Sailing the solar wind.

by JadeCriminal

Ponyville Tea party II

"It was tea time in Ponyville and the six most powerful mortals currently alive gathered inside a nature born fort of knowledge to discuss the very future of the world with their sovereign. The meeting of minds could and would shake the very corners of the universe with it's magnitude. They sit before their beloved creator and one of them poses a most crucial of questions as the universe pauses in anticipation: One lump or two?" Pinkie Pie asks the white alicorn guest, holding up the sugar bowl.

The princess smiles at the pink mare as the rest of the mares groan and chuckle. "I believe I shall have three." She answers levitating her cup closer to the Pink Mare.

"Ooh! Good answer your Princessliness!" The enthusiastic mare say and then continues serving tea. "And thus Equestria is safe from Shugarocalipse once more!"

Applejack wipes a tear from her eye. "Pinkie Pie you are a hoot! Six most powerful mares in the world. Really!"

"We have some influence darling but I must say you do make this meeting sound ominous." Rarity pronounces as she flicks her mane to the side, lounging gracefully on her side.

"Well, technically, she's right. Remember that experimental thaumic Sensor Spell I was testing two weeks ago? Each and every one of us is in the 99th percentile." Twilight looks at her pink friend thoughtfully.

"Hold on! Are you saying I'm more magic then 99 percent of Pegasi out there? Boyah!" Rainbow exclaims and does a little loop de loop in the air above the table.

"Surely darling you cannot be serious? I am good but last time I checked I was pretty average. I admit that was six years ago but most unicorns don't gain that much power after puberty. I certainly haven't been levitating any Ursa." She laughs politely her eyes shining with mirth.

"Actually Dash, I used the absolute scale, not race specific." The purple scholar corrected. "As for our development i suspect...."

"Now hold on a second Twilight. Ah actually know about this from helping Applebloom with her homework and Earth ponies don't pool our magic inside ourselves like that." Applejack smirked and adjusted her hat smugly. "So you can't measure earth pony magic like that."

"Which is why I snuck in under an invisibility spell and measured while you were Applebucking." Twilight proclaims smugly. "You most certainly channel a lot of magic when you get all sweaty. Now as to wh..."

"Who cares how you proved it. Science just proved what I knew all along. We. Are. Awesome!" Rainbow interrupts, preening proudly and landing next to Pinkie Pie who was ready to return a hoof bump.

The group look at each other in silence for a long moment. Applejacks readjusts her hat nervously. Rarity's eyes glaze over like she is far, far away. Pinkie pie is eating her cake humming cheerfully to herself and observing the Pincess. Fluttershy had an exaggerated look of surprise that would have fooled no pony if they were actually looking at her..

Celestie smiled gently at her friends.

"Ok Princess, I've seen you practice the-smile-of-omnipotent-knowledge in the mirror plenty of times and it only works on people who didn't see you slip an a bar of soap and dive face first into the Royal Jacuzzi." Twilight prodded with a fond smile

"Fine, ruin my fun won't you. Bad Student." Celestia chided, gently tapping the purple student on the top of the head with her hoof

"That's Doctor Bad Student your highness, I have a triple PHD you know." Twilight said haughtily before her eyes softened. "But I'll always be your student."

A cough interrupted their exchange the princess and they snapped back from whatever world they floated off to.

"This is all kind of fun y'all but I reckon we all came here for a reason." Applejack said plainly and the rest of the mares nodded.

Celestia sighed and let her playful manner wash away. Suddenly before them stood The Unconquered Sun.

"Very well. I shall speak plainly. It is the time to do so. Equestria is a great place and I am proud of what all my little ponies achieved. What I am going to tell you now is not widely known. Some of you are probably more aware then most that I made the world-sphere of Equestria when I was a filly, I was young, made some mistakes. Equestria is a bit flawed in some aspects." She paused and sipped her tea taking in the reactions of her favorite mortals.

Twilight stared at her with her mouth opened for a moment and then got that intense, thoughtful, look in her eye. Wheels inside her head spinning into overdrive.

The girls displayed a varying amount of confusion at this confession except Fluttershy was the only one who took this confession in stride.

"Nature." The yellow, shy pegasus spoke. "We have to maintain it ourselves."

"The Periodic table. The missing elements we have to synthesize at great expense. You forgot to put them in." Twilight added frowning slightly at Fluttershy. What was she getting at.

"Yes. We have found ways around almost every difficulty except the scarcity of some resources such as copper and germareium. Alchemical synthesis is still too expensive. Imagine if you could buy a pound of copper for a steel bit or two. Or maybe even gold."

"We'd have telegraph in every town in stead just for diplomatic use?" Twilight snorted at the absurd thought of copper wiring. Gold wires were expensive enough.

"Correct. While my little ponies have accomplished much, my sister and I have realized that a significant part of equestrian science has remained mostly academic due to the need for exorbitant transmuting of materials. The main reason I've switched the guard to the even more expensive adamantine alloys seventy years ago is that we simply did not have the iron needed to finish the railway system and supply the guard. Luckily I had been making a stockpile of adamant out of the spare Mythral and electrum in the royal treasury in my spare time."

Twiligh's eyes grew wide. She thought the secret of transmuting adamant out of gold, silver and mythral was a myth. She opened her mouth to ask and then hesitated. No. They shouldn't get sidetracked.

