Looking out the round window, Tarnished Teapot tried to see the devastation below. From up here, all he could see was grey. He sighed, turned his head, and looked over at Maud, who was laying on a pile of cushions with her sisters. Pinny, his mother, and Cloudy Quartz were sitting together at a small table, drinking tea, and talking in hushed voices. Igneous was sitting in a large overstuffed chair, his hat beside him on a small decorated table, reading a newspaper.
They were all together in a large, plush stateroom aboard a zeppelin airship, heading home, paid for by Twilight Sparkle. The trains, while still running, were now a mess, the volcanic explosion had messed up everything. Not long after Maud had awoke, she had been given a clean bill of health and was released. Now they were heading home and Pinkie Pie kept saying that there was a surprise waiting for them, but would not say what. It had to be something special though, because Pinkie Pie was about to burst.
“Bah, there doesn’t need to be an inquiry into environmental impacts!” Igneous shook his paper, frustrated, and his reading glasses almost fell off the end of his nose. “Any earth pony worth his dirt could tell you that you can’t mess with the balance of things. I know for certain that some earth pony tried to tell them that burning down that forest to get rid of the poison joke was a bad idea.”
“Igneous, dear, do try to calm down,” Cloudy said to her husband.
“No!” Igneous replied, his eyebrows furrowing and his forehead crinkling.
Cloudy rolled her eyes, shook her head, and allowed her husband to be grumpy.
“I almost lost a daughter and a son because of this! And future grandfoals, Cloudy, I have half a mind to write a strongly worded letter,” Igneous said as he rumpled his paper into a wadded ball and tossed it into the trash can sitting in the corner.
“Why is it that important changes never happen until after something bad happens?” Marble asked, speaking in a very soft and quiet voice, which contrasted with her father’s angry bluster.
“Because, most ponies are content to sit in the same spot forever until you light a fire under their backside, Marble, that’s why,” Igneous replied as he looked at his daughters, all of whom were piled together.
“I feel bad for Tarnish, he’s in the middle of all of this.” Limestone shook her head, looking upset and sad, her eyes were bloodshot from crying earlier. “I can’t believe that some ponies are trying to claim that he caused this to happen.”
“Limestone, some ponies just look for somepony to blame when something bad happens… Tarnish is one of those ponies that makes blame easy because of his magic. Ponies fear what they don’t understand.” Maud’s voice was flat, as always, and she looked at Tarnish as she spoke.
“It doesn’t help that the newspaper called Tarnish the most dangerous unicorn alive,” Limestone grumbled, her ears pinning back against her skull as she looked over at Tarnish, “as if… he’s harmless… I bet that Tarnish wouldn’t even have this talent of his if ponies had just left poison joke alone.”
Sitting in his chair, Tarnish thought about saying something, the idea that he was born and that he existed as a consequence to irresponsible action hung heavy in his mind. However, he couldn’t find the right words to say, so he remained silent. Ponies existing as a consequence. What did that say about Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship? Tarnish found the idea troubling, but he could not deny that he was a force of nature. He had no control over the new aspect of his talent, which caused poison joke to spontaneously grow all around him when he was surrounded by hostile magic. No amount of his special tea could fix that. He shivered, thinking about what he had read in the paper, the demands that he be locked up for the safety of all. The whole thing had left him nervous; at least Twilight had given him her assurance that nothing like that would ever be allowed to happen. Her final instructions had been to go home and await further instructions.
“So how does it feel being more famous than Daring Do?” Pinkie Pie asked her sister as she slipped her foreleg around Maud’s neck and gave her sister a wink.
“Daring Do is an archaeologist. I’m a geologist. There is really no comparison,” Maud replied in a somewhat scratchy deadpan.
“But you’re both famous adventurers now. That means that other ponies will want to be you… isn’t that exciting?” Pinkie Pie leaned in and rubbed her cheek against Maud’s cheek as she hugged her sister.
“Yes… exciting… if ponies wanted to be like us, all they would have to do is run away from a deadly volcano as it was exploding, filling the air with poisonous fumes, ash, and microscopic particles of pumice that turn to glass in the lungs and the stomach. They would also need to go blind and almost die. That sounds like fun—”
“Maud, that was only a teensy weensy part of your adventure, there were plenty of good times for you and Tarnish on the road,” Pinkie Pie insisted, cutting her sister off. “You sound almost as grumpy as Daddy.”
Maud’s ears drooped, a rare outward sign of emotion. She blinked, her eyelids moving in a slow manner, and then Maud sighed. “You are right, Pinkie… there were lots of good times. I wish that everypony knew the happiness that Tarnish and I have.”
“I can’t believe you plan to set back out on the road again so soon,” Pinny said as she set down her teacup. “Why can’t you just stay at home? Be homebodies. Settle in. Do what married ponies do… after everything that’s happened, maybe it is time to rethink your lives a little—”
“Mom, please,” Tarnish said, trying to cut his mother off in a gentle way, “that is not the sort of ponies Maud and I are. We’re at our best when we’re out traveling.”
“You are only saying that because that is currently all you know, Tarnish. You haven’t tried settling in at home and seeing what happens. You might be pleasantly surprised, you might be happy, you might be—”
“Mother, no,” Tarnish said, shaking his head. He felt a tightness in his barrel when he realised that his mother might start crying. He couldn’t bear watching her cry. “There are changes to be made, there is a world to be seen, and there is much to do. And that isn’t going to happen if Maud and I stay at home. The proverbial fire has been lit under my backside and I am no longer content to sit in one place and allow life to just happen.”
