her lips clean of the drink. "I'm rarely in the same place for too long." She grabbed her cup in her teeth and stashed it in a saddlebag. "Don't have much chance to take aim for favorite traders. On the positive, I get to take pot shots at random, try new things, see new places."
Zecora left her cup where it started. Not that it had been her cup to begin with. "There is a thought that none are thinking. What will our friend do, long past our drinking?" She pointed to Sues and Sonja. "Even if all goes well, and two of us go home, I doubt the place we go is the end of the others' roam."
Dark inclined his head. "If I gather what you're asking, I will take harbor and wait." He sat up, proud as any cat. "I'm very good at that. I will think and muse and other such things, and eventually someone will come along needing a ride, and there I'll be, ready to provide it. They'll be overjoyed, and I'll be happy enough."
Sues threw an arm around Dark. "I think our human friend is suggesting you not wait."
Dark tilted his head the other way. "Sail back right away? I could, but why? The ship sails smoother with a passenger or three, and no passengers means I'm not being paid. What's the positive?"
"No no." Jon adjusting his footing. They were moving down the river, the boat moving beneath them in new ways as it picked up speed. "I meant come with us."
Dark's brows came together. "You stink of adventure, not to offend." He raised a paw to point at Jon. "But I know that stench. I barely got it out of my own pelt a few years back."
"That's a stain that sticks to your viewfinder." Sonja nodded softly. "You jumped to action too quickly to be a proper civilian."
Zecora pointed to the other two zebras. "I had only meant that they will require a ride if nothing else. I was not trying to suggest anything more complex."
Sues squeezed the captive sphinx. "Pish posh! You're a friend. You're welcome to join us. And if we do need a ride back, well, there you are. We'll pay of course. Friends don't take advantage of friends, non."
Dark chuckled darkly as the boat soared around a rock without anyone by a steering wheel. Not that the boat had one? "Well, now you've done and put me in a tight place. If I say no, I'll be stuck wondering about it forever, or at least a few years."
Jon fired an emphatic double thumbs up. "So come with us and you won't have to worry ab--" He was cut off with a sphinx to the chest. Dark pounced away from Sues and thudded against Jon, knocking the human back as he clung with those sharp claws. "Damn human. This is exactly your sort of thing."
Sues laughed, setting his hoof down with no sphinx to hold anymore. "Don't let him have all the credit. I'd just as much like to keep the friends I've made. It's a religious thing!"
Dark looked over his shoulder, still clinging to Jon, but peering at Sues. "Religious thing? What religion does this even potentially involve? It better not be a creepy cult. Creepy cults do not ride on my boat."
Sues waved that worry away. "Princess Luminace is a common pony goddess, and a very nice one at that. She bids us to learn, explore, and make friends, and I love all three of those, even if I wasn't doing a lot of the second one." He pointed at Jon, still hidden behind his new Dark chestplate. "He fixed the second one."
"Damn humans." Dark jumped free of Jon, landing on the deck with grace fitting a cat. "Now, we may be both ponies." He tapped at his head with swipes of his paw. "But I'm not from here. Nice kingdom, really enjoying it, but I'm not from here, so I don't know full well the local religions. Sounds nice enough."
That was a call to the zebra who was a priest. "Mama Mia, this we have to fix." He approached Dark swiftly.
Only for Dark to scamper away. "No thank you! I've lived this long without worrying about the machinations of angels and demons."
Jon set a hand on Sues as he almost walked by. "Don't preach where it isn't wanted."
This seemed to surprise Dark, raising a brow at Jon. "The way I heard it, humans usually loved preaching where it wasn't wanted."
"Not all humans are the same." Jon shrugged softly. "Just like we have three zebras with very different interests. Gonna guess if we had another sphinx, they wouldn't just be another you."
"I hope not," huffed Dark with a frown. "Alright, I will admit that was rude of me." He sank to his belly, eyeing his passengers. "Exploring and making new friends? Your god must be very proud of you, going to distant places with such a diverse band."
