Have I said that I love Canterlot? I might have spoken too soon, because Manehattan was seriously threatening to take it’s place in my heart.
Hundreds of ponies crammed into so very little space, each bustling from a to b not caring on whose hooves they step on. Where Canterlot was an elitist community of intellectual inbreeding and age old feuds; in Manehattan everybody from the lowest work pony, covered in grease and dirt, to the newly rich who tried to hide the grease and dirt underneath layers of jewelry and silk, and even the occasional noble who was rich enough to make grease and dirt vogue, mingled and quarrelled with each other. On occasion I found myself scanning the sky for windigos, but for all the bickering there was no sign of the ice spirits to be found.
Our boat trip took us past the villas of the upper echelon quickly, barely giving us time to look at the marble and basalt buildings. One thing I did notice however, was the lack of wide sprawling gardens. Practically no estate in Canterlot is complete without at least a hedgemaze or two, but the Manehattanites seemed to prefer being crammed together as closely as possible. Something that didn’t change as we entered the poorer parts of town.
Red brick buildings dominated the cityscape in mind numbing monotony, and weren’t it for the current unreliability of my powers I would have shown those city dwellers what proper design looked like! Factories and housings, barely distinguishable from each other, stood side by side, filling every available nook and crany. Even from the river it was hard to keep track of all the sideways and alleys we passed by, and I was willing to bet that many a tourist had vanished somewhere deep in the corridors of this metropolitan labyrinth.
The harbor however stood in stark contrast to the rest of the city. There was no needless pomp, nor sprawling cityscape, no luxury; at least not the kind of luxury you find where a surplus of money meets a lack of common sense. Every building had it’s purpose and it’s place in the greater scheme. The drydocks took in the ships which were weary from the long journey, the storehouses stored goods from all around the world, and the harbormasters office welcomed a steady stream of secretaries and captains and surely would have burst had there not been an equal stream exiting the building. Only a small tavern, that attracted the weary sailors like flies, disturbed the otherwise pristine scenery of the harbour.
All in all, I must have looked like a child which had stumbled into a toy store, staring wide eyed at the scenery around me; though most children probably wouldn’t be able to still walk in a straight line, while turning their body every which where. It has it’s advantages to be serpentine in stature.
Now you may ask, “But Discord! Why is a god of chaos impressed by a display of efficiency and order?” To which I would reply, “Imagine walking through a door into a hall full of domino stones perfectly lined up, and the start of the chain sits at your feet.”
Luna however seemed to have eyes for one thing, and one thing only; at the far end of the harbour standing decisively smaller than the two- and three-masters all around it, lay a vessel which proudly wore it’s name in white letters on it’s side.
The Spirit of Enterprise was a ship unlike anything I had seen before. Unsurprisingly so, since even if I had a little better vantage point than Lulu from her exile on the moon, the royal gardens weren’t really the best place to learn about nautical knowledge (Sadly it was a good place to learn about Anatomy. Celly should really teach her guards more discipline).
Luna went straight for the ship, like a starving man for a cupcake. The way she dove through the masses would have made a hoofballplayer stare in awe, and it created enough chaos that even I would have had trouble to add anything to it.
When I finally caught up with her, she was prancing up and and down in front of the ship releasing a torrent of question which might have been directed at me, weren’t it for the fact that she gave me precious little time to answer.
“Thismustbeitdoyouthinkitrunsentirelyonmagic?Whatarethosepaddlesfor?Doesithavenosails? Howfastdoesitgo?DoyouthinkitwilltakeustoSaddleArabiafastenough?” she prattled on while I tried to get in a word edgewise, but before she could completely drown me in her incessant babbling a stallions voice came to my aid.
“Oh I can assure you, that she will get you wherever you want to go!” The voice was every bit as loud as it was flamboyant, with a certain underlying harmony which made you suspect that the talker was about to break into song any minute.
