//------------------------------//
// The Argo 
// Story: Broken Sky 
// by hahatimeforponies 
//------------------------------//

	There once was a boy who looked at the sky. Well, there probably has been before and will be many times again, but they're not fantastically interesting. This one was a stallion of seventeen years, and he was of such sandy shades and stocky build that he could be mistaken for part of the earth itself. The earthy boy looked at the sky at every possible opportunity, going out to the wharf on the edge of the village where he wouldn't be disturbed and climbing the tall pole to get the best view he could.

If he was lucky, he'd have a clear view of the stars. Everything in the sky moved, except them. The current sky was muddy. A bank of dark clouds hung in the northern sky, which happened to be the current "up" for the village, which was a pain. He leaned over the edge of the pier. The southern sky right now had a collection of shards obscured by the rockface below, which lit up the aether a lovely lilac, punctuated by sprays of gold, but made picking out stars difficult. Only the brightest ones made themselves known. Sirius was hard to miss. South of that, he found Canopus.

He smiled. The library's healthy stock of star charts all seemed to disagree about which constellation Canopus was supposed to belong to. The older ones, with ornate illustrations and plenty of gratuitous old Equestrian, had a tremendous ship across the southern sky, called Argo Navis. The newer ones, with their sterile dot-and-line diagrams and gratuitous graphs and data, split the old Argo into its sails, deck and keel. Nobody had been there to explain why this change was made. It didn't make much sense to him at all.

Canopus winked at him, and he squinted. Stars only wink when something passes in front of them. Other islands were usually easy to spot as occasional dark stars. The proximity to the star made this one difficult to see, no matter how much he craned his neck and pouted.

"Key!" The fright nearly forced him to fall. "Key Stone get down from there!" When Key regained his balance, he chuckled under his breath and dismounted the pole. The wharf groaned from the impact of his landing, and the middle-aged mare standing safely on the grass a full two lengths away winced. Then she smiled. "Earth ponies belong on the ground, silly."

Key cast an aside glance over the edge of the wharf. "Let me know when you find it."

Marble Arch rolled her eyes and beckoned him over. "Don't be such a smarty-pants. C'mon, dinner's ready."

The village was a shambles of old buildings, half of them unusable, and everyone knew each other. Key hated the latter and loved the former. He liked to be alone with his thoughts, and it's hard to think when you can't walk down the street without every shopkeeper and passer-by offering how-do-you-do's and lovely-weather-isn't-it's. His mother was with him, so he smiled and nodded. Peppermint Twist at the sweet shop gave him a smile and a look over the rims of her glasses, but Key was more interested in the crumbling stonework of the shop itself. (She was at least ten years older than him anyway.)

Aside from the main two streets of shops and utility buildings, almost every spare inch of the village was covered in vegetable plots and fruit trees. This made private spaces for Key to lurk in a rare commodity indeed. Buildings that were in reasonably good condition still had ponies using them, usually a shop or workshop or something on the ground floor, a living space above, and often an attempt at a cabbage patch on the roof. When one collapsed, it was a safe bet that within hours someone would be clearing the rubble and getting ready to plough it. But a few structures in the village fell into a golden mean, in which nobody deemed it safe or comfortable enough to live in, but it had yet to fall down. He liked to hide in these places and watch the sky through holes in the roof, or read if it was cloudy.

Key had to linger on the bridge. His mother carried on and knew he would catch up, because he did this every time they crossed the bridge. The cobblestones of the upper main street carried on either side, and the bridge was a hasty wooden construction that needed regular service and replacement. The ground had split some time ago, but the island was too thick to completely divide from it, leaving a huge earthy scar. The villagers took full advantage of this. The upper main street snaked around the top of a sheer cliff, with all the houses and shops on one side, and about eight lengths down was the lower village. The lower main street was a dirt track. The lower village consisted of small farming plots and a café that had run out of coffee years ago. By the bridge in the upper village, on either side of the divide, were the halves of a house wrenched in two.

On the far side of the village from the wharf, Key's home was set in a hillside. It was a newer dwelling, which meant it was dug into the ground to save precious growing space. The front door looked directly out to the sky, but there were other homes set into that hillside, and potato plots further down the hill, so if Key stood at his front gate and stargazed, ponies would come up and try to talk to him. He hadn't gotten away with it since he was ten.

He opened the door, and he hit a wall of hot air, thick with steam and the aroma of hearty vegetable stew. He was one of the last to dinner. Jade and Jet made some incomprehensible jeering when they saw him come in, and he dummied a dive at them. Jade fell backwards over Jet, and the two foals giggled and took their places at the table. Kite Facet thumped the table to make his bowl dance, and kept doing so until Oval Cut caught the bowl in the air. He stuck his tongue out at her and sat back in his chair in a huff. She looked up at Key. They shared a snort and a smirk. (If they laughed at Kite's pre-teen angst in front of him, war would break out.) The din died off when Onyx Ring entered, ducking through the doorway like he was too big to be allowed, with a yawning Keshi Pearl on his back. He set her down in her high chair and took his place at the head of the table. An empty cup found itself sailing from the high chair, and bopped Onyx on the nose. He rubbed it with a smile.

The quiet was the cue for the cauldron to emerge from the kitchen, Marble Arch nosing it along ahead of her. The order of service was oldest to youngest, or, least to most likely to start before everyone was served. Minutes of vigorous slurping and mumbling followed. Kite declared that he hated the stew, then ate three helpings. Most of Keshi's stew ended up on her father's face, which she found infinitely amusing. The novelty wore off for him quickly.

When the meal was over, Marble took Keshi from her chair to burp her and let her fall asleep in a pouch worn on her front. Jade and Jet took off to re-muddy themselves. Kite remained at the table in an effort to look grown-up.

"What to do, what to do," Onyx sighed. The table shook a little when he set his empty glass down.

"Pretend to read something with a pipe and a glass of sherry?" Oval said, quicker than anyone else could even open their mouths.

He chuckled and shook his head. His proportions made even his most subtle gestures seem like geological events. "I'm talking about birthdays. You've got a month to think of something."

"Well..."

"What are we gonna do, go on vacation?" Key shrugged and snorted at him.

"If you could, would you?"

Key and Oval looked at each other, then nodded at him. "Yeah. Probably," one said.

"It's also probably never going to happen," said the other.

"Oh, come on," Marble added. "You're only eighteen once. There must be something you want."

Oval frowned. "I feel like this whole birthday presents thing is generational. When you were growing up you could get new things, but everything we have is recycled and handed down. Between us we've probably read every book on the island."

"Kite, if you break that train set, I will throw you off this rock, because Jet's still got to use it." Key looked across the table with a raised eyebrow and a barely contained smirk. Kite scowled at him, then sat back in his chair with forelegs crossed, and stuck his tongue out for good measure. Key broke down chuckling. Marble shot the same raised-eyebrow look back. Key rolled his eyes and left Kite alone.

"When you're quite done poking the dragon, Key..." Oval's ruby face turned a little blue from trying not to laugh. "My point is that birthdays are always going to mean different things to us than they did for you."

Marble looked up in thought. "Sorry, I'm still having birthdays, I think?" Everyone seventeen and up at the table chuckled. At this point Kite realised that he had nothing to add to the conversation and left. "It's his turn to clear the table, I don't know where he's going."

Onyx shook his head and waved, and returned his attention to his two eldest. "There's one thing I'm definitely doing with you both. I am taking you down to the Fallen Arch and I am buying each of you a pint of Old Misty Mountain. This is not up for debate."

"I don't think either of us were going to argue."





After dinner, Key retreated to his bedroom. Oval was already there, setting up a chessboard. By long-standing agreement, due to the premium of space, all of their books, games and everything they did together was kept in Key's room, and Oval's room had boxes of things they stopped playing with. Key flipped a coin on his way past, and carried on to the bookshelves.

