//------------------------------// // Mariners // Story: In Reflection, The Same // by Faedelaide //------------------------------// The great wooden ship, emblazoned with the symbol of the Griffon Kingdom, moved through the sea like a heated blade. The ship had barely left the Baltimare dock an hour ago, and was lightly rocking on the calm shallows of the Celestial Sea. Despite that, Applejack was already hung over the deck in queasiness. Twilight eyed her friend nervously. Hopefully the trip wouldn't take that long, she would hate for everyone to be uncomfortable for the whole trip to Griffonstone. It seemed that she wasn't the only one who took notice of Applejack's vulnerable state, as a puffy, dark brown griffon floated down from one of the ship's grand sails and landed next to Twilight. "Is she gonna be okay? She's not looking too fresh," The griffon asked. "Applejack? She'll probably be ok once we get to Griffonstone," Twilight assured, though she wasn't too sure herself if Applejack was going to pass out before they got there. "How long until we reach it?" "If this damned ice cooperates, we should be there by sunrise tomorrow," he growled, casting a wicked glance towards the water in front of them. "Yes, the ice. The note we received said it was a little thicker than usual?" At that, the griffon let out a hearty laugh. "That's the understatement of the century, princess! Follow me a sec." The griffon quickly paced towards the front of the boat, and Twilight followed quickly behind. As they reached the bow, the griffon pointed over the edge and down towards the water. "Take a look." Twilight took a glance over the edge. The water was still as clear as the fog would allow, but there wasn't a piece of ice in sight. What Twilight did notice were the two sharpened metal slabs that looked like two halves of a snow plow. The bottoms of the slabs were serrated, giving the already imposing Galleon the appearance of having a great, metal-toothed mouth. "Ah yes. I noticed your interesting hull design when you docked. I assume it's for pushing ice out of the way," Twilight stated. The griffon let out another hearty laugh. "It does a bit more than that, princess." "What does that mean?" Twilight asked cautiously. "You'll see once we reach the Wall. I don't wanna spoil anything for you, but I'll say this: You'll want your coat when you see it. It'll give you shivers like Nobody's business!" the griffon let out a final chuckle, then flew back up above the sails and into the shroud of the fog. Twilight, thoroughly confused, decided to look for her friends. Rainbow Dash was probably sleeping somewhere below deck, Applejack was currently clinging onto the ship's starboard rail, Pinkie was... still playing her flugelhorn. That left just Rarity, Fluttershy and Spike, and Celestia only knew where they had all run off to. Twilight took her time exploring the boat to look for her friends. She watched the occasional griffon crewman fly up to the sails above and disappear into the thick, enveloping fog. It was odd to her how small the crew seemed, given the size of the ship. In the time she had spent on deck, she had only seen four griffons come and go as they attended to various tasks. Surely they should have had a bigger crew than this, right? As she ruminated on the size of the ship's crew, she went downstairs into the lower deck to look for her friends. to her surprise, as she entered the lower deck, she could faintly hear excited chatter coming from a nearby compartment. She found a thick wooden door that led to another part of the ship. She gave it a push, but the door remained stationary. She pushed harder, but with no luck. She attempted to open the door with her magic, but as she focused, she realised the door was held closed by an odd contraption of some sort. She stood for a moment, trying to figure out just what it was that was attached to the door, but then the door clicked. It clicked again, and with a loud chunk, the door opened. In front of Twilight stood a lanky griffon. Her hair was a frazzled clump of feathers the color of dull lime, and her bottom half appeared to be a lion's, colored an equally dull shade of yellow. Her face when she saw Twilight was one of joyful surprise. "Ah, so it was the princess messin' with the lock! You fixin' to steal somethin' your majesty?" the griffon squinted at Twilight with joking suspicion. "Of course not, I would never think of doing something like that! I just heard noises and tried to open this door and-" Twilight attempted to answer, but her explaining seemed to only make the griffon chuckle. She seemed to be really good at making griffons laugh, though the reason why was beyond her. "It's fine, princess, I'm jokin' wit'cha. This door's a waterproof stormhatch. Griffon designed, able to witshtand the full might of a ragin' Cetus! It ain't really meant t' be easy t'open," the griffon explained. The griffon stepped back to let Twilight inspect the lock. She looked as hard as she could to find anything that might give her a hint as to how it worked, but besides a few sliding bars and gear-based waterlocks, she couldn't pinpoint exactly how it worked. She was by no means a mechanic, and compared to equestrian craftmanship, this was practically alien, and it fascinated her. "Wow!" was all she could get out at first. "This is a feat of engineering! I can't imagine what the designers must have done in order to get this to work! so much thought and care was put into this!" "Well gee, thanks, princess. I'll admit, It's a little weird takin' compliments from royalty, but I could get used to it," the griffon admitted a little abashedly. "Well of course, something like this deserves... Wait... Did you design this door?" Twilight asked, "Not just the door, princess..." the griffon stated with a proud smile. Twilight stood still for a moment. She stared straight ahead at the floor, unable to move her eyes, or any part of herself for that matter. It was as if she had been frozen solid. "y'alright there, princess?" the griffon asked, genuine concern coating her voice. Twilight looked up at the griffon slowly. her face was still a blank, unreadable mask, but the shimmer of inquisitiveness in her eyes was all the griffon needed to understand. the griffon chuckled a bit, stepping back to let Twilight into the galley where Rarity, Fluttershy and Spike stood. "Why don'tcha come in and have somethin' to eat? I get the feeling ya might wanna sit down."