Long Distance

by Ezn


Chapter 5

Chapter Five

The town of Port Anchor was a quaint little place, populated mostly by sea-faring ponyfolk who jittered about uncomfortably in their little wooden houses and longed for the sea when they weren't out sailing. As such, the town's large docks were its busiest area.

Which wasn't to say that they were particularly busy. Equestria, by and large, was a very self-sufficient nation, largely because of its great size and the diversity of its climate. Large tracts of arable land provided more than enough food for the ponies living there, and beneath the fine soil, the ground was rich with precious metals and gems. Equestria had a cordial relationship with nearby countries and exported much of its excess produce, but the majority of that activity took place in the shipping district of Manehattan.

As such, the docks of Port Anchor were, at their busiest, not overly busy, and the vast majority of the ships there were Equestrian in origin. True to its name, the town was a place to anchor for a short time, should necessity demand it.

A shiny new ship, small enough to almost be called a boat but still very sea-worthy, sat to the side of one of the wooden harbours, docked on mooring lines. Large white letters across the ship's near side christened it Moonchaser. Its owner stood nearby, admiring her fine, week-old craft.

Ocean Glider, an indigo earth pony mare with a dark purple mane and a crashing wave for a cutiemark, believed very strongly that this ship was the best purchase she'd ever made. Having a ship of her own would finally allow her to start her transportation business and ferry ponies to and from the increasingly visited Lunar Republic.

Ocean wasn't a native Lunar Republican. Her parents, being the crazy old seadog ponies they were, had ensured that her birth coincided with a trip they had been taking, and she had been born in international waters, making her a "citizen of the world". As she'd spent most of her life on ships and boats, she felt that that status was quite appropriate and had never before considered acquiring Equestrian citizenship, or that of any other country.

Which made it very strange that she was, at that moment, considering the benefits of becoming a citizen of the Lunar Republic – or rather, the New Lunar Republic, as it would become once Princess Luna overcame the shackles of her oppressive sister and took her rightful place as ruler of the island kissed every night by her moon.

"'Moonchaser', eh?" said a gruff voice to Ocean Glider's side. "You one o' them Lun-arr Rep-ub-li-cans?"

"Well, no," she replied semi-truthfully, feeling flustered about the loss of her train of thought.

"Then why is ya boat called Moon-chase-ah?"

Ocean Glider turned to the speaker and found herself staring right at the slimy, yellow-toothed smile of an old and crusty grey sailorpony. His orange eyes narrowed, and a number of other sailorponies stepped into view just behind him.

"We don' take kindly ta desert-tahs," said the grey stallion, as his followers stepped closer to Ocean Glider. "Isn't Equestria good enough for ya? Is Princess Celestya ta old fer ya?"

"N-no," Ocean Glider stammered, as her aggressors stepped ever closer. "W-what do you want?"

The group's leader let out a low, raspy chuckle that made Ocean Glider dislike him further, something that was fast becoming nearly impossible to do. A dry tongue flicked over his yellow teeth, and he nodded towards Moonchaser.

"Torch it, boys," he commanded. "We ain't 'avin' no in-sub-ordy-nants in mah town. Not while Ah'm still breathin'."

Ocean watched in horror as the ponies under the unseemly stallion's command brandished wooden torches in their mouths, and the group's single unicorn lit up his horn with an orange glow.

There was a WHOOSH as the first of the mob's torches lit up, followed by many more as the unicorn's orange magic field stretched out further and further. Ocean's heart sank as the ponies in the mob turned towards her beautiful ship and readied their torches for throwing. A single word from their leader would light up her ship in a brilliant orange blaze.

"Stop!" she cried desperately. "You'll burn the harbour! You'll burn the rest of the boats too!"

"We're pro-fesh-ionals, lady," jeered the leader, raising his right foreleg theatrically. "Now lads, when mah hoof hits the wood, ya throw ya torches. Git ready."

The leader's foreleg reached the top of its arc. He stood frozen for a moment, before shooting Ocean a particularly nasty glare and slamming his hoof down.

SPLASH!

The sound of the leader's hoof hitting the wood was drowned out by a sudden massive downpour. Ocean squealed in surprise as she was thoroughly drenched, but noticed with glee that the same had happened to her aggressors – and to their torches.