"You've got black," Oval said, looking up from her book to check the coin. She moved a pawn while she was at it. He kept rooting around on the bookshelves, until he pulled some large, folded up pieces of paper out and set them down next to him. The chess set wobbled. Oval tilted her head. "See something earlier?"

"Something south, in Argo." Knight to f6.

"You haven't touched those charts in months, it could be anything." Bishop to b2.

"Probably. I've got velocity data, so barring catastrophic events, I should be able to extrapolate some positions."

Oval chuckled with a quill in her mouth. "You're such a nerd."

"Says she making notes in a poetry book."

She snorted again. That's the joke, she didn't say.

They played best of three while Oval read and Key did sheets of algebra. Then they played best of five, and then best of seven, and by best of nineteen they weren't sure who had won how many, because the win count got lost in the middle of all the other numbers Key was juggling. They only found it when he noticed that an island known only as "lighthouse guy rock" appeared to suddenly reverse direction and move a hundred and twenty degrees across the sky.

Key's calculations turned up nothing interesting. The most likely candidate was an unidentified island. After they lost count of how many rounds of chess they'd played, Oval went to bed, and Key went back outside. He didn't like sleeping, even if everything he wanted to do would wait for him. Lights-off (or night, as the older ponies called it) meant that the streets of the village were empty, save for the occasional sleepy watchpony, and Key could wander the crumbling buildings alone, and pretend the village was deserted.

He spent half an hour on the bridge, and continued to the wharf at a leisurely pace. The air had chilled, and some mist was collecting in the divide. Key guessed they were passing through a cloud, which would probably hide the stars, but he went to the wharf anyway. When he got there, the mist had reduced the light of the few stars that were out to a white fuzz, but the dark spot was still clear. It had moved a few arc minutes clockwise, and had a definite shape. Key watched it for a few minutes. His telescope was in the library, and it was probably closed.

"Key!"

"Mom, I'm not even on the pole..."

Marble Arch laughed and came as far as the edge of the grass. Key smiled and joined her. When he stood at her side, she put a foreleg around him, and he leaned his weight into her. She jerked to the side, but then stabilised.

"What are you thinking about?"

He paused. "Where do I start?"

"Anywhere."

It took him a moment to filter something worth talking about from the multiple trains of thought he had running at any given moment. "What was it like when it happened?" Marble opened her mouth, but Key expanded the question before she could say anything. "I mean, I've asked about what life was like before. That's not what I'm interested in. What Oval said at dinner got me thinking, about what it was like when Equestria stopped being one piece and started being... this." He waved a hoof at the sky.

"Well." She licked her lips and swallowed. "A lot of ponies try not to think about it. We were in the old house, when it was still part of Ponyville. The Summer Sun Celebration was in Ponyville that year, and I was pregnant with Oval..." She hesitated another moment. "It was mid-morning when it happened, but it was still dark. Onyx had just come back from the raising of the sun, saying something about nightmares and moons, but we never got a chance to figure that out. I just remember that a lot of things were odd that morning. Then, we heard this great rumbling. We felt it as much as heard it, really. We rushed outside and saw the moon breaking apart. Everything else was hard to see in the moonlight, but we started seeing bits of the Everfree Forest flying in the air over us, then the ground cracked... right where this wharf is, there used to be a house, and the ground broke right under it. I don’t know if the ponies in it were on the other side or just out at the time, but when we searched it afterwards, we couldn't find anyone."

Key knew from Marble's look what had happened to them. "Do you need a minute?"

"No... no, I'm okay. But yes, after the ground cracked, we noticed that where we were standing was starting to float up. We ran inside and braced ourselves in the doorways. I don't remember ever being so terrified. Your father never left me alone through the whole thing. I might have just had a heart attack there and then if he wasn't keeping me calm." She smiled and sniffed again. "I can't remember how long we were there. The rumbling stopped, and we heard some screaming in the distance once. When we got out to see what was going on, we... I almost got sick from the dizziness. A few ponies around already had. The part of town we were standing in was upside down, maybe two miles from the ground. And on the ground... I feel like you'd need a poet to describe it all. Bits of the land were coming away in all directions. The cracks were as far as Canterlot and still going. I could see the sea, which you really shouldn't be able to see from Ponvyille, and it was fizzing away into the sky.

"After that day was hard. Some ponies thought Princess Celestia would come and fix it, but..." She chuckled darkly. "That never happened, as you can see. We learned how much of Ponyville we were left with. Since I was the closest they had to a quantity surveyor, they had me checking the integrity of the island. We had some of the Everfree Forest, which I reckoned was going to break off any day, so the first thing we did was search it for supplies. Thank heavens for Vermouth, being so practical-minded. If we didn't have him we might have all starved by now. When half of everyone was losing their heads, he was already thinking long term. We got seeds and fruits and saplings from the forest and the little bit of field in between. There was a cottage with some chickens and bees, but we couldn't find the owner, so we just moved everything to safety. There was a zebra living in a hut in the forest, but she refused to move. She was probably better able to look after herself than any of us were. Then there were the ruins in the forest. Onyx was sent there to look for valuables for trading, and, well..."

Key smiled. "This is the part I know."

Marble smiled back and squeezed him tight. "He found something worth more than just gems." Key blushed and broke into a full grin. "My little miracle."

"Mom, stop!" he laughed.

Marble sniffed a third time and planted a kiss on his forehead while she had him headlocked in a hug. "Y'know Vermouth named the Fallen Arch after you?"

"Really?"

"Mhm. The new bar was all ready to go save for the name, and when your father told him the story, the image of the newborn foal lying in place of the keystone of a fallen archway stuck with him."

"Hm." Key looked up and paused. "Applying finishing touches while I was still in diapers. Prescient."

She chuckled and hugged him again. "This land might be broken, but it still has magical ways."





Key didn't sleep much. He went back to the wharf for an hour with a cup of soup when everyone was asleep and watched the unidentified island get closer by miniscule amounts. The clouds only got thicker and he was grateful for the soup. When the soup was finished, the chill and the fatigue and the monotony became too much, and he went home for just enough sleep to keep him alive.

He started his breakfast after and finished before everyone else, and went to the library. The clouds had cleared a little, but it was still chilly. It was an old, dead, hollow tree near the wharf edge of the island. Its leaves had long deserted it, but it was still green with sheets of ivy that were probably holding it down as much as the roots were. It used to be in the middle of a street, but all that was left were some cobblestones studded in the dirt. The villagers had planted apple and pear trees around the library to make it look less lonely.

When Key arrived, a few foals were already playing on the trees outside. They waved at him, and he smiled and waved back to be polite, but he hurried inside anyway. In his rush, he nearly fell over one of the desks near the door.

"Key Stone, you'll break your neck like that!"

He chuckled, returning the desk to its original angle. "I don't know, Penny, I think the desk will break before I do."

Penny Sweet broke into wrinkled grin and waved him on. As he made for the stairs, she resumed picking out books and writing things on the chalkboard.

A few minutes later, he rang the bell on the balcony, and the foals outside filed inside. He watched them from the mezzanine with the curtains closed, so that he was in the dark. There were sixteen in total, and he could see Jade, Jet and Kite Facet among them. Kite looked particularly moody this morning, as did that fourteen year old filly with her forelock flopping in front of her face. They sat at the back, visibly unimpressed with having to share a classroom with foals up to eight years their junior. He thought they'd be happier about getting their summer break soon, but apparently not.

