They had woken up hours ago to prepare and it was now well past dawn as the Heart of Azure entered the waters of the Sarrarocco Archipelago. They were able to tell this because they started seeing numerous small islands and rocks that were part of Breakwater’s maps. It was like passing through an invisible border. At first the rocks jutting out of the water were little more than that, small rocks like teeth with nothing more than barnacles on them at most. But as they traveled further the rocks grew bigger, they formed groups, and some had lone trees growing out the top of them. Beyond those the first actual islands became visible, though they were still nothing more than lonely things barely as big across as the Heart of Azure itself. Not places to dock or where any pony could live.
But what these new islands did have were large poles of maple wood built into them. Breakwater said they were signifiers of the Sarraroccon Order, letting you know you had entered their domain. There was also a fog over the water, low and dense, it made seeing into the distance impossible so they had to travel slowly at the moment. It was a good thing the Heart of Azure was still a fairly small vessel and could maneuver around all these islands easily.
“Do you think the fog will lift soon or is it always foggy here?” Daylight Gleam asked Breakwater.
“Should lift soon, haven’t heard anything about perpetual fog at the Archipelago before,” he answered.
The two of them were at the helm while Gilbert and Senax were by the bow and Rainbow Dash was at her usual place in the crow’s nest. Even she couldn’t really see past the fog at this point but she was keeping her eyes peeled for anymore islands or any ships that might pop up in front of them. For the next hour though the Heart of Azure merely continued on without any interruption as the islands of the Archipelago grew and changed around them.
The first island they saw that was inhabited was a lone rock, a hundred feet tall and probably several hundred in circumference, that came out of the water to the south. There was a small beach of sand and gravel with a sloping hill of grass that led up and up from it to the rock’s summit. Atop it was a single large house with several beautiful cherry trees growing around it. They didn’t see any ponies there but it looked too nice and clean to be abandoned. The owners must’ve been asleep or away.
“A lot of private islands like that dot the Archipelago,” Breakwater said. “Places that ponies who like their peace and quiet have gone to live. We’ll start seeing more soon.”
He was right, but it wasn’t just lone houses on lonely rocks and islands that they saw either. Some narrow rocks shooting up from the water had things like statues built on them, statues of ponies, fish, manta rays, and sea serpents. Other islands instead of houses had what looked more like temples or shrines of some sort. Must’ve had something to do with the Sarraroccon Order, Rainbow Dash couldn’t really make heads or tails of stuff like that.
“Certainly an interesting place to visit, isn’t it?” Gilbert said to Senax as they looked at the statues and islands around them.
“It’s a lot nicer looking than a bunch of rafts with junk heaps on top of them,” Senax said.
“I’m not surprised you would think that...” Gilbert awkwardly chuckled.
“Let’s hope that I have a better experience here than there too,” Senax said as she watched a large mountain with a large bell tower on top pass by.
“Keep it optimistic down there!” Rainbow shouted at them from the crow’s nest.
“We will!” Gilbert waved back at her.
It took some more time of sailing through these islands and the fog, but eventually the Heart of Azure pierced through the last dregs of the fog bank. They were now in open water and could see much further into the distance. Early morning sunlight shined down on the ocean—and the large island directly in front of them. Large and circular, with cliffs rising sheer from the water and grassy green hills in the middle of it, it was the first large island they had seen that could actually hold a lot of ponies and buildings on it.
In the crow’s nest, Rainbow Dash raised a hoof over her eyes and stared out at it. On the eastern side of the island, right where they were going, there was a simple wooden dock built next to a sea cave that looked to go deep into the bowels of the island. The waters between their ship and the island were also a deep, brilliant, blue that reflected the light of the sun. Now out of the fog everyone could appreciate how beautiful the waters of the Archipelago really were, as well as the nice and warm weather.
“That’s Blue Coral Island!” Breakwater called from below. “Almost there.”
“Looks like a decent enough place,” Rainbow said.
