After a bit of back and forth, I claimed the rear left room as my own.
I couldn't feel anything special about it, of course. I would have been surprised if I did. Even if my dreams let me remember things far earlier than normal, they had never showed me things from before I was born. In fact, I checked all the rooms just to be sure, and this one didn't seem different from the others in any meaningful way.
But according to Starlight, it was a link to my history. And I needed no more reason than that to want it for my own.
I spent the whole flight back to Ponyville in that room, dusting it and testing out the new bedding and staring out the window, simply trying to suffuse it with my essence. Mine. My room. Just like back in Icereach, one I wouldn't have to share with anyone else.
Such bliss.
I was almost disappointed when the ship finished its flight, settling down on Twilight's lawn with landing gear that had been tucked into its wooden belly. I didn't have anything to claim the room with, having left my satchel back in Twilight's castle, but I'd also need to leave the room to go down and get it, and didn't want anyone else claiming it while I was away...
Then I remembered what Faye had said, about somehow going out in public without her clothes.
I looked at my coat - borrowed from the Crystal Empire, more of a posh robe that was far removed from my usual style. I looked at my boots beneath it. And then, feeling self-conscious and silly, I crawled out of the coat and left it hanging on the door.
I'd still have the boots. And I could be at least half as brave as Faye was.
Corsica couldn't tell if she had accomplished her mission as she walked toward the landed Immortal Dream, trailing everyone else who had decided to come: Seigetsu, Nanzanaya, and every last one of Twilight's friends.
Oh, she had set out with a goal in mind. And that goal was now well and properly in hoof. She just couldn't tell if anything she did had influenced it succeeding. In fact, she was pretty sure she hadn't.
That was a nice feeling, knowing things were going her way without any effort expended. Getting up and walking around Ponyville didn't count.
Of the five, Applejack and Rarity were the ones whose presence most surprised her, seeing as the former had a farm to run and the latter was an entrepreneur. And she wasn't sure what connection Pinkie Pie had to this mission either. Fluttershy, at least, was required to carry the flame, and Rainbow Dash had nothing if not an adventurous spirit.
But she wondered if Seigetsu and Nanzanaya would really be here if not to keep an eye on Halcyon. It was particularly awkward when, best she could tell, Nanzanaya was only there for Seigetsu to also keep an eye on her. Hopefully this mess would get sorted out soon enough and Halcyon could get out from under Seigetsu's supervision. Corsica didn't care for the idea of those two following around forever, even though neither of them had done anything to her, personally.
It probably shouldn't have bothered her. This wasn't her trip, she hadn't commissioned it, didn't own the airship and wasn't giving input on where they were going or why. She had accomplished her own reason for coming to Equestria: meeting Starlight. And it hadn't changed as much for her as Valey hoped it might.
But this was still Halcyon's trip, right? Halcyon... or maybe Faye now... still had her goals of saving the Kindness flame, and that was the point of this trip.
And their original crew, which Halcyon had chosen all for this purpose back in Ironridge, was now nowhere to be found. Only Corsica was still clinging on, like a stubborn barnacle, except less because she was stubborn and more because she had nothing better to do.
So she couldn't help feeling a twinge of annoyance at how many passengers were here who had nothing at all to do with Halcyon's goals. She knew it wasn't Halcyon's ship, and there was nothing wrong with some of Twilight's friends treating this like a vacation, or Seigetsu dragging Nanzanaya along for no good reason at all. She knew it. And her own goal had even been to drag one of these ponies along.
But still, she felt as if Halcyon was being taken advantage of.
"Alright," Starlight instructed, standing in the doorway to the bridge with everyone else on deck. "This won't be just a day cruise, so we need to go over some ground rules for airship travel. First off, this is my boat. I'm the captain. I'm not happy this is how it works, but that means my word is law. If and when things go wrong, and in order for things not to go wrong, that's important."
She took a deep breath. "The engine room is off limits when I'm not there. None of you want to find out what it's like to have the system lose power at cruising altitude, and I never want to experience it again. If you think something is wrong, find me first." She took a few steps. "Likewise, the kitchen is the domain of the chef, no exceptions. Pinkie, I assume that's you?"
Pinkie rapped her chest with a smug hoof. "Girls, you'll be eating like queens."