Penny began lessons, and Key watched some more. He knew the teenagers at the back were inevitably going to get more angsty because Penny was teaching. She lavished her attention on the younger kids, and left the older ones some books to read. He retreated to his desk after the class had settled down. Kite and the fringe knew that he usually hid in the mezzanine during lights-on, where nobody could bother him without disturbing the class. They threw paper balls up at him whenever they were bored and their teacher wasn't looking at them.

The office-bedroom mezzanine of the library was his home away from home. Ever since he finished school he figured he'd probably become the village's teacher. The village needed one, after all. The current system of rotating "teachers" - the adults of the village teaching things vaguely related to their jobs - was adequate, but far from ideal. Penny Sweet was a confectioner, who taught cookery to the older kids, but was also a natural kindergarten warden. Vermouth taught mathematics and economics, Onyx Ring taught science, Marble Arch taught construction studies... Key had even taught astronomy a couple of times. Useful for navigation, he said. The troubled troublesome teens weren't convinced.

A ball of paper landing on his forehead brought him back to reality. A second landed on his lap. He was swinging on his chair, and he nearly lost his balance. Through the bars of the mezzanine railing he could see the terrible twosome preparing a second round. He took a piece of paper, wrote on it 'why don't you two just kiss already?', and folded it into a paper aeroplane. He threw it from safety and waited. A minute later there was a loud "ew!" from the back of the class, followed by Penny raising her voice when she noticed they weren't reading. Key grinned and turned back to his desk.

He took the charts he'd updated yesterday out of his bags and busied himself with updating the library's copies. He realised that he should have swung by the wharf before coming here. He packed up the telescope and made a point to check the wharf when class broke for lunch. When the charts were done, he lost himself in a book of old legends. He often entertained himself by cross-referencing fairy tales to find out what was just mundane to the old world and what was pure fantasy. It was harder than it sounded.

At lunch, Key left behind everyone else. Penny refused to let him leave without one of the cakes she'd brought to class. Outside, Kite glared at him from the furthest apple tree. The fringe was nowhere to be seen.

It had only gotten colder out since breakfast, and it was now even colder than during lights-off. This wasn't unusual, but some of the older ponies complained about it. Key's breath was misting as he walked. The ground had even frosted in some sheltered areas. Shop doors said 'come on in, we're open', and ponies wrapped up in scarves and hats and boots and made sure to shut them after coming and going. Small fires had been lit next to some of the crop patches, and someone struggled to get some life out of an old heat lamp.

He and his breath stopped when he reached the wharf. He could see the outline of someone already there, sitting at the edge and looking over. Short mane waved in soft wind. The mist obscured its details. He approached with a light step, now excessively mindful of his own movements and the telescope on his back. A creaky plank gave him away. He tensed. The silhouette turned its head. He kept his gaze at the floor.

"There you are," Oval's voice said. Key furrowed his brow and looked up. The figure came closer, until there was little enough cloud between them that he could see her properly. He hadn't told her to meet him here, nor had he planned it. "Come on, before this cloud gets any thicker." He figured she'd just had the same idea.

They wedged one leg of the stand in between two boards on the wharf, and the other two legs rested awkwardly over the side, so they could point the telescope down over the edge. Oval held it steady while Key looked. They took a minute to find their unidentified floating rock again, and another to bring it into focus.

Key made some humming noises. "I think it's a ship."

"You sure?"

"Regularly shaped with two projections that look like sails. It looks like it's heading this way." He stood back and took the base so Oval could get a look. There was another minute while she found it again.

"You're absolutely right, it sure looks like a- hello."

Key blinked. "I didn't say it w-"

"Shut up. Someone just looked over the prow. Unicorn... she's floating a telescope. I think she's trying to look at us!"

Key leaned over the side and waved. "That get anything?"

Oval said nothing for a moment. Then she sighed. "Nope. Looks like she gave up on it, I'm not sure she knows how to use it."

"Aw. She still there?"

"Yeah, take a look." They switched again.

When he found the ship again, he double-checked the magnification. He looked back again, and the unicorn was resting on the prow, doing nothing. "Wow, that ship is actually a lot smaller than I thought it was! At a rough guess I'd say... six, maybe eight hours, wind depending?"

"Just in time to clash with dinner, then?"

He chuckled, and packed up the telescope. "Of course."





Key returned to the library and read one page each from twenty different books. He couldn't concentrate. It was perhaps the fifth vessel to come to the island in his lifetime. And a unicorn was on board, no less. The last time he saw one of those, he was five. A ship called to trade, and a baby dragon left the village with them. He lived in the library, and always seemed kind of sad. Key was never sure whether he'd imagined the dragon or not.

School finished. Kite had forgotten about the teasing from earlier in his rush to leave. Jade and Jet demanded to ride home on Key's back. He commented on how big they were getting, and exaggerated his wheezing and struggling while they mounted, even though he could easily carry the pair of them. He left his bags at the library because he was coming back anyway. Jade sang something, and Jet made gagging noises. Key recognised the tune and sang along, even though he was too breathy and slightly flat. Jet huffed and rested his chin on the top of Key's head, but he could feel him tapping along in time anyway.

The twins dismounted at the front gate and ran inside. Vermouth had called, and was talking to Onyx Ring about repairs on some of the ornate taps at the bar. Key waved and hurried through to the kitchen for a quick drink of water. He wasn't stopped on his way back out, to his relief.

He killed the rest of the afternoon walking between the library and the wharf, being too restless to read and too agonised by the wait to remain at the dock. The clouds cleared up and it warmed while he met Oval for a break at the sweet shop. She'd been similarly distracted all day. They met Marble Arch out walking with Keshi Pearl, and whiled away half an hour playing with her until Marble said that she'd catch her death of cold.

On the seventh lap of his circuit of distractions, Key decided that the ship was close enough, and that he'd watch the rest of its approach from the wharf. A few minutes later Oval joined him. He hopped and fidgeted as he stared over the edge. Whenever he got a pain in his neck, he took a step back from the edge and paced. When the ship was close enough to see with the naked eye, he went to put the telescope back. He ran, stumbling over the same desk as earlier on his way into the library. He felt like he could really do with some soup or tea, and Oval would appreciate the same, but in getting it he might miss something important, and they were in that late evening limbo when they might be called for dinner in a minute, or in an hour, with no way to tell.

In his enthusiasm to return in time, he nearly charged off the dock. He stopped in a position of precarious balance on his two front legs, and Oval had to gently pull him back. He crumpled to the floor with his chin hooked around the edge while he caught his breath. Blood pounded in his ears and his stomach knotted and turned. He felt ready to vomit.

The ship had changed its angle. It coasted sideways with its sails retracted. Now that they could see the vessel in profile, they could pick out details of its construction. It was grubby and unpainted, and the hull was a collage of nailed-on boards and smears of dirt and ash. It was maybe twenty lengths from keel to prow, and the same from the bottom of the hull to the top of the crow's nest. The word etched into the wood below the prow, that looked like it had been gone over several times in different colours of paint, said 'Crusader'.

Key spotted a pony in the crow's nest. They looked at him, or at least in his direction. He froze. The eye contact held for two seconds that felt like twenty, and broke when he backed away from the edge in a hurry.

"Something wrong?"

"Yeah, no, I..."

Oval chuckled. "One of the crew saw you and now you're going to be all shy?" Key grimaced and blushed. "That would be so you. Relax, I'll do the talking."

He lay on his stomach further from the edge while Oval kept watching. Without sight of the ship, time crawled, and he only made himself more nauseous. Oval seemed to handle it much better, only swishing her tail and shivering occasionally from the cold. Although it may not have been the cold.

Oval stepped away from the edge, and Key knew it was time. His forelegs tensed. The crow's nest popped up over the boards. He let loose a clipped cry of fright, and ran behind the bushes. It was going to crash, he was sure. He closed his eyes and pressed himself to the ground. He heard a crunch, which was likely the initial impact, and then the long creak of straining wood. There was one sharp crack. After that, silence.

