Three weeks on a boat, there’s a limit to how enjoyable something like that can be, but with that in mind I’d say we did pretty well overall. The trip was peaceful enough, no krakens trying to drag our ship to the ocean depths or actual sirens trying to bewitch the sailors. It was quite simply three weeks of getting up and trying to find new ways of occupying myself until the sun went down and I had an excuse to go to sleep before the next morning when I would have to do it all over again.
No surprise, the supplies my mother gave me barely lasted two days, although I had shared them with Lyra. I couldn’t bring myself to eat them in front of her and not offer her some. After that I had to make do with the food we were served in the galley, some weird porridge thing, it was surprisingly okay once I got used to it. I spent most of my time in the cabin with Lyra, we’d chat or I’d sketch designs into my notebook while she played her lyre.
I did enjoy spending time on deck, looking out over the ocean and breathing in the fresh sea air, although I was always conscious that I might be getting in the way of the crew. Indeed, while the passengers couldn’t be expected to help with the mechanics of running and maintaining the ship, the crew would sometimes subtly suggest that we lend a hoof in keeping the ship scrubbed down. Some of my fellow passengers were aghast at the idea of being made to do menial labour, and while the crew weren’t about to force us to do anything, I did notice those ponies got slightly smaller portions of gruel than the rest of us who did agree to help.
I ended up getting on good terms with most of the crew, along with some of the other passengers who were continually offering to help. Feather Duster especially made time to come and chat with me, I got the impression he had developed a little crush on me, but I was eager to keep our relationship purely platonic. During my stay in Canterlot, Fancy Pants and I briefly dated; it was a lovely few months that ultimately ended quite badly for us both. We called the whole thing off and managed to salvage our friendship, and while I don’t regret having that time with him, I did give the notion of romantic relationships a wide berth for quite some time after.
Not to say that the trip was entirely uneventful, I recall three events in particular that stood out. The first was only a few days after we had initially set sail. I was in my room with Lyra and we were talking about the things we had brought with us.
“I actually didn’t manage to recover very much before I fled,” Lyra explained. “I gathered up my money and my lyre then made straight for Mule. Everything else I left in my house, I only hope it hasn’t been stolen while I was gone.”
“I doubt the citizens of Arclight would have descended into raiding and pillaging,” I assured her, chuckling at the idea. “But why your lyre? Is there something special about it?”
“Not really,” Lyra admitted, looking over her instrument. “It’s no family heirloom or anything; it’s just something I picked up in a marketplace for ten bits when I was a kid. But I got my cutie mark playing it, and I played it pretty much every day since. It probably has no monetary value, but it’s important to me, like it’s a part of me you know?”
“That’s actually really nice,” I admitted, smiling at her. “I’m the exact opposite really. We lived just twenty minutes from the harbour, so we were able to pack quite a few things. Clothes and food mainly, mother wanted to take all the family photos with her but my father wouldn’t allow it, told her we could take plenty more photos when we got to Equestria.”
We both shared a laugh at that.
“So besides the clothes on my back,” I continued. “I have couple other outfits in my suitcase down in the hold as well as a few books, drawing equipment and stuff for writing letters.”
“What about those bags?” Lyra asked, gesturing to my pair of leather satchels currently resting on the desk. “Besides the food that is.”
“Well the other one has my money,” I explained. “As well as a few basic survival things: a map, matchbox, canteen, pocket knife. You know, the usual stuff.”
“Are you expecting to do much camping?” Lyra asked with a little smirk.
“It was my father’s idea,” I retorted. “He always insists on being prepared for anything. Speaking of which, he gave me these before I left.”
Reaching around my neck I removed the two leather pouches, opening the cylindrical one first.
“A telescope?” Lyra queried as I held it out with my magic.
“Spyglass,” I corrected. “This actually is a family heirloom, along with the compass…”
At that point I reached out with my magic and opened the other pouch allowing the compass to drop out onto my bedspread beside me, but I had forgotten about the package tucked in alongside it which also dropped down beside it.
“It’s a very nice compass,” Lyra said approvingly. “But what’s the other thing?”
I didn’t respond to her however, as I was lost staring at the package, remembering the mysterious circumstances around Sweetie Belle giving it to me.
“Rarity?” Lyra said in confusion.
“Hmm? What?” I said, snapping back to reality.
“What’s that package?” she asked again.