“Yep,” Breakwater smiled and looked up at her, and then his attention was caught by something else, a seagull flying above the Heart of Azure. For a while his smile lingered on it too but then he suddenly stiffened up. In shock, he had just remembered something very important about the Sarrarocco Archipelago. “Oh crud.”
Daylight Gleam frowned and glanced over at him. “What? What is it?”
He didn’t answer her, frowning, he called out across the ship. “Rainbow Dash! Rainbow and Gilbert, I need you to get over here!”
“Huh?” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow and hopped down from the crow’s nest, gently floating down to join Breakwater and Daylight at the helm.
Gilbert and Senax also shuffled over, confused as to what was going on.
“Is something the matter?” Gilbert asked.
“I just remembered something when it comes to visiting and traveling through the Archipelago. Sorry for not remembering this earlier, but it was never something that applied to me before,” Breakwater sighed. “You see, the Sarraroccon Order has some unique rules in place, and they like to control the flow of traffic to and from the main islands. And especially make sure no one can just go to the islands off-limits to ponies not part of the Order.”
“So what does that have to do with me and Gilbert specifically?” Rainbow asked as she pointed between the two of them.
“Er... well... try not to get upset, but you’re not allowed to fly over open water in the Archipelago. At all. It’s even kind of a religious thing to them, they take it really seriously,” Breakwater told her.
“Oh. Great. Fantastic. Totally awesome,” Rainbow grumbled.
Gilbert was a little more understanding. “You said over open water?”
“Yeah,” Breakwater nodded. “You can fly over land still as long as you’re on an island, but you can’t fly from one island to another. Even just barely going over the water is bad enough to get you in trouble.”
“Well that’s not too terrible then, you can still fly some of the time while we’re here,” Daylight said to Rainbow Dash.
“There’s no way I’m going to be able to stop myself from flying whenever and wherever I want...” Rainbow dragged a hoof down her face.
“We could tie a rope around your wings,” Gilbert suggested.
“That honestly might not be a terrible idea.”
“Yeah... sorry, just really had to tell you about that before we got closer to Blue Coral Island,” Breakwater said. “There’s more to it as well. To control who goes where and when, you can only use Order-approved methods of travel between islands. We can’t just sail the Heart of Azure anywhere after landing at Blue Coral Island, she’s going to be docked safely inside that sea cave until we’re ready to leave the Archipelago altogether.”
“Who knows when that’s going to even be,” Daylight muttered.
“So for the entire time we’re here we won’t have access to the Heart of Azure? We’ll only be able to use whatever methods they have to ferry us where we need to go?” Senax asked.
“Yep. Good news is that because this is all done at the Order’s behest and maintained by them that it’s as safe as safe can be. Unless you have a private place to dock of your own, there’s almost no better place you could keep your ship.”
Senax frowned in worry. “Still... I don’t know if I want to leave the Horn of Listening alone for so long. Especially when we don’t know that much about the High Priestess... I think I should take it with us after we dock the Heart of Azure.”
“Probably a good idea,” Daylight nodded.
“We still need to figure out what we’re doing at the island anyways. Like, the High Priestess invited us right? Do we tell the ponies here that?” Rainbow asked.
“They should be expecting us,” Gilbert shrugged.
“Might as well since it’s not like we know where we’re going from here. We can see if they know anything,” Breakwater said.
“And I’ll... ugh... I’ll stay down here on deck until we get there. Wouldn’t want to make anyone mad,” Rainbow Dash grumbled.
“Sorry, Rainbow Dash...” Breakwater tried apologizing.
She shrugged. “Whatever, even if you remembered earlier nothing was going to change.”
“Yeah, guess it’s time to just get over there now,” Breakwater said.