He heard footsteps on the grass, and a tug on his tail made him squeal again. Face buried in the dirt, he was dragged backwards until he was on the wharf again. "Key, stop being such a wimp!" Oval hissed, and she spat out the few of his tail hairs left in her mouth. He pressed his forehooves to his temples and forcibly shook his head. Then he stood up, wiped the dirt from his face and turned around.

"Make yourself useful!" a voice called from the ship. It was at an angle to the island, so that the crow's nest was directly above them, but the two ponies he could see on board were walking on it just fine, like the angle of the deck was the correct one, and the island was wrong. While Key was boggling at this, a coil of rope landed next to him. Key and Oval looked at it, then at each other and said some variation of 'uhh' in unison.

The orange pony on the deck rolled her eyes and jumped on to the wharf. "Don't tell me you don't know how to tie knots? Kids these days..." She took the rope in her mouth and flew a few times around the tall pole with it. Wait, flew?

Key's jaw dropped when he saw the wings open out. In the half-light, he hadn't noticed them. A unicorn was one thing, but he'd never seen a pegasus face to face before. With the mane and tail and scarf all in the same magenta billowing behind her, she looked like a rag blowing in the wind. He tried not to stare and failed miserably. Oval did a much better job of it.

The pegasus dropped the rope and landed on the rail on the side of the deck. She turned and looked at Key and his vacant wonder. She smirked. "You checking me out?" Key turned scarlet and stammered. His legs pedalled backwards without him noticing.

"Scootaloo!" another voice called from the ship. "The poor thing's probably never seen a pegasus before." The unicorn that couldn't work a telescope came to the rail. Her mane looked a lot more curly up close. "Look at him, he's in shock!"

"I'm just playing, sheesh..." Scootaloo went over to the other side of the deck and started doing something else with ropes. The unicorn tied off the rope around the tall pole so that it kept the vessel snug to the wharf.

Oval was working all of her face muscles to not break down laughing. "Are you okay?" Key took a breath and sat down. She patted him on the back.

The ship turned, creaking and groaning, until its deck was almost at the same angle as the boards of the wharf. The unicorn tied another rope to a smaller pole further down the dock. An earth pony emerged from the cabin and came over to the rail. She stood on it to look past the pair on the pier, to the village behind them. A skull and crossbones bandana kept the hair out of her eyes.

"Looks like the place," said the unicorn.

"What's left of it, anyway," said the earth pony with a grimace. Her voice had a twang to it that broadened some vowels, and skipped over others. Vermouth and some of the farmers had accents like that, which they described as country. The earth pony looked at them. "There a harbour master or something?" They shook their heads. "Customs? Mayor?"

"You're the first ship to dock here in about four years. I don't think the town knows what to do with them," Oval said.

Scootaloo reappeared on the far side of the deck. "Directions to a bar would be nice." The two other crew rolled their eyes.

"Well, who do we talk to about trading?"

Key and Oval looked at each other again. "I guess we could take you to the Fallen Arch? It is kind of a hub."

The earth pony hopped off the ship. "Alright. Scootaloo, keep a lookout. Sweetie Belle, you're with me." The pegasus flapped up to the crow's nest and sprawled over the side, immediately looking bored. The unicorn jumped on to the dock. "I'm Applebloom." She gave them a look.

They stared for a couple of seconds. Key shuffled back. "Uh, it's this way, uhm..."

Applebloom chuckled. "No, what are your names?"

"Oh!" Oval answered, while Key fell back on his haunches. "I'm Oval Cut, and this is my brother Key Stone." Applebloom and Sweetie Belle looked at each other and made some faces. They shook their heads after a moment and started towards the village.

"What was that about?" Key asked, before he could remember subtlety.

They didn't seem bothered. "We used to live in Ponyville, before the Sundering."

Oval and Key exchanged confused looks. "The what?"

"Y'know, the Sundering. That thing where Equestria exploded into the sky." Sweetie Belle talked about it so casually. "Why, do you call it something else here?"

"We don't actually have a name for it. In fact, not many ponies like to talk about it."

Applebloom huffed. "Figures. Who are your folks?"

Oval hesitated. Key didn't. "Onyx Ring and Marble Arch. Jeweller and architect."

Sweetie Belle chuckled. "That explains it. We were like, twelve when it happened. We wouldn't have known anyone like that."

Most of the shops had closed or were closing, and few ponies were out. The few that were out gawped at the two strangers. They didn't pay them any heed, because they were more interested in the toll time had taken on the town. They stared for a full five minutes at the divide, and were struck silent by the house carved in two near the bridge. They said that they weren't normally this sentimental, but here it was hard not to be.

The Fallen Arch was the last new building built above ground, but it certainly didn't look new. It was an attempted brick-for-brick reconstruction of the old tavern, the Three Cavaliers, which had been irreparably damaged when the divide formed. It was on the island's only side street, coming off the upper main street on the wharf side of the bridge. The street sloped sharply down, so the walls of the cellar poked out of the ground. The cobblestones on the street stopped shortly after.

As they entered, a quiet descended as everyone turned to see who'd arrived. When they saw it was just the jeweller's kids, they returned to their groups and resumed their slurred conversations. The strangers evaded notice by most. Lanterns behind the bar and over the door provided warm light in small amounts. Most of the patrons drank in shadow. Feathered caps and rapiers sat on the walls next to out-of-date maps and timetables for trains that would never come. The crest of the original three cavaliers, broken neatly in three, hung over the bar.

"Is that..." someone said, too quiet for them to hear. Twist accosted them on their way to the bar. "Applebloom! Gosh, is that really you?"

Applebloom looked around and at the others with extreme concern. "Might be, uh... do I know you?"

Twist looked down with the smile falling from her face. Then she perked up again. "Would it help thome if I talked like thith?"

The lights flicked on. "Twist?"

"You do remember!"

"Of course! You just went and grew up completely." Twist chuckled and blushed. "Man, we gotta catch up!"

Sweetie Belle tapped her on the shoulder. "Business?"

Applebloom waved her off. "Yeah, yeah, go talk to them, I'll get back to you." She retreated to a corner with Twist. Sweetie Belle shrugged, and they continued to the bar.

Oval and Key leaned over the bar, but didn't take seats. Sweetie Belle looked over their shoulders. Vermouth kept talking to the two older ponies further down the bar for a minute, before politely excusing himself. His mane and moustache were greying and his bowtie and waistcoat were fraying, but he still moved smoothly, sliding along the bar to them like he was on wheels.

"Now, what can I do you kids for?"

"Actually..." Oval stepped to one side. "Some traders just arrived." Sweetie Belle opened her mouth, but didn't follow through.

"Well, whip me raw, if that's something you don't see every day! Welcome to our humble little rock, stranger! What can I get you?"

"Sweetie Belle." She smiled, only for a second. "We're not really looking for a drink, I thought I'd been brought here to..."

"Just tell me what you're looking for and I'll tell you if we can help you out. Everything passes through this watering hole."

Sweetie Belle paused, then shrugged. "The old Ponyville library." Vermouth's face folded. "We're not looking to take anything, just investigate."

He broke into a grin, largely hidden by his facial hair. "Come all this way just for our little library? There's dedication, I tell you. Well, it so happens that Key here is our resident bookworm! He can tell you on the spot what if we have what you need."

Key chuckled and stared at the counter. "Oh, stop..."

"Is he right?"

"Yes. I suppose."

"Cool! Let's go, we can get drinks late-"

"There you two are." Marble Arch inserted herself between Sweetie Belle and Oval. Sweetie Belle backed up. Marble looked at Vermouth. "Corrupting my children again, are you?" Her lips curled into a smile.