We were approached by unicorn stallion who stood nearly as tall as Luna, although he was lacking the natural grace of the alicorn. His yellow coat was accentuated by a white shirt and a tricorn, but it was the shining medals on his breast that demanded the most attention. Everything about him seemed to scream ‘nautical’ which made his apple cutie mark all the more surprising.
“In fact I bet there is no faster ship in all of Manehattan. The ‘Spirit of Enterprise’ is the single most advanced piece of technomancy that you will find, and if you don’t believe me, my bro... er first mate will surely tell you the same!” he exclaimed while waving at another pony which had just left the tavern and was now coming towards our little group.
Had it not been for his moustache the second stallion could have come straight from a mirror pool. Even the cutie marks of the two stallions complimented each other, forming one whole apple when combined.
“Indeed bro... Captain! I even dare say there is no faster ship in all of Equestria!” he affirmed every bit as loud as his most definitely not related captain.
“Nay, there’s no faster ship in the whole world!” the captain claimed, working himself into an ecstasy. The two of them seemed ready to break into a song about the greatness of their ship any second, but before I could be subjected to this Luna burst into action.
“You must be the captain! Is this your ship? How fast does it go?” she rapid fired her questions. At least she had slowed down to a comprehensible speed.
“Oh my, bro… first mate Flam, it seems we have finally found someone who appreciates the possibilities of the future,” the flamboyant pony continued to prattle while I was quickly losing interest.
“That’s very nice bro… Captain, but I really think we should be leaving the harbor soon,” the first mate suggested, and if I had paid more attention at the moment I probably would have noticed the restless tone in his voice, but alas I was busy dreaming about turning the water in the bay into pudding.
“What my first mate is trying to say that we would be glad to give you a tour of the ship,” the captain segued nonchalantly, gesturing for us to follow him while he walked towards the ship.
Somewhere on the far side of the harbor there seemed to be some kind of commotion, but through the gathered crowd it was hard to see anything.
“Here we have the ‘Spirit of Enterprise’”, the captain started his sales pitch while he guided us up the runway. “It’s one of very few magical powered ships in all of Equestria and, as I have already mentioned, it’s the fastest.”
He lead us over the comparably small deck; the boat was made from sturdy wood planks, much like it’s non magical brethren, but instead of a sail it sported two large waterwheels on both sides of the hulk. But that wasn’t the only difference, it’s hulk lay low, barely three meters above the water surface, but on top of it’s deck stood what could practically be considered a house, complete with a porch.
More and more noise carried over from the harbor, but before I had a chance to see what was going on, Luna dragged me down a set of stairs.
“Quick, he’s going to show us the engine room!” she shouted with childlike glee and before I could even contemplate the pain that suddenly shot through my prolonged back, I found myself in a pretty dingy lower deck. The air was filled by a humming noise that sat just at the edge of the audible range, yet still made me grit my teeth.
“And this is the heart of the ship!” Captain Flim explained only barely less enthusiastic than my royal compatriot.
The “heart” of the Spirit of Enterprise was mad science at it’s best: A large sphere of cast iron was held in the air by a dazzling array of pipes and coils, the former locking massive, the later as if they had escaped from a glassblowers nightmare. An array of lights lay dormant at the moment, but already promised a dazzling show.
The ring of a bell interrupted my inspection of the machine. The captain had reached for a large brass pipe that extended from the ceiling to head height, and ended in a cone. From the pipe the faint mumble of a voice could be heard, and just for a moment the captains face clouded over, but as soon as he turned towards us again he was smiling as broadly as always.
“You are in luck! You will get a first hand demonstration of how the Thaumaturgical Spinaround 6000 works!” he announced, and before Luna or I could protest his horn lit up and he discharged a steady stream of green gleaming magic at one of the protrusions that covered the iron sphere.
Sparks shot out from the coils, and the air filled with a smell of ozone. All the gauges spinned wildly, while the unicorn pushed more and more energy into the apparatus, and the copper pipes moaned under the pressure. With a metallic screech, two axis’ began to turn and from afar we could hear the sound of water splashing. The captains efforts were rewarded by the appropriate “oohs” and “aaahs” from the princess of the night, while I was looking around for cover in case the straining machine would explode.