"I can help out there if you need a hoof," Applejack volunteered.
Starlight nodded. "Next, cabin fever is a real problem and I doubt being the Elements of Harmony makes you immune to it. Everyone needs their own space, and we've got..." She did a quick count under her breath. "Six, I make seven, two of you and two of you... Eleven of us fitting into nine rooms. Who's sharing?"
She looked expectantly at Corsica and Halcyon, who for some reason wasn't wearing her coat. Again.
Hopefully she was actually becoming more comfortable with herself and not pushing herself to prove a point, but the uncomfortable look on her face made Corsica doubt that.
"Actually," Rainbow volunteered, "can I take Grenada's old spot, in the lookout?"
Starlight glanced back at her. "With the hammock?"
Rainbow slapped the floor with a grin. "Feels like my style."
"Anyone else?" Starlight looked around, fishing for volunteers. "Whoever doubles up gets the big room. That's the captain's quarters."
"I'll take a roomie!" Pinkie volunteered.
"Actually, I could go with Halcyon," Corsica offered. "We've been rooming together for a month or two now, so we're used to each other."
Nobody missed the look of disappointment on Halcyon's face. Corsica found herself completely unprepared for it, and after a second to process it, was surprised at how much it hurt. Was... this about something she'd recently done?
Pinkie reacted first. "You cooould always stick it out with me! What do you think, pink pal?"
"Uh, sure. That works," Corsica said absently, still running over recent events in her head. True, things hadn't been going fantastic between her and Halcyon lately, but at least the last few days... Quietly, she spent a wish ensuring that Halcyon hadn't secretly always felt this way about rooming with her, and just never told her.
A weight settled in on the back of her mind as it came true, and the world seemed a little duller in her senses. Seigetsu stared right at her, but did nothing to stop it.
Using her power to control what her friends thought of her was usually one of her hard prohibitions, a line she didn't cross. And now she had done it almost without thinking. Maybe Seigetsu should have stopped her.
Corsica closed her mouth and tried her hardest to stop thinking before she could let herself spiral.
I sighed in relief as roommate allocation was finished, leaving me with my precious claim intact. Corsica looked less happy than I expected about getting her own space again... though she had gotten paired off with Pinkie Pie, but that wasn't it. Did she just enjoy being my roommate that much?
Starlight was talking again, so I'd have to ask her later. I nodded along as Starlight explained basics I'd heard from Gerardo long ago, almost wondering if she was stalling because she didn't want to actually go... and then, to my great surprise, she started to explain about the trains.
"Realistically, there's no way we're making it to Our Town and then the Crystal Empire without a million questions about this, because you're going to see how far apart they really are," Starlight finished, "which is why I'm telling you now, all at the same time, instead of repeating myself when you come asking one by one later."
"That's completely preposterous," Twilight sputtered. "You're saying every map of Equestria ever is deliberately compressed a thousandfold in between the important parts? How could a class of magic like this even exist? I've studied every school of magic imaginable, and there's nothing whatsoever about magic that only exists when you're not aware of it! That just doesn't happen! Who did this? And how?"
Corsica was looking sideways at Seigetsu. "This is your big, spooky secret, isn't it? The one Terutomo was telling Papyrus and Braen?"
"Guilty as charged," Seigetsu admitted, folding her hands behind her back. "You can imagine, as a town on the intersection of major tradeways, how necessary it would be for our livelihoods to have a way for citizens to unlearn this information."
"You knew?" Twilight pointed at her, and then at Starlight. "And you knew too, but you took the train with us between the Crystal Empire and Ponyville. And you're saying that's actually a weeks-long flight?"
"It doesn't affect me," Starlight said with a shrug. "Too many different reasons that could be for me to pin it on just one. I never bothered asking the princesses."
"I have my own ways to mitigate it as well," Seigetsu said. "I would advise speaking with your princesses to learn their own ways of bypassing it, as the rulers and saviors of such a vast land do need to be able to traverse it easily."
Starlight nodded. "And if any of you would really rather not know this, I do have... my way... to make you forget. Just in case."
Everyone looked at each other, except Twilight, who was staring off into space with a ferocious eye tick.
I had to admit, seeing them so annoyed made me feel just a little bit better about how stupid this system was.