"Of course, ma'am. Better get 'em out of here before I sell them some soda." The dimples in his cheeks peeked out from around his moustache.

She turned from the bar. "Come on. Your dinner will be cold." Key and Oval looked at Sweetie Belle. Key gulped.

She chuckled and nodded at the door. "Go. We're not going anywhere."





The stir fry disappeared quickly. Key and Oval spent the meal having a silent conversation about whether they were going to bolt as soon as they were done, communicated by eyebrows and ear twitches. Kite ate half the speed of the others as he went to painstaking lengths to pick pieces of onion out of the noodles. Keshi Pearl decided to use her eldest siblings as target practice when she'd had enough of her mulch.

"Now, about this ship." The pair of them lurched. Key had some leek go down the wrong way. They'd been eating like they were late, and Marble still finished ahead of them.

Oval cleared her mouth first. "You saw it?"

"You know that if I can't find Key at home I check the library first and the wharf second, right? The lady on the ship told me you'd gone to show her friends to Vermouth." Key spluttered some more, then downed most of his water. A lump of baby food sailed past him. "Did you know it was coming?"

They looked at each other. Oval nodded. Key made a false start, cleared his throat, and tried again. "We only got a look with the telescope at lunchtime. I..."

"What your mother might be trying to say is that maybe you shouldn't get any ideas." Onyx's voice resonated in the wok in the middle of the table.

Marble pouted. "Well maybe not as strong as that. Perhaps..." She took a sip of her drink. "... that you should think carefully about any ideas that you might have." She looked harder at Onyx than either Key or Oval.

Onyx frowned and shrugged. "I just think you should be careful around these crusty traders myself, you never know what they're up to."

"They want to look at the library, actually." Both parents furrowed their brows and looked at each other. "That's what they said when we took them to Vermouth. So I guess that's where I'm going now?"

Onyx sighed. Then he looked at the table and waved. Key hesitated, then left. Oval got up and hugged her father. His lips curled up at the sides. "He knows you're just looking out for him." His nose shielded her from another mash missile. They laughed, and Keshi took this as a signal to prepare another volley. Oval left before the bombardment could intensify further.

Oval caught up with Key at the bridge. He was dawdling and looking at the ground. As she passed, she gave him a nuzzle. He paused and smiled, and followed her at her brisk pace.

The Fallen Arch had become louder while they were eating dinner. More ponies had arrived, and the air was hot and thick and made them shield their faces as they came in. The waitress walked past them with a platter of fried food, bag-eyed and her mane frizzing. When they looked again she was already heading back to the kitchen. They stood in the aisle, looking at everyone for the strangers. Sweet Bells was one of them, maybe?

Key jumped when he was touched on the shoulder. This in turn startled Oval, who almost knocked over someone's drink when she jumped. The owner of the hoof laughed.

"We're over here!" Key followed the leg up to Scootaloo. She had a foam moustache from her drink.

Oval frowned. "I thought you were keeping watch?"

"This place is harmless. The S.S. Rustbucket will be fine." Applebloom reached over from their alcove and thumped her. Scootaloo chuckled anyway and stuck her tongue out at Applebloom. They budged up, and Key and Oval joined them. The three of them and Twist sat around a shared plate of fries, onion rings and other assorted greasy things, with a beer each. Key and Oval said they'd just eaten and would be fine, but stole the occasional fry anyway.

Applebloom set her drink aside and leaned forward. "Okay. Let's get down to business. We're not your regular traders. We trade to survive, but not for profit. My brother runs a big farm, so we get food on the cheap every few months." She looked around, then lowered herself to the table, prompting the pair of them to do the same. "We're trying to find out what happened on the night of the Sundering. Everyone kinda wants to know, but doesn't know where to start. We have a lead. Anyone ever tell you about Nightmare Moon?"

"It was mentioned in passing. Not much detail, because what came next was a bit more dramatic."

Applebloom took a sip of her drink. "The three of us - me, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo - we were just fillies when it happened. Younger than y'all. It was the morning of the summer sun celebration. Princess Celestia..."

"I know who that is!" Key blurted. He lowered his head immediately after. Oval chuckled.

"Well good, because if you didn't, it'd be downright shameful. Princess Celestia was supposed to raise the sun, and that day was gonna be a big festival of sunlight and warmth and all that."

Sweetie Belle hugged herself. "I could go for some sunlight and warmth, I tell you."

"Can I get through this without being interrupted every ten seconds? What was I saying... Celestia. That's right. She was supposed to raise the sun as the centrepiece of the festival, but when the time came, she wasn't there. Instead this other alicorn with all night armour and this swirly dark mane came out and called herself Nightmare Moon. Said the night would last forever, and then stormed out. But there was this one lady that recognised her. I'd met her earlier that day - Twilight Sparkle." Key pouted. He was sure he'd heard that name somewhere before. "She was in town to help organise the festival. After Nightmare Moon left, my sister Applejack, and Sweetie Belle's sister Rarity, and Scootaloo's not-sister Rainbow Dash..." Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "... and a couple of other ponies from around town went with her to the library. We'd bumped into each other at this thing, so we went back to my house together for breakfast." Applebloom's narration ran out of steam, and she sighed. "And then we never saw them again. An hour later, the Sundering happened, and we grew up with my big brother and granny and some of the other Apples on the farm."

The table went quiet. Scootaloo swigged her drink. "I'm sorry," Oval said.

Applebloom shook herself and waved her off. "It was a long time ago. Don't worry about it."

"We found my parents a few years ago actually, they got through everything okay," Sweetie Belle said.

Scootaloo swallowed a couple of onion rings. "Frankly it was an improvement for me. Your whole house cooks better than 'mom' did." She gestured the quotation marks around 'mom'.

Applebloom mirrored Scootaloo's eyeroll. "But that's our lead. The last place we saw any of them was at the library. We don't know if our sisters or Nightmare Moon had anything to do with the Sundering, but it's all too much at the same time to ignore."

Key stared down his nose while he thought. "Twilight Sparkle... I know I've heard that name somewhere."

"Did she leave a diary? We know that she was staying in the library while she was here."

"No, nothing she wrote herself... in fact I don't think there's any written record of her. Maybe... I might have to ask someone older, but there was this baby dragon that used to live in the library that might have mentioned her."

All four of the older ponies perked up. Twist smiled, but then the smile fell. "I remember him! Poor little guy."

"That's right! She had a dragon with her. Little purple and green one. Spo... Spah..." Applebloom scratched her chin.

"Spike?"

"Spike! We're already getting somewhere. What happened to him?"

"I was like, five at the time, so my memory is hazy, but I think he left with some traders."

Sweetie Belle pouted. "That makes sense. He'd want to know what happened to Twilight after all."

"Pretty young to be wandering the Debris on his own."

Key tilted his head. "Debris?" Oval beat him to his own thought.

Applebloom chuckled. "I like this place. It's like nothing ever happened here."

"I'll drink to that," Twist said, holding up her drink.

Applebloom bopped her stein on Twist's, and they drank. She turned back to Key and Oval. "After a while, it didn't feel right calling what's out there Equestria anymore. Equestria was peaceful. And warm. And in one piece. What's out there ain't none of those things. Ponies started calling it the ashes of Equestria, and the pieces of Equestria, and all kinds of stuff. Eventually the name 'Debris' stuck."

Oval raised her brows. "Charming."

Scootaloo smirked. "Gotta give ponies credit for being morbidly poetic."

"We're getting distracted. Spike. We're trying to talk about Spike."

"Right. We should check the logs to see what ship he left on."

Oval frowned. "If by 'logs' you mean 'ask some of the older ponies in town if they remember what it was called'..."