The source of the downpour was a decently large cloud that had snuck above the group while nopony was watching – or, perhaps more accurately, had been snuck above the group while nopony was watching.

Something moved above the cloud and the pegasus responsible for it swooped down onto the harbour triumphantly and was joined by a white unicorn and large-framed zebra.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I think you ponies really need to find a safer way to celebrate maiden voyages," the pegasus said casually. "I'd suggest something that allows the ship to actually make the voyage afterwards."

The leader of the mob shot the newcomers a dirty look, his mood dampened almost to the same extent as his coat and mane. The less dedicated members of his mob had already wandered off, and he didn't have the energy or the will to start a fight with some crazy tourists.

"Sorry about getting you all wet like that," the unicorn of the group said to Ocean Glider, once the soaked mob had fully dispersed. "It was the best plan we could come up with on such short notice."

Ocean stood flabbergasted, her jaw hanging open. She hadn't moved from the spot she'd been rooted to when her three saviours made their perfectly timed entrance.

"Are you okay?"

***

A round of introductions and a torrent of gushing thanks later, Ocean Glider and her new friends sat down to eat on the deck of an old passenger ship that had been repurposed as a nautical-themed café. Ocean insisted on paying.

"Thanks again you guys," she said, hugging her towel closer to her body. "If you hadn't shown up just then –"

"– you just don't know what you would have done?" Sky Wave interrupted, finishing the sentence Ocean had already repeated at least one hundred times that night. "Don't worry about it. We just did what any decent pony would've done."

Ocean smiled and nodded, still feeling amazed at her good fortune.

"If you want to repay us, though," began White Noise, suddenly cottoning onto a great idea. "Then you could tell us what you're planning to do with that nice new boat. Perhaps you can help us out?"

Ocean nodded eagerly and launched into her business plan: "Moonchaser's gonna take ponies between here and the Lunar Republic! At the moment, there isn't a dedicated passenger liner that does that, and that's because, for centuries, only supply ships have been out that way. But that's all changing now, with Princess Luna's return and the renewed lunar magic she's brought with her. Ponies want to visit – or even immigrate to – the Lunar Republic, and my little ship's going to help them do just that."

White Noise thought back to the geography he had learnt at school. The Lunar Republic was a small island in the Radiant Sea, situated roughly halfway between Equestria and Laung, the continent Zebrica and Dragonia formed the west-most outcropping of.

"Have you started operating?" he asked Ocean.

"Not yet, no," she replied. "Moonchaser hasn't even been on her maiden voyage. In fact, she only left the dry dock the other day."

White Noise's eyes flashed with realised opportunity.

"I think I may have a proposition for you, Ocean Glider. If you're willing to go a little further than the Lunar Republic for your inaugural trip, then my friends and I would be happy to be your first customers."

"How much further?"

"Laung."

"That's double the distance!"

"Sure is."

"I guess I do owe you guys."

After the promise of handsome payment – which she negotiated down slightly because of her unending gratitude to White Noise's group – Ocean agreed to take the ponies and zebra to Laung, provided they were happy to stop off in the Lunar Republic on the way.

"You aren't actually my first customers, you know," she snarked. "I meant it when I said there were ponies who really wanted to get over to the Lunar Republic."

The group laughed and talked until their food came, and then talked and laughed some more while they ate.

"Yeah, we've had some pretty interesting experiences since we left from Fillydelphia," said White Noise. "You've gotta hear about what happened in Bridleburg, the last town we stopped in."

"Eccentric ponies put us and themselves in terrible danger
Compared to any other town, Bridleburg will always prove stranger," added Sibwashie cryptically.

The travellers told Ocean all about their journey thus far, and she interjected with her own little stories about her life at sea and all the places she had been to and the amazing things she had seen. Eventually, the question that had been gnawing at her mind since White Noise first started telling her about the group's adventures couldn't stay beneath the surface any longer.

"Sorry if I'm being nosy," she began. "But, uh, why are you going to Laung, anyway? I know you've been setting up outlets of your shops, but you haven't come here to set one up, and you haven't been to Manehattan or Trottingham either. Are you taking your business international?"

White Noise exchanged glances with Sibwashie and Sky.