"I just can't believe I haven't found out about this sooner," Rainbow complained. "Like, I've flown between Ponyville and Canterlot hundreds of times. Was that, like-?"
"Perfectly legitimate," Seigetsu told her. "Those two towns are within an ordinary distance of each other. As, I would expect, are most of the places you visit."
Starlight nodded. "From what I've heard, the only places you've been that actually required this system to reach are the Crystal Empire and its surrounding area, Our Town, and Griffonstone. Places like Canterlot, Manehattan, Cloudsdale... All of those are within the same little bubble at Equestria's core. And of the three that are far away, the Crystal Empire is the only one that you regularly travel to." She turned away. "Ask the princesses if you want to find a better way back and forth between here and there. Otherwise, you've... got my airship. If you're going to be traveling the world, this is something you need to know."
"What I need to know," Twilight demanded, "is how I never knew about this sooner! I just... Equestria... How does this even work!?"
"Magic," Pinkie chirped, the only one of the group who seemed completely unsurprised by this revelation.
There was no point to me asking what a Princess of Equestria was doing, not knowing about something like this. Twilight was asking it for me. And as much as I had been looking forward to seeing someone else's reaction to this, the nature of the trains almost felt like old news by now.
It was satisfying, but that was it.
"Well, that was the last item," Starlight said, raising her voice. "I figured no one would be in the mood to listen to more after that. So, let's get going."
She stepped onto the bridge, leaving the door open behind her, and a short while later the ship began to rise.
Corsica's luggage was limited to what she had been able to carry out of the mountains, and was a far cry from the bags she loaded onto the Aldebaran, or even Gerardo's ship before that. And even then, she had packed light, limiting herself to four or five bags at Ansel's incessant nagging.
So now she found herself with a giant room, shared with a mare she barely knew, with little enough stuff to show off her side of the room that she could carry it all in one go.
"What'cha doin'?" Pinkie asked from right behind her.
"H-Hey!" Corsica jumped, startled, and spun around to face her new roommate. "Weren't you freaking out on the deck with the others?"
"Yep!" Pinkie shrugged. "It's pretty fun. But you slunk off looking down in the dumps, and I couldn't let that stand. What's up?"
Corsica straightened a frayed tuft back into her mane. "I always look like this. It's pretty normal."
Pinkie Pie bored into her eyes with her own overly-innocent blue ones. "You suuure about that?"
Corsica blinked. "Yeah. Do you think I shouldn't be?"
"Beats me." Pinkie's mane bounced. "That's your call! I just wondered if you really meant it. Sometimes ponies say the strangest things to get out of conversations when they could just say, 'Eh! Not feeling it.' So what do you wanna talk about, roomie?"
Corsica looked at the room's single proper bed, and then at the second, smaller bed someone had obviously dragged in here earlier in the day. "Guess it makes sense for us to know each other a little. Why'd you decide to come along?"
"For fun, obviously!" Pinkie gave her a look asking if this should really be in doubt. "I've never been on a cross-country airship trip before. But also because Starlight's got a bad case of the heebie-jeebies about this whole adventuring thing. After she spilled her story to Twilight and Rainbow Dash, we all got together and decided that whenever she tried taking the first step toward facing her past, we'd all be there to back her up. Including me! So, here I am."
"That's pretty stand-up of you," Corsica said.
"Twilight and Dashie are her true confidantes," Pinkie added furtively, covering her whisper with a hoof. "The rest of us don't even know half of what happened up there in her foalhood!" She straightened up. "Doesn't stop us from turning out to help, though. Not like I need much encouragement when it's a free cruise, right? So, what about you?"
Corsica took a step back toward the beds. "Why am I here?"
"Let me guess: to save the world?"
Corsica shook her head, looking toward the porthole window. "Same reason as you, actually. Supporting a friend. And I felt it would be better than sitting in one place."
"You mean that batpony?" Pinkie asked, blithely ignoring the reticent tone in Corsica's voice. "Halcyon?"
"Yeah," Corsica said. "What do you think of her?"
Pinkie hummed thoughtfully, making a show of taking the question seriously... or maybe that was just how she was. "Needs to get out more. Like you! And kind of jumpy and paranoid. Nice, though. Interesting fashion sense. Are batponies as rare where you're from as they are around here?"