"Right. Yeah."

"Vermouth will probably know, and if he doesn't, he can at least point you the right way."

Sweetie Belle smiled. "We got that impression. Nice guy. Sure wish there were more of him around."

"I didn't think moustaches were your type, Sweetie Belle. Hey, that's... why do you keep taking away my drink? Are you implying something?"

Applebloom ignored them. "Now, seeing as you've been so helpful, it's only fair if we help you out with something. S'what keeps everything moving out there."

"It's nothing, really, I mean..."

"A favour might come around when you stay in the one place, but we're shipping out in the morning, so now's your chance."

"I..." Key stalled. He tried to think of something plausible, but he might as well have been juicing a rock. "I think Hedgerow could use some help fixing his heat lamps?"

Oval rolled her eyes and leaned in. "Okay, what would you say to the idea of taking us with you?" Key's eyes widened. Then he nodded.

Applebloom tilted her head back and looked down her nose. "Now that's a tall order. There's things we've gotta think about, taking passengers, like making our supplies last with two more mouths to feed."

"Not to sound heartless, but I'd rather you had something useful you could do instead of just being dead weight. Y'know, in-keeping with this fair trading thing." The playful smirk was gone from Scootaloo's face.

"You're traders, right?" They nodded. "What do you trade?"

"Anything we can get a hold of. Food. I do repairs and handiwork. Sweetie Belle sings, and Scootaloo's fast enough to carry messages without a ship. Other than that, salvage."

"Salv-"

Oval shut Key's mouth for him. "I'm a lot like my dad. I'm good with jewellery. Appraising it, working with it, and more importantly negotiating the prices for it. I can get you better deals on things. Ever let something go for a lot less than it's worth?"

"Do you know what's valuable in the Debris?"

"Well, I kinda live in it. Growing space is at a premium, so food. Water has to come from condensers, so machines and repairs. I'd imagine magic and flying have their utility, and navigation information would be useful for anyone travelling. Ponies are always attracted to shiny things, and alcohol is a no-brainer."

The three nodded at each other. "You forgot weapons, but I'll let that slide since I doubt this place sees much violence." Key didn't ask about it. Applebloom turned to him. "And what about you?"

He looked at the table. They had magic, flying, a mechanic, and now a trader... "Who does your navigation?"

"Uhm..."

"We kinda share it, I guess? Pegasi used to have this innate sense of direction - like, I could point to north without a compass - but ever since the world exploded, that's just gone haywire. Bugs me all the time. There's some islands that actually give me headaches because the magnetics don't line up."

Sweetie Belle frowned like she was picturing the same telescope incident Key was. "We get some information every now and then, but it's hard to use. None of us are really built for numbers. That might be why it took us so long to find this place."

Key smiled. "I told you astronomy was good for navigation," he said aside, to Oval. "I mess around with star charts for fun. I should have your navigation down pat."

Applebloom pouted. "Do you know the system?"

"I can't know without seeing what you have, but I would think that a grid using pre-Sundering right ascension and declination co-ordinates would be used for directions, Polaris would be a rough celestial north, and navigation would involve keeping track of the positions and proper motion velocities of important islands relative to each other. It'd be a constant math job, but I'm kind of a huge geek, so that works out."

She held up a hoof and nodded. "He's good."

"What about you, Twist? Are you coming?"

"Hm? What?" She looked around like she hadn't been paying attention. "Oh! No, I'm not coming with you. Sounds exciting and all, but I couldn't. All that adventuring is for the young and the pretty." She smiled and nudged Key on the side. He flattened his ears and budged away from her slightly.

Scootaloo sighed. "Suit yourself. Some candy on board would have been great, but oh well."

"How long are you here for?"

"Well, as soon as we get what we're looking for, do those repairs and get some rest, we have no more business here. I don't see us staying past a couple of hours tomorrow morning."

Key's stomach tightened again, only now it was full, so it felt worse. "That's it?"

Sweetie Belle grimaced. "I mean, we could stay longer, because it is Ponyville after all..."

"We'll think about it. You should do some thinking too. We ain't coming back here soon."

Key and Oval didn't say anything else, and left shortly after.





They said nothing until they'd returned home and had settled in Key's room. The chess set remained in its box, and the books remained on the shelves. According to the clocks, it was late anyway. They looked at each other for a minute.

"Are..." Key said. Silence returned. "Are we actually going to do it?"

"I don't know. It's right there."

"You didn't think it would actually work, did you? That they would take you seriously?"

Oval smiled. "No. But hey, here we are." Key couldn't help but chuckle. He threw himself on the end of his bed, and Oval collapsed over a bean bag. "It's not every day an opportunity like this comes up, is it?" Key made a grunt of acknowledgement. "It could be anywhere from two to ten years before the next ship comes along. By then we'll have commitments. Ponies will be counting on us to be here. Right now we're old enough to be useful, but we're not tied down." He looked at her like a dog that had just heard its name. "We're that age, Key. I think it's now or never."

He stared back at the ground. He said nothing for a moment. "Already?"

"I know." They sighed almost together, Key a second earlier. "I'm not going to go without you."

"Well good, because I wasn't going to go without you, are you crazy?"

"Someone would need to take care of you, Key. You'd piss someone off without knowing it."

"You'd piss someone off for the sake of it."

"You'd lose all your stuff."

"You'd get lost."

They stared at each other, then broke down chuckling. "We're hopeless. Together we make maybe half a functioning pony."

"Kinda like those traders then?"

"Yeah, kinda."

They said nothing for a little while. Key frowned. "I suppose we should tell mom and dad."

"I think they're asleep. Lights were off, door was closed. But I think they already know."

They were quiet for a while. Then they got up and started packing. They agreed on no more than five books each, and then each picked ten. They packed the chess set and the coin. Key considered packing some lego, but decided it was silly, and he'd lose it overboard, and after what he said to Kite yesterday (however facetiously) it would be bad form to start stealing toys. Just one brick then. Oval found Dame Cuddlesworth, a teddy bear with a knight's helmet, bought just before she was born. Key dug out the Dame's old foe, Rex the Manticore, so she wouldn't be the only one bringing a stuffed toy.

Oval left to go to sleep, but returned five minutes later, saying she couldn't, and she knew Key wouldn't be sleeping anyway. They dug the chess set out and played chess variants until they fell asleep at the board.

Despite Key's best efforts to wake himself up, he didn't. Every noise or discomfort that disturbed him got him to a state of half-wakefulness, at which point he told himself, five more minutes, pulled the blankets down from his bed and fell asleep again. At some point Oval migrated back to the bean bag.

A knocking on the door stirred them enough to warrant a grunt from Key. The knocking continued, and he looked up with eyes that didn't want to open. His neck ached from sleeping on the floor. He saw Oval bat the floor and frown at the next knock.

"Key? Are you up? Is Oval in there?" Marble was at the door. He made a louder grunt, then yawned and stretched. He caught a look at the clock out of the corner of his eye. He had to backpedal and look at it again. He paled.

He shook Oval by the sides. "Oval! Oval wake up, we're late!"

Her eyes were set to glare when she opened them. "What?"

"It's nearly lunchtime, we overslept!"

"What?" She jumped to her feet. She stumbled, but she got there. Key jumped around the bag to get to the door.

He threw the door open, and Marble stood in the way. He didn't see himself getting past her before she let him. She smiled. "Relax. We convinced them to stay for lunch, take a tour. Nice girls."

Key stared. His brain wasn't fully operational yet. Oval got there first. "I told you they already knew."

"Oh." Key took a breath to calm his pulse. Marble stood out of the way so they could proceed. She was still smiling, but they were both too bleary to consider it odd. She let them go ahead.