“Oh that?” I muttered, feigning disinterest as I threw it into my satchel out of sight. “Nothing important.”
“Um, Okay,” Lyra said slowly, clearly put off by my change in demeanour. “Well they are very nice items, I’m sure your dad was very fond of them.”
“He was,” I agreed, although my voice was distant as I thought about the package once more.
It wasn’t until much later that evening when I could hear Lyra snoring that I retrieved the package once more. Once I was lying down in bed I held it over me with magic as I unwrapped it carefully, as I folded back the paper a shimmering light emerged from the dull brown wrapping. A small stone lay inside the package, about the shape and size of a raisin, but pulsating with an unnatural, ethereal light. When I was finally able to tear my eyes from it I noticed that a note had been tightly folded in alongside it.
Unfolding it I found that it had been written as hastily as the package had been wrapped, the letters small and cramped to fit the whole message onto the piece of paper that could have been a sweet wrapper for all its size. It read ‘I have seen something in you; I feel you may have need of this one day. Keep it close, it only works once, and yet I pray you will not require it’. A most mysterious package delivered in mysterious means, with even more mysterious contents. While I had no idea what the message meant or what the stone could have possibly been, I felt like I should heed it and keep it close.
Not that I would have separated myself from such a dazzling object anyway. That was the first noteworthy event, one that wouldn’t make sense for some time, the next event worth mentioning didn’t occur until near the end of the second week aboard The Siren. I was helping to scrub the floors of the orlop along with another passenger I only really knew in passing. She was apparently a nurse by the name of Redheart, lived in Timber. We were getting on with our chores, minding our own business when a pair of crew members marched up to us and asked Redheart if she could follow them a moment.
Maybe it was something about the way they said it, but the request really rubbed me the wrong way, so after she obliged and was led out of sight, I put my sponge down and crept after them. I saw them escorting her down into the hold where our luggage was being kept, and that was as far as I dared follow them. At the time I assumed there was just something wrong with her possessions, it wasn’t until much later that I would reflect on the remainder of our voyage and realise that I never saw her on the ship again after that.
The last event that would be important later down the line occurred only a day before we caught sight of the coast of Panchea. I was up on the deck, enjoying what would be my last full day on the open sea when I heard the most unexpected noise, the cawing of a bird. Surely we weren’t yet close enough for the gulls, and indeed we wouldn’t see any of those until the next day. No, when I turned to face the source of the noise I saw a bird, just not the bird I had assumed.
It was a crow, bigger than any I had ever seen before, its feathers jet black and its steely grey legs gripping into the forecastle railing like a set of knives, and it was perched only a few metres from myself, staring directly at me. I stared back it for what felt like a long time, its gaze disturbed me, like I was staring right through its eyes to another place far away. I was torn between stepping closer and running away, but before I could make up my mind Feather Duster called my name, causing the crow to swoop away.
I asked Feather Duster about it but he appeared to have no clue what I was talking about. When I tried to point it out in the sky I discovered that it had completely disappeared from view in a matter of seconds. Fearing that Feather Duster might think I was crazy, I took him over to the forecastle and showed him where the crow had dug in its claws. Thankfully he did see that, but was completely bewildered as to what could have done it since he insisted that he hadn’t seen any crow.
The crow bothered me all night, I’m not a superstitious mare, but a small part of me feared it was some kind of dark omen. I suppose it was lucky it occurred so close to us reaching land, as the next morning I was able to forget it in favour of catching our first sights of the Dawn Coast and the Wyvern Heights in the background. Everypony gathered on the deck to see Panchea as we drew close, even Lyra who hadn’t strayed above deck for the whole trip.
“There it is,” she said in awe as we both gazed out. “To think after two years we’re finally home.”
“It is quite the feeling,” I agreed. “But don’t celebrate just yet; we still have half the country to trek across before we reach our actual homes.”
“Way to be a downer Rarity,” Lyra responded with a deadpan expression before we burst out into laughter.
“I hope you ladies enjoyed your stay on the Siren,” Feather Duster said from behind us.
“It’s been lovely, thank you,” I said sincerely.
“Yeah, lovely,” Lyra concurred, a little less sincere as she had just glanced over board and was now turning even greener.
Smirking I looked back towards the bow and the town of Daybreak Landing in the distance. My homeland was finally in sight, and I couldn’t have been more prepared to set foot on dry land. I only wish I could have been more prepared for all the stuff that would come after…