"More than half the population," Corsica said with a shrug. "Why?"
"I bet Rarity would have a field day with her," Pinkie mused. "Anyway, I definitely need to hang around her more to see what her deal is, because she's harder than usual to read, and I'm a great reader."
"Think I'm hard to read too?" Corsica asked.
"Nah," Pinkie promised. "You're an open book."
"Oh yeah?" Corsica raised a weary eyebrow, contemplating a nap as the best way to work through her post-wish emotional hangover. And then remembering she was supposed to not be thinking about what she had just done with that wish.
Her face fell. "Try me."
Pinkie needed no second invitation. "You need to blow off some steam. Wanna head up to the bridge and ask Starlight what she does to pass the time on long boat rides?"
"No dice," Corsica apologized. "I'm dead tired. Happens a lot. Like I said, it's normal for me. I don't have any steam to blow off."
Pinkie raised an eyebrow. "You sure about that?"
"Shouldn't I be?" Corsica looked back at her. "You just told me a moment ago I was the best judge of this."
"And you are," Pinkie sang. "But even the pros make mistakes sometimes, right? What's a friend for if not to ask you whether you're jumping too quickly to conclusions? Because my intuition says whatever you would do if I wasn't here, you've done it a bajillion times before, and it never works quite as well as you'd like."
"And you think you've got a better idea," Corsica said, skeptical. Although maybe she shouldn't have been? This mare practically vibrated with life. Either she had no idea what it was like to walk in Corsica's horseshoes, or she knew exactly what Corsica was missing.
That was a gamble worth taking. "Alright." She nodded. "Lead the way."
Pinkie grinned a wide, toothy grin, and bounced her way out of the room, apparently too excited to walk.
When they reached the deck, several other ponies were there already: a jaded but curious Twilight, an arrogant Rainbow Dash, and Starlight, wearing a poker face. "Contest?" Corsica guessed.
Starlight sized her up. "Debating teaching Rainbow Dash how to fight. Either of you want in?"
"Ooo!" Pinkie grinned. "Spectator sport!"
Rainbow sized Corsica up. "Could be fun to have a rival. But you'd better be good to keep up, you hear?"
Twilight glanced their way too. "Starlight made a pretty good point: anyone who's seriously considering going to the north had better be familiar with how to defend themselves. And given the amount of scrapes she got in when she was there - as a filly, I might add - I think it's a great idea. But..."
"There's a catch," Corsica guessed.
Rainbow rolled her eyes.
"My teacher wasn't the... fairest instructor," Starlight said, watching Rainbow. "I'm not sure copying her methods will work."
"Yeah, but my skills aren't fair either," Rainbow complained. "So even is even, right? Hurry up and show me some moves, already."
"I'm guessing," Starlight went on, looking to Corsica, "even if you haven't studied self-defense, you at least have been in some situations that made you wish you had learned it... if not full methods of offense."
"I used to spar for fun," Corsica admitted, thinking back to her training sessions with Balthazar and the yaks. "Never won a single time, so I'm used to getting wrecked. Wanna try me? If my self-esteem can survive a yak, I think it can survive you."
Starlight looked legitimately impressed. "Sparring with yaks, huh? The techniques you use there won't work on me, but they're tough opponents. Everyone, clear the deck."
"No," Rainbow protested, "me first-"
Starlight used her telekinesis to cordon off a rectangular shell covering three quarters of the deck with only her and Corsica inside. It didn't look like it cost her a bit of concentration.
"Don't worry about me, or the ship," Starlight instructed, taking up a position at one end of the field. "I haven't done this in a while, but I'll be alright. And I reconnected the ship's batteries, so it can make it weeks without me. Now, try to land a hit on me."
"Just land a hit?" Corsica blinked her horn. "That simple?"
"You have one minute," Starlight said, "until I bring down the shield and let Rainbow help you." Rainbow was already banging on the telekinesis like a locked door, frustrated. "I won't use my horn until you use yours, and same for our cutie marks. Your time starts now."
Corsica considered, and decided she'd be better off with those treaties in place, turning off her horn and giving Starlight the benefit of the doubt - her own horn was controlling the telekinesis shield, after all. Starlight waited, impassive, paying full attention to Corsica. Undoubtedly she would be confident in her speed to issue a challenge like this... but how confident?