"That's a distinct possibility, but it's not the main focus of this journey," he began. "Sibwashie would like to visit his home again, and I'm glad to accompany him there, but that's not the main focus either. The main point of our journey is this: I am going to find out how dragonfire actually works."

White Noise took a deep breath and let it out slowly before continuing.

"To do that, I'm going back to the source, to ask the masters themselves. This journey's final destination is Dragonia, where I hope to use my academic credentials to gain an audience with the leading dragon experts in dragonfire and its associated magic."

Ocean Glider's eyes widened, and she marvelled at the group's bravery. Although Equestria–Dragonia relations had improved greatly in the past few centuries and more and more dragons were sending their young to live, study and work in Equestria, the idea of actually going into Dragonia was a frightening one. Not all dragons were educated, or benevolent creatures, and beyond that, the country's dry climate and rocky, mountainous terrain made not at all ideal for ponies to travel through.

White Noise went on to explain the dilemma he felt was inherent in setting up a business based around a kind of magic he didn't fully understand and how dangerous it was to trust his livelihood to it. However, his impassioned speech about the quest for knowledge was soon interrupted.

"I heard ya say ya was headin' fir Dragonia," said a grave, old voice. "I would be a leetle more careful about ideeas like that if I was yew."

The voice belonged to an old brown earth pony sailor with a well-worn blue ship-captain's hat on his head and an anchor on his flank. A low, hurried whisper from Ocean Glider named him Salty Seadog, a mostly retired sailor who loved telling folks stories about his glory days. The stories weren't always true, but Ocean assured her new friends that they were always entertaining and promptly offered the old stallion an empty seat at their table.

"Thank ya kindly, ma'am," he said politely, his smile revealing an incomplete set of yellow teeth, but making Ocean feel completely different from last time she had seen such a smile. "Now let me tell you folks about dragons..."

"I know you kids are used to yir home-grown helpful baby dragons that write all yir letters and clean yir house, but them's completely different beasts from the dragons livin' in Dragonia. I tell ya, there's a reason why them dragons aren't allowed in Equestria, and I seen that wit' mah own two eyes..."

«-oOo-»

The fine ship HMPC (Her Majesty Princess Celestia's) Duskbreaker was looking very much the worse for wear as it rounded Dragonia's cliffy coastline. It had just been through a terrible storm, and although nopony had been lost to the raging winds or turbulent waves, the sails were in tatters and there were great holes in the mast and deck.

As the ship's sails were all but gone, its only form of propulsion was its secondary rowing system, with the help of some limited unicorn magic. To row the enormous ship, however, took the horsepower of nearly the entire crew and travelling too far by such an energy-intensive method was bound to tire out the ship's crew to the point where they would be unable to go on long before reaching Equestria.

The ship's captain, a prudent fellow named Calmwaters, decided that the ship would have to anchor somewhere soon, if it hoped to avoid being caught in another storm (the fury of which it would surely not escape in one piece). The crew, their hearts eager for Equestria, agreed with their captain's decision and assured him that, once the ship landed, they would be able to fix it in no time at all.

Alas, the high and foreboding cliffs of Dragonia prevented the ship from anchoring anywhere for another day, and then the day after that, and the day after that. The crew were beginning to get despondent – when would they be able to land?

Finally, on the fourth day, the Duskbreaker sailed into a small bay, and the sailorponies alighted on the bay's tiny beach.

Beyond the beach was a thin clump of trees, and beyond that, the cliffs rose just as high as any in Dragonia. The crew did not have much space, but they would have enough wood to keep a fire burning at night and to mount basic repairs on their vessel.

A younger, more impulsive Salty Seadog was among the sailorponies. This being one of his earliest voyages, he was but a lowly cabin boy, whose main task was cooking remotely edible food out of whatever plantlife he could find. The crew didn't rush for seconds of his grass-and-leaf stew, but they ate it quietly and made no complaints.

With the crew rested and fed, the ship's repairs progressed rapidly. A great big tree was chopped down and hewn into a new mast, and the holes in the ship's deck and hull were patched up with the wood that remained. New sails were woven from a combination of the remains of the old sails, some leaves and bits of bark cleverly molded and woven by unicorn magic and one or two extra hammocks.