"Ecstatic," assures Sues without a bit of doubt. "It was the headpriest that sent me packing. Now--" He offered a hoof but did not try to close in again. "You are very welcome. Bona amiko. You are a thinking sort. Imagine what new things you could see."
Dark's claws scratched on the wood. "Some adventurers. What is the goal? When last I went, it was to escape. For most, a chance of glory or wealth. What drives you forward?"
Jon hiked a brow. "Escape what?"
"My little unknowing friend." Dark shook his head lightly. "The Depths have much to want to escape from. Thank whatever god you prefer that you don't have to worry about that." His eyes slipped to Zecora. "You carry the same unknowing distance, of a different variety. You want to go home, do you not?" Zecora nodded. "Then we are not that different." He sprang to his feet, just to seem to bounce off his landing, changing his momentum as if inertia were a light suggestion more than anything else. "I ran to find my home. You know where it is, but we both went into danger to reach it."
He landed on the highest part of the boat, a place he favored. "I would feel guilty, abandoning another to a quest I so sorely wanted aid in. None came to my cries. A more bitter soul would take that as a reason to return the favor, or lack." He flashed his equine smile, ears twitching. "I will blame the pony in me. I would rather be the change I'd like to see."
"Then you are better than many." Zecora nodded with gained respect. "I will take one ally who thinks that, as opposed to the rest of the many. Thank you for your sacrifice. To help a stranger? Normally that has a price." Perhaps not always true of Equestria, but Zecora had picked up how Everglow worked. Like the griffons, really.
"Oh ho! There you go, assuming there's no price." He snorted as he leaned forward from his lofty perch. "Of course there's a price. I call dibs on the first bit of loot you can't immediately use. And don't give me the 'We're not even looking for loot' spiel. It's an adventure. Loot happens. As if some strange overgod decreed this was to be the case, it is always true. There is no avoiding it. There is no point struggling against it. So I choose to plan for it instead. First bit of treasure you have no immediate use for; mine."
Jon was ready to argue that, but the soft tinkling of earned coins cut him off. He had already found some treasure, even if it wasn't a grand magical artifact. "Huh..."
"That's the face of someone realizing I was right." Oh, Dark looked so satisfied. "We have a deal?"
They looked among each other, somehow ending up all focusing on Sonja. "How did this become my shot to take!" She stomped with irritation. "Well, on your head then. Give me a target, and I'm going to put a hole in it." She pointed up at Black. "You. You're recruited. No arguing it."
"Oh dear," cried the pony-cat without any actual regret. "Whatever will I do. Fine, just be sure to treat me kindly. I bruise easily. Now, we are coming close." Up ahead and to their right, a town was coming around the bend. It was a small town in comparison to the large city they had left.
It had a tall and stout looking wall that ran all along its edges, unlike the open boundaries of the city. Looming tall over it was some kind of great fortification of unknown purpose. It was an armored settlement in the middle of what was otherwise tall trees and wilderness. Dark nodded at it. "There we are. I'll pull us close as we can get, but we're going to have to hike a little. This isn't a town known for its vibrant trade, but it does have some. Wonder if they repaired their pier..."
Sues cocked his head. "They have a pier?" Turned out they did, a single jutting point of wood out into the water of the river. It had no boats on it, and a lone unicorn was fishing into the river's waters.
As they drew closer, the unicorn raised a hoof to wave. "Welcome to Silverdream," they called. "Actually stopping by, or just hoping for supplies?"
The boat drew silently up against the pier, allowing its passengers to hop free, Dark included. The sphinx turned back to his boat. "You're no use there." He made a scrunching gesture with his paws and the boat began folding smoothly along hinges previously unseen until a heavy cube landed in front of Dark. "That's better. Someone pick that up please."
Jon went to snatch it up, finding it was lighter than he feared. "We're here to visit. Thanks."