No way to find out but to test. Corsica approached her at a stiff march, and when Starlight didn't budge, Corsica whipped around and swung her tail - longer than her forelegs, and Starlight didn't specify getting hit with what.
She felt nothing connect. By the time she could look over her shoulder, Starlight had moved, and was standing just a hair out of reach.
Corsica still had momentum, and she pivoted into a hind kick. This time, she watched Starlight dodge, but there was barely anything to the motion. Even a slightly different angle, even a little more reach would have caught her, but Starlight dodged as if she had a hundred tries to prefect the most minimal response, and the kick went wide.
Starlight wasn't even that fast. it felt more like Corsica missed.
Well, she'd see about that. Corsica threw her shoulder at Starlight in a classic yak tackle, putting her head down and her butt out to cover as much horizontal distance as possible. This maneuver would force Starlight to move.
Except somehow, it didn't. Starlight sidestepped around Corsica's haunches, and then back into her path when Corsica tried to catch her with another tail whip, except Corsica had already stumbled to a halt to avoid tripping and couldn't capitalize on the maneuver. The end result was that Starlight had taken a few steps back, and was still untouched.
So Corsica swiped at her, and then swiped again, summoning her focus and trying to chase which way Starlight went. "Come on, overwhelm her!" Rainbow called through the shield as each kick fell frustratingly short, as if Starlight wasn't really moving and Corsica kept missing on her own power, even as she stumbled after Starlight around the arena. "Go faster!"
Corsica tried. She really did try, but couldn't shake the intuition that speed would make her desperate. Starlight wasn't actually that fast, when she slowed down and focused on what was happening. But her control of herself was excellent, and her ability to read-
"Alright," Starlight said, the glow around her horn dying as the shield fell. "Minute's-"
Rainbow needed no invitation to join the fray, if it could be called that. She soared past Corsica in a blur, plowing into Starlight... except when Corsica looked, Starlight wasn't there. Rainbow missed.
Rainbow Dash whirled, snapping a hoof around with speed it was almost hard for Corsica's eyes to track, pivoting into a kick and then a wing slice. But Starlight dodged each one with a humble backstep or sidestep, starting her movements before Corsica could even read what Rainbow was doing.
Rainbow tried to tackle her, but again, she missed, Starlight moving just as rainbow finished the wind-up for her dash. As if inertia was a myth, Rainbow pivoted and tried to dash her again, but Starlight had already stepped back where she was originally standing, her posture relaxed, as if she was avoiding a jostling crowd rather than someone in close quarters trying to punch her.
No, that wouldn't make someone nearly this relaxed.
Corsica stilled her focus, quieted her thoughts and poured everything into her reflexes, trying to anticipate Rainbow's next move. Starlight's back was to her, and she was still a combatant. She should be analyzing, not gawking.
There. Rainbow charging Starlight, but her angle was just a little off, so it was obvious Starlight would dodge to the left. Corsica jumped forward, preparing to strike...
It was a juke. Rainbow swerved, aiming for the same spot Corsica was, and yet Starlight wasn't there. She had gone the other way, the way Rainbow originally threatened.
Corsica's hoof connected with a metallic thonk on Rainbow's forehead, and she realized with a sharp spike of guilt that she forgot to take off her special shoes for this.
"Ow!" Rainbow complained, falling back and rubbing her head, looking mostly okay. Rather than leap back into the fight, though, she stared at Starlight, equal parts accusatory and baffled. "How, though? I'm faster than you. I know I'm faster than you. No one alive is as fast as I am."
Starlight opened her mouth to start explaining. "Your speed doesn't matter if-"
Rainbow rushed her from a dead standstill, no indication and no warning. A streak of rainbow-colored light lingered in her path as she blasted across the deck... but Starlight was a pace to the side, and she missed, crashing into the far railing in a tumble.
"Rainbow...!" Twilight came running over.
"As I was saying," Starlight went on. "Your speed doesn't matter. You could aim for where I am, or for where I will be. But if I want to be in the place you aren't aiming for, who wins? You're not used to fighting someone who knows your every move."
"Yeah, but you said you wouldn't use your cutie mark if we didn't use ours!" Rainbow complained.