When he pushed open the door, it was like a shaken fizzy drink exploding in his face, except with noise. "Surprise!" said a dozen voices in the front room. He stopped in the doorway with Oval looking over his shoulder, but Marble pushed them on. Jade and Jet ran up and hugged the pair of them, then pulled them over to the table.

"Shouldn't you be in school?" Without answering, they were thrown at seats. Onyx made sure a small pile of wrapped things at the end of the table didn't fall over. Twist alternated between smiling at them from the far side of the table and frowning into the kitchen. Kite had even managed to put away the mood for now. Keshi Pearl bounced in her high chair.

"Supize!" she blurted, followed by a giggle. Breathless silence followed.

Onyx blinked. "Did she just..."

Key went over to her chair and picked her up. Oval leaned in and nuzzled her. "You. Stop being so adorable," he said. She bopped him on the nose. Oval giggled, and took her back to her chair. "That's a no, then."

"What's all this about? What's going on?"

Marble came up behind the pair of them and hugged them close. "We might have our concerns about you running off to strange places with strange ponies. But we knew that nothing we could say was going to change your minds. At most it would just make you feel bad. So we thought we might as well give you the best send-off we could, by celebrating your birthdays a bit early." They looked at each other with jaws slack. Oval sniffed.

"Eighteen, yes?" came the call from the kitchen.

"That's the one," Onyx replied. He smiled at them. "No way we were going to miss it."

"They grow up so fast..." A moment later, the trolley emerged from the kitchen with a cake, a short, fat, square one, drowning in whipped cream and ready to explode with jam, and Penny Sweet behind it. Eighteen candles sat around the rim, a couple of them awkwardly angled. "Quickest cake I ever baked."

While she lifted its tray on to the table, Jade and Jet jumped on Key and Oval's backs and applied party hats to them. "Make a wish!" they shouted in unison. The elder pair looked at each other, and smiled. Without a word, they blew out the candles together.

Some applause happened, and they cut the cake. With the two of them trying to hold the same knife to pose for a picture, they put it in wildly off-centre, so dividing the cake became guesswork. A pot of tea appeared at some point, and Key and Oval had their cake with toast and juice. When they were mostly finished, Kite grabbed a small package off the pile and shoved it at Key. He blinked and looked at him. He hadn't seen Kite looking that cute since he was Keshi's age. He was a bit old for 'cute', but somehow he managed it. He inspected the parcel, and found an improvised label that said 'from Kite to Key'.

The wrapping paper almost fell off as it unfolded. Inside was a small train car. Key tilted his head. "Don't break it," Kite said. "Jet's still got to use it."

Key felt a little tightness in the back of his throat as he laughed. "C'mere you." He put the train car on the table and grabbed Kite before he could shy away. He tried to squirm free, but after a second just let him hug him.

Marble took a large, bendy package from the top of the pile. "This one's for both of you."

Oval chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Are we really doing the big show of handing out presents?"

"When are we going to get to do this again?" Key tried to unfold it carefully for a minute, but then just gave up and shredded the side. A length of green scarf spilled out. Further unwrapping revealed the other one, in mauve. They teased them out until they found they were tied together in the middle. "It's cold out there."

Oval laughed while they untied them. "I feel like you're going a bit overboard with the symbolism."

"Psh. Nonsense." Onyx slid a tall one from the back of the pile over to them. "This one's from Vermouth."

"Don't tell me you got everyone in the village in on this..." Key went to pick it up, but it was heavy, so they started unwrapping it on the table.

"Not everyone." The paper came off neatly to reveal a vintage bottle of Sweet Apple Acres apple brandy, bottled eighteen years ago. "That one's not to be opened until you turn eighteen proper."

"Of course!"

Oval got her own hand lens, that Onyx had been working on for a month or so, and some other carving tools. They got a half-finished chess set that he had been carving from two different kinds of quartz, on the understanding that Oval would be able to finish it in their downtime. Twist gave them some rock candy that she assured them would last forever. They each got a small bag of old Equestrian money - thirty-five bits in coin. It hadn't been used in the village for years, but they had a hunch that someone out there was still using it. At the bottom of the pile was a small parcel, about a hoof-width and a half long. The tightly-wrapped paper showed off sharp angles, pointed ends, a tubular, hexagonal shape.

It was a crystal, slightly rough and irregular, but with facets polished to a shine. When Key picked it up to give it a closer look, it gave a soft glow where he touched it. He sandwiched it between two hooves, and the whole thing lit up softly. "Neat, uh..."

"Onyx made two of them when we were... we weren't much older than you, and we'd just started going out." Marble leaned over her husband's side. "No matter how far apart they are, when one is being held, the other lights up." Onyx pulled the crystal's twin out from hiding to demonstrate. Key and Oval cooed. "And when both are being held at the same time, it lights up even brighter." He held it between his hooves like Key was, and both of them shone bright enough to compete with the fireplace. Marble sniffed. "So no matter where you are, you'll always know when we're thinking about you, and you can let us know that you're okay."

The tightness came back to the back of Key's throat. He hid his blush and grin with a hoof. Oval's eyes misted. "Wow, I..."

Onyx put the crystal to one side, and the light dimmed. He opened his forelegs out, and without any other prompt, both Key and Oval piled into him hard enough to wind him. Marble chuckled, and slumped over him to complete the group hug. "Look out for each other, okay?"

"We will." They heard a few 'awws' from around the room, and Kite pretending to vomit.

Onyx set his hoof on the table, and the bang was like a drum. Everyone got off him, and he stood up. He looked at the clock and smiled. "Right. It's just about twelve, so I believe the Fallen Arch should be opening around now. I'm going for a refresher, what do you two say?"

"Just one or two, maybe?" Key had wanted to say that for ages.

On the advice that cake and stout don't mix, they stayed for another round of cake and some more pictures before the three of them left. Some far-off clouds had cleared overhead, letting a few shards light up the village bright enough that there wasn't a need for lanterns. They remained lit, as per lights-on convention. The shutters were open on the Fallen Arch, letting the outside light spill in and mix with the torch and lantern light. There was only Vermouth there, double-checking that the tables and bar and taps were clean. His moustache bristled with a smile when they arrived.

Onyx pursed his lips as he leaned over the bar, taking entirely too long to think about what he was getting. Key and Oval came up to the bar to his left. They smiled sheepishly. It made no sense to be nervous. Vermouth was like an uncle to them, and they came in here all the time. Though, getting a dandelion and burdock and some chips wasn't exactly a rite of passage. "One, uh... three pints of Old Misty Mountain, if you please."

"Coming right up!" Three large glass steins appeared on the counter, spinning as they went. No magic was involved, but you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. One by one, they passed under the pulled tap as if on a conveyor belt, filling to a bulge in the glass two-thirds the way up with black liquid that fizzed gold. Both of them went to take the glass, but Onyx stopped them before they could reach them.

"Ah! It's only half poured." Key blushed.

Vermouth laughed. "Used to be that I'd save handsome money on ponies taking those things away before I was done with 'em. Tourists and kids. There's only one way to really pour a stout. Give it time, and it'll settle..." He lowered his head to the level of the bar, and they watched. The bubbles ran both up and down, though more up as the head thinned. The head started to pop as bubbles lost tension and let their contents go. "Hear that? It tells you when it's ready. Only then do you fill it." Again with mechanical smoothness, he cycled the glasses under the tap one after the other, filling them until the froth bulged on top, and slid them down the bar without spilling a drop. The glasses still left wet trails from condensation. "Now, take the glass. Elbow up. Eyes on the horizon, and slow sips."

The bar was silent for a full fifteen seconds while they took the first drink. Key came away frowning. "Tastes faintly of soil."

Oval snorted and almost splashed her drink while she wiped her mouth. "Key!"