Salty had even managed to make himself useful by supplanting the ship's dwindling food supplies with stores of the edible leaves he managed to find.

By nightfall on the third day, work on the ship was complete, and Captain Calmwaters announced that the Duskbreaker was seaworthy once more. It was decided that the crew would go to sleep early that night, awaken the following morning with renewed strength and sail out of the bay, Equestria-bound.

***

Around midnight, the ponies were awakened by a terrible screeching, unlike any noise they had ever heard before. All at once, they opened their eyes to a terrifying sight.

For above the bay, just lower than the tops of the foreboding cliffs, there flew a great blue dragon, twisting and writhing in fury. The bone-chilling screech tore through the air once more, and the sailorponies realised that it was the dragon that made been making the awful sound.

Salty remembered Captain Calmwaters assuring everypony that they were too low down to be bothered by any dragons – apparently dragons felt uncomfortable close to sea-level, or above smooth, level ground.

All of a sudden, the dragon turned around in the air and plummeted towards the sailorponies, making even the most hardened veterans of the waves among them scream like little fillies and run around madly.

Caught up in the moment's frightening atmosphere, young Salty picked a direction and ran, closing his eyes for fear of seeing the dragon hurt him or one of his shipmates. It was on this day that Salty would learn never to run away from something with your eyes closed, as a protruding tree branch shortly caught one of his forelegs and sent him tumbling down in a heap.

Lying on his back and feeling quite dazed, Salty could only watch as the great blue dragon swept over him, ruffling his coat and mane with the gust of wind that came with. For a split second, Salty saw the dragon's eyes. They were pure white and appeared to be dripping with some foul liquid. Certainly not tears.

Salty felt a sense of warmth against his back as the dragon breathed out a column of fire, setting the trees behind him alight. This proved to be the exact motivation the little cabinpony needed to get back on his hooves and gallop out of the small forest, trying to ignore the screams of ponies less successful than he.

A loud shout ripped through the air, and Salty recognized the dignified voice of Captain Calmwaters, not even quivering with fear in the face of this immense danger.

"Dragon!" he bellowed. "Why do you attack us? What have we done to bring your anger down upon us?"

Calmwaters was barely able to jump out of the way in time to miss the blast of fire that shot his way the instant he finished talking. Salty could see that the hairs on his one side had become singed, and his magnificent blue hat had been blackened on one side.

Seeing the wisdom in beating a hasty retreat, Calmwaters turned tail and rushed towards the ship, ordering the remains of his crew to do the same.

Salty and the others galloped faster than they had ever galloped before, and once on the ship, the anchor was drawn up at a rate that suggested it was made out of balloons rather than heavy iron.

Losing interest in the pony-kebabs he had made, the great dragon turned his attention to the escaping ship (its crew rowed with a vigour that might've carried them to Equestria faster than the strongest of gales, had they kept it up). With another mighty screech, the dragon blasted the ship with his fire.

And that might have been the end of Captain Calmwaters, Salty Seadog and the rest of the crew, had it not been for the ingenuity of Flighty the unicorn, who turned her magic on the dragon's powerful breath of fire and turned into a regular powerful breath, of air.

The Duskbreaker shot out of the bay, skipping across the water like a stone – or so it felt. The rowing crew emerged from below and cheered, while the dragon could be heard screeching impotently into the night before fading from sight, utterly uninterested in following the ponies any further.

Flighty was given a commendation for her bravery and resourcefulness, followed by a stern lecture for shirking her duties – she had been on deck watching the dragon, instead of down below, helping the other unicorns telekinetically row the unoccupied oars.

There were a lot of unoccupied oars in the bowels of the Duskbreaker, for Calmwaters had lost a third of his crew to the dragon's fire that night.

«-oOo-»

"So don't yew tell me that dragons ah ha'mless," Salty concluded, staring wistfully out to sea as his tale came to an end. "We did nothing to tha' devil, but 'e still burnt a third o' us to a crisp. Even afta Cap'n Calmwaters tried reasonin' with him!"

Salty's audience nodded their heads gravely, none of them knowing how to respond to the story they'd just been told. White Noise thought about all of his dragon friends, and a knot formed in his stomach. Even Melvin, sour little git that he was, couldn't possibly be capable of such atrocities.