"And were you using yours?" Starlight asked.
Rainbow scratched at her flank. "Well, it's not the kind of thing you can just turn off..."
"Neither is mine." Starlight nodded, and then glanced to Corsica. "And neither is hers."
Rainbow glanced at Corsica. Corsica glanced at Starlight.
"Remind me what yours does, again?" Corsica asked.
"Lots." Starlight shook her head. "But, if you're not put off by that, then keep trying. Hitting me isn't impossible; I told you, I'm rusty. Or you could have a go at each other, and maybe learn something from that." She looked back at the bridge. "The way I learned was by being given an iron wall to practice on... and hang out with. So, take it or leave it."
Corsica took it.
Two hours later, Corsica realized she had forgotten what it meant to be exhausted.
Sitting around in a funk, without the mental stamina to do anything? That was a different kind of tired, one that left her body to crust over like a spring that was compressed and then left to soak in water. But right now, her muscles burned, her blood was pumping, cold mountain air scraped the back of her throat, and she collapsed to the deck with the awe-inspiring knowledge that her body had given in before her mind did.
It felt indescribably good, even if she knew she used to be stronger than this, able to keep going for longer. How had she let herself forget how good this was? She was exhausted, and at the same time, she was alive.
And somehow, despite giving herself in to Starlight's training, she hadn't managed to land a single hit. She had tried. Tried hard enough that her special talent should have slipped her control and activated on its own, but it hadn't. And she couldn't remember it happening while fighting the yaks, either, now that she thought about it.
She was too tired to think about the implications of that now, but filed it away for later, because she did not want to forget this. There was something there, a way to understand her special talent better, to control it rather than letting it control her life.
Maybe that was just the adrenaline talking. But if it was, she was glad for it.
And she was hungry, too. Really hungry.
"You stuck it out longer than I thought you would," Starlight said, slightly winded from all her dodging - though not as much as Rainbow Dash, who was upside-down and panting on the deck with her wings flopped loosely to the sides. "You're dedicated."
"I'm stubborn," Corsica corrected. "And I enjoyed it."
Starlight looked wistful at that.
"What's with your style, though?" Corsica asked, still flat out on the deck. "You basically didn't show anything off except how to dodge. No attacks, no magic, no anything."
"Have to start with the basics." Starlight shrugged. "I was trained by having things thrown at me. Dozens, hundreds, thousands of times, until I learned to dodge almost presciently." Upon seeing Corsica's look, she hastily added, "Soft things."
"Makes sense," Corsica said. "But, you know, I've got a pretty good horn. I respect the basics, but I can learn to use this, too."
Starlight stepped over and took a closer look at Corsica's horn. "I'll bet. You don't see many that shape and size. Do you have any signature spells?"
"Signature spells?" Corsica asked. "Developing those wasn't as much of a priority for me as... other things were, growing up. But I did have the nicest horn in Icereach."
For some reason, Starlight sighed.
Halcyon chose that moment to come wandering over. "What do you all look so satisfied for?" she asked, mostly focusing on Corsica... and still wearing only boots, no robe.
"Because I spent two hours accomplishing absolutely nothing." Corsica groaned, rolled to her hooves, grinned... and her stomach betrayed her with a growl. "Do you know if there's any food?"
"Yeah," Halcyon said. "They've been testing out the kitchen down below. I was just coming to get you."
"...Tough," Corsica decided, flopping back onto the deck. "I'm too beat to make it. Carry me?"
Halcyon blinked. "You what?"
"Come on," Corsica challenged. "I carried you back when they let you out of jail. Pretty please?"
For a moment, Halcyon looked confused, then seemed to listen to something no one else could hear, and finally shook her head. "Carry your own carcass. I'm not about to break my back trying to lift it."
Oh well, Corsica thought, resigning herself to walking and pressing her hooves beneath her. It was worth a shot.
Halcyon seemed to be in good spirits today though, despite her missing coat. When she wasn't, she was bad at hiding it, so Corsica was confident in her guess. And she didn't want to hide how she felt, herself.
She owed Pinkie Pie a thank-you for kicking her out and sending her up here. After all, she suddenly remembered, it was exactly the same thing she used to do for Halcyon back at home.