As the gangplank hit the dockside with a loud thud, both Pegasi disembarked with excitement and fascination sparkling in their wide equine eyes. Rainbow was the first to touchdown – quite literally- on the new landmass and did so with all the grace she bequeathed Canterlot in her role as Commander Hurricane.
Fluttershy followed calmly, leaving the ship by the boarding ramp as it was intended to be used. With both their weighty saddlebags once more secured around their backs and both of their cloaks fastened around their necks – they were ready.
Sure enough, they were met by the organised chaos of a town in the morning rush in all its haphazard beauty. Earth ponies trundled along drawing wagons behind them laden with food both sweet and savoury; their hooves making a distinctly different clopping noise on the hardened water-worn silvery ragstone floor than both Pegasi were used to hearing in their countryside village.
The ponies here were of a far more distinct palette than those of Ponyville where the colour diversity was incomparably widespread. Canterbury favoured the paler more saturated tones; wisps of silver and platinum with the boldest being enough to match the turquoise of the coastline.
“So what’s the plan, Flutters?” Rainbow exclaimed, her head spinning around at the buildings leading off from the dockside so quickly that the pale cream Pegasus feared for her spine. “Will we be going looking for your flying ants first or are we going to explore here?”
Fluttershy let out a light giggle at the obvious excitement of her companion. Ruffling her feathers and leafing into her saddlebags and holding it open for her muzzle, she pulled out a simple map she had obtained from Twilight’s library of the nearby area. Laying it on the floor and quickly stepping on a corner before the sea breeze sweeps it away, she begins to look at where they were due to go.
“We don’t need to leave this moment, Rainbow” she said, peering at the path that she had requested highlighted by Twilight before they had left. The lavender bookworm was all too eager to put her cartography skills to good use once more as she planned the safest route to the Bellehoof Meadows.
“So how long can we explore here?” The blue Pegasus grinned; bouncing on the tip of her hooves in glee. The excitement of exploring a new place was rapidly overtaking her. Had Fluttershy invited her to go to anywhere else in Equestria, she’d have said no. But this place was new, this place was stunning. She couldn’t remember ever seeing anything like this shoreline from as far as Trottingham to Los Pegasus.
Fluttershy looked up to the sky and squinted, a casual hoof brushing her pink mane out of her eyes. The Sun was still fairly low; it could hardly be more than nine o’clock. Shaking her mane back into position, she turned her attention back to the Pinkie-esque bouncing blue pony.
“Well we if we meet up at the top of that road there in an hour…” she said, pointing with a hoof to the road which climbed up the cliff face in the distance. “That should give you enough time to explore, Dash”
The Pegasus gave her a quick hug, a grin ear to ear being sported on her face. “Sure thing! See you in an hour!” and without further ado, extended her wings and took off into the air with a mighty downward flap, strong enough to leave her friends hair looking very windswept. The blue speed devil had taken off so fast she had left her cloak hanging in the air before gravity took control and embraced it closely.
“Oh Rainbow” Fluttershy simply giggled as she shook her locks back into place once more. “Sometimes, you’re such a silly filly” She walked up to the cloak, picking it up in her mouth and tucking it into her own saddlebag for later; and with that the smiling Pegasus trotted off down the road at a leisurely pace to do her own exploring.
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Each flap of her wings sent her up higher and higher into Celestia’s ever brightening morning sky. The crisp breeze made her shiver and allowed her to flex her joints as she finally pierced the cloud layer and fanned her wings wide, suspending her in mid-air.
After finding a suitable cloud, she tucked her wings back and allowed herself to fall into a dive, landing with a comfortable pomf onto the blanket-like structure. Settling down on her belly, Rainbow poked her head over the edge of the cloud and surveyed the town below whilst she stretched her lower extremities in her typical warm-up fashion.
Puffing a few obstructing locks of rainbow hair out of her eyes, she spotted the butter-yellow Pegasus no more than a tiny dot on a moving mosaic of colour beneath her. The town wasn’t exceedingly big by any stretch of the imagination but it was dense, which left a lot of places for Rainbow to explore.
She also noticed that there didn’t seem to be as many Pegasi here as she would have expected, most of the ponies she saw being other two races – Heck; she even imagined that she spotted a few Griffon-shaped dots from her aerial lookout. So why weren’t there many Pegasi?
“Maybe they just didn’t fancy being stuck on a boat to come here” she snickered to herself, ignoring her own impatience just a few days earlier from being on a train.
She rolled onto her back and wriggled around on the cloud, gathering a nice thin layer of morning dew from the cloud’s moisture. Righting herself, she shook herself until she shone and with an efficient brush of her mane - which sent it back into its typical cacophonic state – she spread her pristine wings once more and dived over the edge, letting herself glide down at a leisurely pace back towards the hustle and bustle of the alien homestead.
She touched down with an audible clonk onto the stone road and curled her wings up behind her saddlebags. Satisfied she had landed without causing any form of standard Rainbow Dash-related disaster, she allowed herself a satisfactory grin and proceeded to canter down the road at a brisk pace.
The ponies paid no heed to the rainbow maned Pegasus as she trotted down the middle of the street, glancing left and right at the beautifully simple designs of the houses. It reminded her much of Cloudsdale in its simplicity – there was only so much you could do when ninety nine per cent of your standard hardware passes through the floor.
The houses followed a similar design – pale grey walls fashioned from the same marble as the cliffs and quay. Any decoration was done using a subtle silvery trim, woven into the rocks themselves. Unicorn stuff – Rainbow concluded. She couldn’t see how ponies like Applejack could do something as finicky as impregnating stone with silver.
The roofs were made of angled purple tiles which ascended into steep peaks not dissimilar to how Rarity’s boutique was designed.