He took the Heart of Azure slowly and calmly to the dock on the east side of Blue Coral Island. There weren’t any other ships there, since apparently the dock was really just for checking in and every ship was actually docked inside that cave. Rainbow Dash walked to the bow this time to stare ahead and check out what else she could see. Beyond the dock there were a few buildings with blue-painted roofs and a gate that led to a street that slowly inclined upwards to reach the more level parts of the island not right by the cliffs and water. It looked like there was some kind of tram that went up and down the middle of the street, probably for new arrivals and departures that had a lot of stuff with them. Besides that she couldn’t really see much into the higher and interior parts of the island just yet, but it was big enough to function as a small town all on its own from the look of it.
As the Heart of Azure made its way to the dock and sidled up alongside it, two ponies walked from the blue buildings out onto the dock, right to their ship. A unicorn mare and a unicorn stallion, they wore blue suits with blue caps that had black brims on them. Breakwater kept the Heart of Azure steady and had the sail furled up and the anchor dropped for the moment so they wouldn’t drift. After that, they all walked down from the helm to the port side of the ship, standing behind the railing so they were as level with the dock as they could get.
The mare from the buildings walked out in front, a serious no-nonsense look on her face, she glanced up and down the body of the ship and then up at them. Behind her the stallion had a clipboard levitated in his magical aura.
“Name of the vessel and captain? I am Sugar Candy of the port authority,” she asked. She was young, with a pink mane done in a tight bun behind her head and a grey coat. Sea blue eyes stared at them from under the brim of the cap.
“This is the Heart of Azure, and I’m Captain Breakwater,” Breakwater answered.
Sugar Candy frowned and looked over at the stallion’s clipboard before returning her gaze to them. She looked decidedly unfriendly. “You’re an unscheduled arrival, do you have permission to dock here?”
That caught Breakwater and the rest of them off-guard. They hadn’t heard about that.
“Permission?” Breakwater raised an eyebrow. “I thought this was a public island...”
Sugar Candy’s frown deepened. “Blue Coral Island is a public island, open to anyone, but that doesn’t mean you can just come here whenever you want, without any notice. You need written proof that an individual living on the island, or a business that works on the island, has invited you. Or if not that then proof from a higher authority that has authorized your arrival.”
“Well this is fantastic...” Daylight grumbled.
“Obviously you all have no idea how things really work here. The Sarrarocco Archipelago is a very popular place, we cannot simply let everyone come and go as they please. It would be far too chaotic. Especially with the way the Order itself likes to run things,” Sugar Candy said. “It is their Archipelago after all and they have quite a few... idiosyncrasies when it comes to it.”
“So without something like a ticket or something you can verify you won’t let us dock in the cave and stay here?” Breakwater asked.
“That’s right,” Sugar Candy responded.
“I really wish we had been told that,” he shook his head.
Rainbow Dash bit her lip, thinking they still had something to go on. “You said a higher authority though, right?”
Sugar Candy looked over at her. “Yes, I did. Who are you and what do you mean?”
“I’m Rainbow Dash, and by higher authority you’ve gotta mean the Sarraroccon Order itself, right? Well we were invited here personally by the High Priestess. She told one of her servants to tell us to come to Blue Coral Island!”
Sugar Candy and her assistant shared a look with each other before Sugar Candy raised an eyebrow at Rainbow Dash. “Do you have proof of that?”
“Uhhh...”
“Obviously we can’t just believe you for saying the High Priestess of the Order invited you,” Sugar Candy sighed and shook her head. “And though they are indeed the highest authority of the Archipelago, this is still an island mostly detached from their going-ons. There are very few ponies within the Order or even affiliated with it here.”
Rainbow Dash slumped over the railing. “Come on... why wouldn’t they have this kind of thing sorted out before we got here?”
“Why would they have us come to this island in particular anyways?” Daylight suspiciously wondered.
The stallion leaned in to Sugar Candy and whispered into her ear. She listened and frowned, before sighing and nodding her head.
“Alright, fine. We can do that at least.” Sugar Candy cleared her throat and looked up at them. “Is it only the five of you on this vessel? And it doesn’t look like you’re here for business but for personal reasons?”