“You see that? That right there? Is everypony seeing that? That is why I married that pony.” Maud looked around the room, meeting each eye in turn. “I suppose it takes a geologist to spot a diamond in the rough. It took a bit of cutting, some grinding, and a bit of buffing, but look at how he shines. A diamond is only pretty if you rough them up.”
“Thank you, Maud.” Tarnish gave his wife an embarrassed grin.
“Don’t mention it,” Maud replied.
“I think I’m ready to go on my next adventure… I’m hungry. I am going to go and check out the cafeteria and find out what is being served for lunch.” Tarnish slipped out of his chair, shook himself, gave himself an extra shake to fling his mane backwards, and then headed for the door, saying nothing else.
“Lunch sounds good.” Maud rose from the pony pile, Pinkie Pie still clinging to her neck. “I’m starving. Let’s go.”
“I’m going,” Limestone said as she rose from the cushions and almost stepped on her sister Marble. “Sorry.”
Shoving Limestone aside, Marble rose, scowling, having almost been stepped on. “You clumsy numbskull.”
“I wonder if they have cake? I’m in the mood for cake!” Pinkie Pie bounced, pronking in place, all while licking her lips. “Cake sounds really good and I bet they have fancy cake on this fancy airship. Let’s go have an adventure!”
“All of you go and have a nice time. I think I’ll stay here.” Cloudy looked at her fillies and at Tarnish, her expression both sad and happy at the same time. “I’m not in the mood to deal with crowds at the moment. If I get hungry I’ll use the intercom to get room service. Never in my life would I have thought I’d be ordering room service.”
“It’s almost too fancy,” Igneous grumbled. “If a pony wants a bite to eat they should just go and get it… but I suppose when one is traveling that room service might be nice.”
“We should call in a nice lunch for the three of us while they have a nice time out and about,” Pinny said, making a suggestion, and smiling at Cloudy. “We can talk about how our foals have grown up and how nice it would be to have grandfoals—”
“It is time to go!” Tarnish cried, making a break for the door. He yanked it open with his magic, wasting no time, and made good his escape, the Pie sisters following along behind him, three of them laughing, and one of them not laughing, her stony expression unchanging.
“That nice lunch I had… it’s gonna come up,” Marble said as she stood, her knees knocking, looking downward at the floor.
The floor she stood on was a thick, reinforced pane of glass, allowing a view of everything below, which happened be grey, ugly clouds. The sky lounge, as it was called, only had a few ponies. The zeppelin was nowhere near full to capacity, as Tarnish thought it would be. As it turned out, very few ponies were flying from Las Pegasus to Fillydelphia on this trip. The cafeteria had almost been deserted, with ponies staying in their staterooms or hanging out in the bar.
“It’s not so bad,” Limestone said as she peered downwards. “The glass is sturdy, but it does feel weird walking on it.” Limestone raised her head, blinked, and then looked at Pinkie Pie. “I’ve never had rice pilaf before. There was some weird food in the cafeteria.”
“Is the magic bad up here?” Marble asked.
“No,” Tarnish replied, “if it was, believe me, I’d know. Twilight Sparkle flew over us to drop Spike in and she was fine. We’ll be fine too.” He stared downwards, through the glass, hoping that the clouds would part and he’d be able to see the area below with a bird’s eye view. More than anything, he wanted to see what he and Maud had traveled through, what they had endured together, he wanted to see what he had survived. Tarnish felt more grown up now; he had taken the worst that life could throw at him and he had survived. He was a capable, hardy survivor, and this made him happy. He wished the clouds would part, even for just a moment to give him a peek, but no glimpse seemed forthcoming.
He saw a bright flash of light within the clouds, the dark grey clouds illuminated as lightning arced inside of them, and Tarnish thought it was beautiful. It wasn’t quite the starry nights that he so loved, but it was beautiful nonetheless. Beside him, he heard Marble gasp. Looking up, he saw that she too, was entranced by the beauty below, and her fear about standing on the glass was now forgotten.
“You know, it’s funny… in just a day or two, we’ll be home. We spent weeks crossing Equestria, all those hard days of hard work just to keep the wagon going, slogging through the mud, pulling it up hills… weeks… and we’ll be home in a day or two depending on the wind. It all feels so funny,” Tarnish said, thinking out loud. “I bet most of these ponies in this airship never once give thought to how difficult it is to make it from one side of Equestria to the other. They just go about their lives, living day to day, and if they need to travel, they take a train or an airship and they get to where they’re going in a day or four.”
Tarnish sighed and then continued, “On the road, I learned a lot. I think I have some appreciation for that pony that I met, Longhaul. We live in a wonderful age and we take a lot for granted. We can go anywhere at any time, with no fuss or real hassle, but I bet a lot of ponies still complain. I think about our founders… they had to go a long ways. I think about the ponies that settled Equestria, pushing for the horizon, having to deal with a hostile land, pony eating monsters, and I think about how brave they must have been to pull wagons or carts behind them through a land where roads didn’t even exist yet. Even with all of the bad stuff, there is a lot more good stuff. I like hoofin’ it towards that distant horizon, wanting to see what lies over the next rise, what is over the next hill, what can be seen in the next gully. I like the feeling of finding a stream and the feeling of relief that you can get to go for a nice swim after a long day of dusty hard work.”
“Just keep walking until you run into an ocean,” Maud said as she moved closer to Tarnish.
Tarnish grinned and bumped into Maud, brushing up against her. “You know Maud, if we bought an airship, the ocean wouldn’t stop us, we could keep going…”