As she continued on deeper under the shadow of the cliff and into the denser part of town, she finally hit the true market place which was already loud and busy. Pinning her ears back to dull the noise somewhat, she cast her eyes over the different stalls, politely fending off merchants who wanted to sell her their wares and glaring down those who didn’t accept those polite undertones.
Rainbow wasn’t a trading pony – she didn’t have the time to haggle and whenever she was dragged to Ponyville market with any of her friends, she’d find the cheapest price, and accept it. Ruffling her wings somewhat to ensure her saddlebag was still firmly in place strapped around her belly and hadn’t come loose in her flight, she looked for an open spot in the market place and took off with a flick of her prismatic mane. As much as she wanted to enjoy exploring this city, it was missing something…
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Fluttershy trotted up the slowly inclining road at a pleasurably slow pace. Whilst she could have just as easily flown to the top of the cliff like she expected Rainbow to do, she preferred to give her hooves a chance to get working after so long cooped up on a boat.
The yellow pony felt the soft nudge of the ocean’s breeze ease her passage uphill, drawing a smile from the nature loving Pegasus. As she continued to climb, she cast her mind back to Ponyville and her animal friends.
Applejack had been kind enough to offer to check in on them each day and fill up their bowls for their meals in between her work shifts on the farm. Even when Fluttershy protested and offered to hire someone with the small amount of bits she had spare; she just got an orange hoof booping her on the nose in response; telling her not to be silly.
Rainbow’s faithful tortoise Tank had been taken in by Applebloom as a lesson on responsibility by her sister after a slight mishap in their last cutie mark escapade. Fluttershy didn't dare ask for details – she knew those three had a tendency to get up to all sorts of trouble.
As Fluttershy continued to climb, the houses on the left side of the path seemed to diminish until little more was left than a fence preventing ponies from going over the edge onto the houses below. She was now well over four storeys high and although she was a Pegasus and used to altitude, she still detoured slightly to the right – nestling herself in the shadow of the cliff and the remaining houses.
The wind began to get stronger as it became apparent to the butter-coloured Pegasus how much of a wind-tunnel the path she had been traversing into was. Pouting to herself at having been silly enough not to notice, she pushed her head down and continued on until something warm enveloped her withers – the sounds of trotting became doubled.
“Hey, ‘Shy!” Rainbow grinned from her position next to Fluttershy – her right wing draped over her friends back casually to provide support. Her sudden appearance didn’t have the reaction she expected as it sent Fluttershy jumping a foot into the air before scarpering further from the edge. Rolling her eyes, she trotted up and pulled the mare to her hooves.
“H-hi Rainbow Dash” she croaked out – the wind whipping all moisture from her lips. She regained her balance and took shelter between two houses to calm her heart. No matter how many times it happened, the cerulean Pegasus was always capable of sending her heart into over drive – and not in the good way.
The athletic Pegasus held back a sigh at her friend before joining her in the alcove. “You’re back sooner than I expected” Fluttershy remarked quietly after taking a sip from the flask of water she kept in her saddlebag, smacking her lips to get the moisture back in them.
“Yeeeah” the Rainbow maned girl replied nonchalantly. “Don’t get me wrong – this place looks amazing. But I’d much prefer to have someone to see it with me at some point.” She said before turning her large magenta eyes to the yellow Pegasus beside her. “Hint, hint”
Fluttershy needed no hinting to know what Rainbow meant, and so let out a titter in response to those adorable kitten-like eyes she was being subjected to. Replacing her flask, she responded by pulling out Rainbow’s cloak and wrapping it around her neck. “If you promise not to lose this again” she chided innocently.
Rainbow’s face turned beet red – indicating she had honestly forgotten about the cloak. She felt bad that Fluttershy had to mother her – picking up her belongings as she runs off too quick like a parents would for her foal’s toys. But that feeling of resentment at herself evaporated into pure embarrassment as Fluttershy dressed her up in the cloak. The otherwise world-wise Pegasus resorted to just looking at the sky – allowing her friend to fix the catch on the front so it wouldn’t fall off as well as making sure her mane wasn’t trapped beneath it.
“Perhaps we can come back and visit after we come back when it’s calmer.” The creamy Pegasus suggested, her tail sneaking under her cloak as she sat back on her haunches to inspect her work on the athlete who sat embarrassed in front of her; “Its a few hours travel to the meadow, we can have lunch and stay there for a few hours and then head back” she continued on, her friends situation leaving her tongue-tied as she tried to force the blood back into her body and away from her face.
Rainbow nodded her head and turned her attention back to the road where ponies continued to bustle past on their busy morning routines – showing far more resilience to the wind than Fluttershy had– or even Rainbow herself had been letting on. She could admire that about them. They reminded her of the ‘Mountain Ponies’ in one of the later Daring Do novels who’s skin was as hard as iron from the blistering northern winds.
The two sat there in silence for several minutes, allowing Fluttershy some time to check her saddlebags for anything they may need. Rainbow occasionally ducked out of the alcove and walked to the railing where she could look out over the sprawling townscape below. The canyon in the cliff-face was far longer than the town which occupied it but both seemed perfect for one another. Draping her forehooves over the railing and standing on her hind legs, Dash looked to Fluttershy like an adventure pony extraordinaire – especially when she turned her face to smile at her; prismatic colours shimmering in the winds, cloak sweeping majestically in the red, blue and yellow design. With her cloak secured properly – her wings were prevented from unfurling comfortably which distressed the athletic Pegasus somewhat, but she could get used to it. “At least until we get out of this wind” she told herself
“Come on Flutters” Dash said eventually, gathering herself and her timid friend. Taking her hoof and bringing her back into the wind tunnel, both began to make their way up the hill side by side. Stepping in silent sequence with one another on their ascension to the next part of their journey
Onward to the Meadow