Breakwater nodded. “That’s right. My ship isn’t even part of any companies, it’s purely my own.”
“Okay then. Since it’s a small vessel and there are only five of you, it wouldn’t exactly be a burden to allow you to dock and stay here on Blue Coral Island. I can ask the Dockmaster for permission,” Sugar Candy said.
“Really? Thank you,” Breakwater smiled with relief.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Sugar Candy scoffed and turned around, her assistant following her.
Once she was out of earshot, Daylight snorted and shook her head. “For a name like Sugar Candy she’s not very sweet, is she?”
“I’m more annoyed that that servant dude didn’t tell us anything about this. Or that the High Priestess didn’t let anyone know that we were coming,” Rainbow Dash said.
“It is strange...” Gilbert nodded.
“Hopefully it’ll turn out for the best,” Senax said. “From what she said it doesn’t seem like it would actually be too much trouble to allow us to dock.”
“But then what do we do next? We have no idea how to get to or contact the High Priestess. The Order hasn’t given us any other clues,” Daylight said.
“You will be contacted later.”
The sudden voice intruding on their conversation got everyone on the Heart of Azure to stiffen in surprise. It had come from the starboard side of the ship and Rainbow Dash quickly darted over to look over the side of the boat. There, down in the water, was a pony clad in black robes, riding on top of a large manta ray. She couldn’t see completely past his hood, but it was easy to tell this wasn’t Fair Drift but a different servant.
“You... did the Priestess send you?” Rainbow Dash asked him while the others joined up beside her.
“Yes. The High Priestess gives you leave to explore the Archipelago at your leisure. Later you will be contacted and given audience with her. Get a room at the Saffron Inn on the island, and everything else will be taken care of,” he lightly tapped his hoof on the manta ray’s back and it started to swim away.
“Wait!” Daylight yelled after him. “When will we be contacted?”
“Later,” was his only response as the manta ray sped away.
“Helpful,” Rainbow Dash sarcastically muttered.
“Well they work in mysterious ways but at least we know there wasn’t a mistake,” Breakwater said.
“I guess that’s something to look forward to,” Senax said, though she sounded a bit uncertain.
“Yeah...” Rainbow Dash sighed and turned around. “Come on, let’s wait for those two dock ponies to get back. I get a feeling after talking to that pony that we’re going to be allowed to stay here and he knows it.”
The five of them went back over to the port side of the ship and stood there for a few minutes until they saw Sugar Candy and her assistant emerge from one of the blue buildings in front of the gate and come back to the dock. The mare had the same stony expression as always, so they had no idea what sort of answer they were actually about to get. Together the two suited unicorns came to a stop on the dock and Sugar Candy took a deep breath before letting it all out.
“You have been given permission to stay here at Blue Coral Island. Enjoy your stay.”
“Yes!” Rainbow Dash pumped her hoof.
Senax wiped a hoof across her forehead in relief. “Good...”
“Yes, yes,” Sugar Candy rolled her eyes before narrowing them at the group. And Rainbow Dash and Gilbert in particular. “You two... you’re a pegasus and you’re a griffon, are you aware of the rules when it comes to flying here at the Sarrarocco Archipelago?”
“Yeah, we are,” Rainbow Dash said.
“No flying over open water,” Gilbert nodded.
“Good. As long as you know that. I suppose that’s all that needs to be said, just don’t cause any trouble while you’re here. Others will be out to help you with docking your ship in the sea cave shortly,” Sugar Candy said and made a tight about-face, stomping back down the dock. Her assistant gave the five of them a curt nod before following her.
Daylight shrugged. “Could’ve gone worse but it could’ve gone better too.”
“Yeah, was hoping for a warmer welcome. The Sarrarocco Archipelago has a better reputation than this,” Breakwater groused.
“Well we’re here now and we know what to do next, sort of,” Rainbow Dash said. She grinned at the others. “Let’s make the best of it.”