It wasn’t the machine that I should have worried about. The next thing I remember is, that suddenly I and Luna found ourselves tumbling towards the ceiling, while boat all around us rocked as if it had been picked up by the hand of giant. I should know, I did it myself often enough. Before we could get our bearings, the ground rushed towards us again. Luckily, Luna landed on something soft. Unluckily I was the “something soft”.
While I groaned in pain Luna was back on her hooves and screamed, “WHAT WAS THAT?!?”
The captain, who was holding onto the machine, gave us his best salespony grin. “Don’t worry we’re just experiencing some minor turbulences.”
“Turbulences in a harbor?” I managed to deadpan, even in my slightly dented condition.
Luna bolted for the stairs while another tremor, this one weaker than the one before, shook the ship. With some difficulty I ran after her, grabbing for hold wherever I could find it. What greeted me as I finally left the last steps behind me, was a wonderfully chaotic display. Debris cluttered the deck left and right, and it wasn’t hard to find out from where it came. There was a nearly pony sized hole in one of the walls.
The wheels of our ship were spinning wildly carrying us over the ocean at an astounding speed, but apparently not fast enough to escape the ship that was following shortly behind us. On the deck of the impressive three master stood several Unicorns, their horns glowing brightly as they prepared to fire another salvo at us.
“DUCK!” I managed to scream, before tackling Luna to the ground. Where her head had been just moments prior, magical bolts zipped through the air, leaving burn marks in the walls behind us.
“WE ARE BEING SHOT AT!” Luna shouted unhelpfully.
“APPARENTLY!” I replied, too busy keeping my head low for any snide remarks.
“WHY?!” Luna continued with her pointless questions while another salvo hit the walls above us.
“HOW SHOULD I KNOW?!” I snubbed her.
Before our witty conversation could continue another big spell hit the side of our ship and Luna and we had to hold onto the deck for our dear lives. Apparently the captain had less luck, crashing into the railing right next to us.
Like a harpy Luna was on the poor guy, shaking him while she screamed, “WHAT DID YOU DO?”
Being screamed at with the Royal Canterlot Voice at close range is a dubious pleasure, and very well could lead to a loss of hearing, but lucky for us the captain seemed to be used to getting yelled at.
“Errr, there might have been some slight miscommunication about the abilities of some of our products,” the googly eyes stallion finally managed to press out, when Luna stopped strangling him for a moment.
“Products? I thought you were a captain?” I shared Luna’s confusion on that one but before we could get an answer, Luna had to dive out of the way of another salvo of spells. The captain used that opportunity to crawl towards the bridge.
“I’M PRINCESS LUNA, YOU FOOLS!!! STOP SHOOTING!” Luna roared as she lifted herself up onto the railing, only to duck back down again as another volley hit the ship.
“Did you seriously expect that to work?” I snarked.
“I don’t see you having any better ideas…” the goddess of the night replied, nursing her singed ego and buttocks.
“Nothing easier than that!” I vented, before I jumped to my feet glared at the unicorns menacingly and snapped my claws. As the alert reader might already suspect, nothing happened.
The unicorns stared at me. I stared at the unicorns. I smiled in a way that I hoped seemed disarming. The Unicorns’ horns started to glow.
Back on the deck Luna was laughing at me, while I tended to my now equally burned posterior.
“So what do we do now,” I interrupted her royal highness’ fit of amusement.
“I see to it that they don’t sink us, and you see if you can get the good captain to go any faster,” Luna suggested, promptly followed by her stopping a large blast with a magical shield. Our meeting with the seaponies thus postponed for now, I beelined for the stairway which the red haired colt had taken before me.
The bridge was easy to find, sitting at the highest part of the ship, I just had to follow the stairs. Sadly the same couldn’t be said about both the captain and the first mate. The only thing which even hinted at their current location was a book and a post-it note which read, “Good luck.”
At least they had left us the instruction manual.