Vermouth just laughed heartily. "Ain't called Old Misty Mountain for nothing. But it'll grow on you. It's a good, solid, earth pony drink."

"Why, what do... not... earth ponies drink?"

"Well then!" He clapped his two front hooves together. Everyone at the bar got comfortable. "Earth ponies usually - or at least, historically - like their ales, and their stouts, sometimes a weissbier... heavy, earthy drinks. Liquid bread. Drinks that are a meal by themselves. They're less about the taste and more about coming in from the fields and sitting around a fire with your friends and unwinding, and getting your dinner all in one go. We ain't got much left in the way of fields, but it's a tradition alive and well as you can plainly see every night here."

"I'll drink to that." Onyx raised his glass, and they brought them together in the air, then drank. Oval winced as it went down.

"Unicorns like expensive things that burn as they go down. What unicorns drink is about class - in the old days they wouldn't be seen dead drinking beer. The hills around Canterlot used to be all vineyards, and Ponyville made a pretty penny from selling whiskey and spirits."

"Like the brandy!"

"Exactly. That doesn't mean you won't like it - I wouldn't have kept it for you if I didn't think you would - it just would have fetched twice the price in Canterlot. Of course, that still had to compete with their local stuff, like schnapps with gold leaf in it." Onyx shuddered. "Your father don't like it when I mention the stuff."

"Tragic waste of gold. Tragic, I tell you."

"And pegasi drink for the sensations. They like anything light, or sweet, or strong, or all three. Lagers, cider, vodka... they even like those really sweet, cheap white wines that nobody else would use for anything but cooking. And rum. Cloudsdale used to love their rum. Far as I know, it still works! If you ever need a favour from a pegasus, find them some rum."

Oval nodded. "I'll remember that one."

Vermouth glanced at a clock at the back of the bar. "I'm just gonna check on the kitchen real quick and I'll be back out, hear?" They nodded, Key from behind another sip. He was right, it was growing on him, and it was filling, too.

There was a thud as Onyx buried his face in a foreleg on the bar. Oval stopped mid-swig to look, and Key leaned over the bar to look around her. Onyx sat up again, straight-faced for a second, then his face pulled back and he shuddered. Key thought he was laughing, and went to do the same, but stopped, because he wasn't. He tried to hold it back twice more, but by then a tear was rolling down his cheek, and he gave up. He sniffed deeply and then wept into his leg on the bar. Oval put a foreleg around him, and Key, too far away to do anything, just looked at the floor, hoping his attempt to laugh while Onyx cried went unseen.

Once the worst of it was out, he was able to choke out words. "I'm gonna miss this." He sniffed again. "It's all just caught up with me. I didn't think it would be so soon." They said nothing for a moment. Oval opened her mouth to say something a few times, but words didn't come. Key didn't know where to start. "Don't... don't pay me any mind. I'm sorry. It's your day."

Oval pulled him closer. "We won't be gone forever. Key navigates. We'll find our way back in a couple of months, at most. It's not like we won't miss home, eh?"

"I know, it's just..." He sniffed again, and took a big sip of his drink. Some spilled around the side of his mouth. "Empty rooms... empty table places... excuse me." Onyx pushed himself away from the bar and ran for the toilets. He passed Vermouth on the way. Vermouth stood looking at the swinging door for a moment.

"What happened?"

Oval took a deep breath. "Emotions got the best of him."

He nodded. "I don't blame him. I don't think there's been a day we've been on this rock that he hasn't had you two to light up his day." The bar was silent again as Vermouth cleared up some of the spilled stout, and set a coaster on top of the glass. "Now listen. Your dad ain't in the shape to give you any good advice right now, but I can't let you go without some." They nodded and leaned closer. "The ponies you're going with are old Ponyvillians. I knew their families. Heck, the Apples made that brandy I left you. Finest ponies you'll ever meet - if Applebloom says you can trust someone, I wouldn't doubt her. I can't think of a better flag for y'all to sail under. But not everyone out there is so kind. They've seen some pretty awful things out there. It's a mean old sky full of ponies doing anything they have to to survive. The crusaders are the best of friends, so stay on their good side and don't lose track of 'em, and you might make it back here in one piece."

Key and Oval nodded gravely, and let it sink in for a moment. Oval took a sip of her drink, while Key looked up with an arched brow. "Crusaders?"

Vermouth broke into a smile. "If you ask nicely they'll tell you why they're called that themselves."

Another sniffle alerted them to Onyx making his way back to the bar. Oval hugged him as he sat down, and Key came around the other side and did the same. They chatted between themselves and with Vermouth over the rest of their drinks, and another round besides. They talked about alcohol, and then farms, and then the Everfree Forest. Spotting his father nearly breaking down again, Key strategically diverted the conversation to zebras, which none of them had ever seen personally, bar Onyx's one encounter with the one that lived in the forest before it broke away. Near the end of the second around, other villagers were starting to arrive for lunch. They said their goodbyes (though Vermouth said he'd be there to see them off) and left.

They returned home to pack their birthday presents, and repack the chess set that was still out from before they slept. They had to find a third bag to fit the unexpected windfall. Key tried to give the train car to Jet, but Jet insisted Key keep it with him. He suspected that Kite and Jet colluding on a symbolic gesture was a bit ahead of their years, but he didn't investigate, because it would ruin it. Oval spent some time teaching Jade how to braid on Keshi. All involved were surprised at how patient she was, though Key keeping her distracted as an excuse to spend time with them may have had something to do with it. Twist called around with a morse code book she'd found in the library while thinking about the paired crystals, and Key somehow found the time to transcribe a reference sheet to take with him. Nobody thought it would work very well because none of them were trained telegraphers, but it couldn't hurt. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle called around to say that they were ready to leave at any time, though fixing the heat lamps had taken longer than expected. They were press ganged into tea, birthday cake and interrogation by Marble while Key and Oval finished packing.

Key felt sick when Applebloom announced that as lovely as this place was, they couldn't hold on any longer. They'd come back to visit soon, but there was no point dragging this out any longer. Everyone weakly agreed, and they left. The whole family came to the wharf, and a few other villagers besides. Jade and Jet rode piggyback on them on the way there, using their scarves as reins. Scootaloo carried their bags on, and took extra care when they told her one of the bags had brandy in it. They'd have done it themselves, but the twins wouldn't let them go yet - not until they'd hugged both of them eighteen times. Key and Oval looked at Marble, and she looked at the sky and whistled. As expected, Vermouth showed up, and went to shake hooves, but they hugged him anyway. He didn't complain.

They told Keshi to grow up big and strong, and she bounced and giggled. They told Jade and Jet to look after each other, and told Kite to be a big stallion for everyone. Last, they looked at Onyx and Marble and said nothing for a few moments. Applebloom checked the ship's clock. "Stick the kettle on, we won't be long," Key said. A murmur of laughter came from the small crowd around them. After one last hug, into which Marble inserted a kiss on each of their heads, they turned and climbed on board. The boards creaked as Key landed on them. Scootaloo gave him a look that said 'careful', and then flew up to the big pole to start untying the ship.

As the ship started to drift away from the wharf, they leaned over the side and waved. Everyone on the wharf waved with them, and so did everyone behind them, and as the ship rose to be visible from the whole village, so did everyone behind them. The drift of the ship's angle relative to that of the island made them lurch and cling to the railing. Applebloom came down from the steering wheel to join them. They saw Onyx bury his face in Marble's neck, still trying to wave. Vermouth patted him on the shoulder, and Marble leaned back into him.

"You've got a heck of a family, you two," Applebloom said.

"Yeah?" Key's nose felt wet, and Oval had wrapped her scarf around her face, so only her damp eyes showed.

"Sure. And I know a thing or two about family."