Fokienia settled into one of the seats beside Cold. Ahead of them, the window of the Waste Peddler’s bridge peered out and across the blue green orb. The planet of Equestria had been a wonderful place. And now, she had to leave.
“You sounded happy on the comm-link. You’re even happier right now. Must’ve been some night with the princess.”
“I made a friend.”
Cold smiled at that. “That’s always a good thing to hear. You’re becoming a real friendmaker, you know that?”
“A friendmaker? What’s that?”
He tossed a hoof. “It’s just some word salad, Fokienia.”
She laughed lightly. “Oh, okay.”
Cold’s smile increased. He raised a hoof to his ear, then stopped short. “I’m about to call in our take-off. Princess Luna’s contract stipulates that I bring you back before she ends the Cypress System lockdown, and we’re running a night behind...”
“Princess Luna knows a bit about late nights. She’ll understand the delay.”
Now, Cold laughed—a wonderful sound, enhanced by its rarity. “Don’t get too used to keeping princesses waiting.” He glanced at his console, then back to Fokienia. “You didn’t forget anything down there, did you? I can guarantee you this, it’s a long trip both ways.”
As Fokienia took one last look at Equestria, she tried to imagine she could see right into Canterlot. Her augmented eyes strained for her: the sprawling cities and the great green plains around that area were visible, and of course, so was the Canterhorn, but buried deep in the center of that all, she was sure she could feel Celestia looking up at her. Would she ever see her again? There was a lot of work that needed to be done back home. Back at Cypress.
The longer she looked, the more Fokienia’s heart panged. “I just want to look for a little longer.”
“I don’t blame you.” Cold sighed, setting his foreleg back to rest.
As she stared out across the planet housing her Equestria, Fokienia was nigh breathless. The air around her swirled with the exotic hum of the ship, and a muffled tune played cheerfully from Cold’s ear. The white clouds tread slowly across the globe in the crawling sunrise, adding a near-shine to the not-so pale marble of pastel green and blue.
This was an experience to take back to Cypress. And just one of the many sequestered away in the fathomless depths of the galaxy. All beautiful. All real. All out there.
And she had a whole life ahead to find and share it all.
“You see that big dark green spot to the right, there?”
“Yeah... I do.”
“Well, believe it or not, but that’s where the mountain home used to be.”
Fokienia’s heart skipped a beat. She stared harder, but no matter how hard she looked, she couldn’t see the same degree of beauty reflected in the cloud-covered sky of Equestria. “It looks... covered in trees.”
“It’s a deep sickness in the soil. A blight you wouldn’t see until it was too late. Even with how close we are, we could never have anything like it again.”
Fokienia looked at Cold. Her lip trembled at the deep sorrow in his lament. But she was strong enough to help them both.
“But Cold,” she began softly. “We can try, can’t we?”
“We?”
“I want to meet some of your explorers.”
“They’re not mine. I just help fund them.”
“You said you were their lucky charm.”
“They said that, Fokienia.”
“But I want to bring some good news back to Cypress.”
“You coming back will be good news enough.”
The return of her friend’s precious smile meant ‘mission accomplished’.
Fokienia brimmed with warmth as Cold brought his hoof to his earpiece. A part of her wanted to pay attention to the conversation he was having with the pony on the other side, but she knew she’d be hearing more of it in the future.
As the starship ascended, Fokienia waved at the face of Equestria. It was a silly motion in hindsight, but she didn’t feel that way when Cold waved with her.
She liked to think that Equestria waved back.