A waiterpony brought the group their after-dinner teas and coffees, and Salty Seadog yawned and bade them all a good night.

"Heed mah words!" he warned. "Don' go pokin' around in the bus'ness o' dragons!"

"We'll remember what you've told us, don't worry," White Noise said, mustering a semi-earnest tone out of his extremely boggled mind.

As Salty hobbled off, the group turned to their drinks, dipping their muzzles into the cups and lapping up the warm liquid.

"Hey," said Ocean Glider, suddenly noticing something. "White Noise, why are you drinking like that? Don't unicorns usually..."

"Yes, they do," he replied flatly. "Usually."

It was then that Ocean noticed something odd about the white unicorn's horn. Most unicorn horns were colours that matched their coats exactly, but White's horn was a strange, greyish off-white that looked out of place against his pale coat.

"Ponyville," he told her. "Can't believe we never even got to that part of the story. Anyway, the short version is this: I do usually have magic and use my magic like a regular unicorn, but after I had to sever my supply – you wouldn't understand what that means, but don't worry – to help fight a hydra, I haven't been able to do magic."

Ocean Glider gasped. "Is it... permanent?"

"No, no, it's nothing that serious. My magic supply just has to build up again, and that takes a while. A while longer than I thought it would, but seeing as nopony's ever severed their entire magic supply in one go, I guess I'm in uncharted waters here."

"It's rather irritating," interjected Sky. "White's magic would've really come in handy back in Bridleburg."

White Noise put a hoof to his chin and thought for a moment, before adding: "It's okay, I can feel my magic slowly returning, but I just haven't felt able to use it yet."

"Well that's a relief," Ocean sighed, her mind turning to other thoughts now that her worries were put at rest. "You guys fought a hydra?"

"Well," began Sky, looking down at her teacup modestly. "Twilight was the one who actually defeated it..."

***

Two days after the heroic rescue of the Moonchaser and her owner, the fine ship was fully prepped for the voyage ahead. The three travellers lined up on the dock with four of Ocean's other customers, all of them eager to mount the ship and set sail for foreign lands.

"I can't believe we're finally about to leave Equestria," said White Noise to his companions. "I've read a lot about the world out there in books, but I've never actually been to any of the places I studied in school."

"Same here," agreed Sky Wave. "I'd barely ever been out of Fillydelphia before you guys got me to come on this crazy trip, and I'm a pegasus pony! I can fly anywhere I want to and have travelled so little, while Sibwashie has no wings and has been further across the world than the two of us combined!"

Sibwashie chuckled softly to himself.

"I love discovering other cultures and seeing new places
But there's comfort to be found in familiar faces.

"My talent and my calling has brought me here and will send me all over the world
But sometimes I wish to lie beside the fires of home, sleeping with my tail curled."

The two ponies looked at the zebra with wide eyes, nodding slowly and smiling as they noticed a small tear in the corner of one of his eyes. It could have just been a trick of the light, or a speck of dust, but White and Sky were certain that Sibwashie was overjoyed to be on his way home.

"All aboard!" came a shout from the deck of the ship, jarring the three friends out of their shared moment of contemplation.

The passengers ascended the boarding plank in single file and alighted on the ship's recently swabbed deck (so clean that it shone in the sunlight). The single sail hung proudly from its mast, bearing a lovingly painted image of the moon (a very up-to-date image, as it lacked the traditional mare's head shadow).

The Moonchaser's captain, a proud and haughty-looking Ocean Glider wearing a smart blue hat, stood in front of her newly hired crew and welcomed her passengers aboard graciously, shaking each one's hoof and looking them all directly in the eyes, confidence exuding from her every pore.

"We now set sail for the Lunar Republic," she announced. "As you may have already heard, her majesty Princess Luna departed for the island herself not three days ago. She has stated that her visit shall be a casual, very temporary affair, but I hope you will join me in hoping that the Princess sees the beauty and potential of the Lunar Republic, and extends her services to... renew it."

Ocean Glider's speech concluded, and the ship's passengers stomped their hooves politely against the deck, some more vigorously than others. White Noise felt a queasiness rising in his stomach.