"You... you want us to go beyond the world sphere?" Twlight asked hesitantly, "How come I never learned that it was even possible?"

The rest of the mares also leaned a bit closer, curious about this topic. None had ever heard that there were things outside of the world.

"Twilight, you are my favorite, most precious student. And your studies are vast and diverse. But even you can only cover so much. Ladies, let me tell you about the eternal sea, Primordium." For a moment the princess gaze was cast far, far away as she recalled the distant past and her voice took on an ethereal, larger then life quality.

"Imagine an endless sky all around you, dotted with countless stars. There is no up or down, only the endless sea of stars. And each star is a universe unto itself that you could sale to. The analogy is the closest lie we can tell ourselves to comprehend the vastness of Primordium. Sailing throught the space between universes is an experience i can only try to describe. But how does one describe it's winds of pure joy and the corrosive storms that prey on the unwary. Primordium is potential incarnate, a wonder and danger unlike any other and from which all else is born. I only traveled it once, as a filly as I fled a war and strife unlike any Equestria has seen. I guess I should start there, on the shores of Everfree. Uncle Io had just lost his eye while getting unborn Luna into a crystal chamber that would keep her safe until she could be born. My retainers struggled to keep us hidden as we made our way to an old pleasure yacht my aunty rarely used...."

The girls listened in awe to the tale of the creation of Equestria as the day turned to night. And as they listened they realized that the princess was sharing something very personal with them, even though she didn't have to. Time passed as they gained a personal view of their princes and the nature of the universe. Gradually the conversation turned on how they could make the journey through the stars.

***

The Solar Wind is a pinnacle of magical engineering crafted by the finest minds of Equestria. Her appearance is that of a large, classically rigged if ornately decorated sailing vessel is deceptively fragile. Thirty seven meters long it is technically a merchant class vessel.

With the sleek appearance of a traditionally rigged Barquentine in water it looks and acts as an unusually responsive sailing ship. Yet the Solar Wind is more then she seems because unlike most ships this one is about as magical as it gets.

With a competent Pegasus at the helm and crewed by all three Equestrian races the Solar Wind hidden majesty comes to light: the Solar wind is not bound to Equestrian oceans. The Solar Wind is one of the rare few, non dirigible vessels capable of atmospheric flight.

During flight the ship’s ornate wooden hull glows faintly with a web-like lines of runes and usually hidden within the ornate carvings of her body. When sailing in the atmosphere the Solar Wind deploys Pegasus sized spinning blades from the sides for lift and flight control and can reach up to 23 knots without the assistance of her sails. Assisted by a good tail wind she can go above 47 knots.

Magically transcendent hypercube of space inside it makes it a unique creation, a merchant vessel with capacity beyond anything ever made. She is fast, durable and agile.

And when in need that little something extra, a good captain will deploy the magical solar sails and ride the sunrise.

The Solar Wind gained it’s name for it’s ability to catch the rays of a sun and through a practical application of magical sciences: go faster then any pony crewed vessel before her: With a Pegasus on the helm and a Unicorn to to guide the main flight cone and an earth pony manning the gravity emulation array she is the only ship in Equestria capable of going supersonic.

“Whoa whoa whoa!” Dash stopped Celestia's textbook explanations. “Did you just say THAT thing can do a rain-boom?!”

“Only with a helms pony that knows what she is doing.” Celestia smiled enticingly while Twilight nodded, engrossed behind them in a book that went into far more details then is necessary..

“Suddenly I wanna join the Equestrian Navy...” Rainbow Dash mumbles, biting her hoof and failing to realize that piloting the Solar Wind was not impossible for her..

The with an evil smile on her face Twilight looks up from the manual for the ship ever prepared Celestia summoned for her. "Hey Dash! It says here she can also go faster the light."

***

After Rainbow Dash was revived the girls realized it was getting somewhat late thus the tea party turned into dinner party food was brought forth and as explanations and questions sailed were exchanged the mares came to realize that they should they go on this journey it would be an experience of a lifetime.

"Well, I'm in, how much time to pack?" Rainbow Dash proclaimed suddenly whens he was told she could become a helms-pony and Celestia laughed.

"Oh Rainbow Dash, of course you do. It is not a time sensitive mission. Ideally you would leave within the month the Solar Wind is ready but it is unfurnished, it lacks a crew and I am certain you ladies can't just drop everything and disappear for a several months. Remember traveling the Primordium is a sea of space and time. It can flow in odd ways but things have a way of evening out. If your trip out lasts a month the trip back could last only a day." (NTS: do you want to open that can of worms?)"

"Ah reckon that should be plenty of time to prepare for those of us who decide to go besides Twilight and Rainbow Dash." Applejack said frowning in thought. "Personally Ah don't reckon Ah like leavin' the farm for so long."

Rarity found herself agreeing with Applejack. "While I believe I should come along I am not entirely certain if I can. Closing my boutique would be difficult and who would take care of Sweetie Belle? Tracking my parents is next to impossible this time of year. They could be anywhere on Equis and they aren't scheduled to come back for another three months."

"I already worked out a schedule that should let me work in all the parties so I am free to join this party." Pinkie nodded with a Smile.

Fluttershy merely looked thoughtful.

Soon they parted ways. Celestia on her way to Draconia say hello to an old friend and the mares retreated to their homes to consider everything and decide.

After they left Twilight waved goodbye to her friends and sat down to organize her thoughts. Curling up on her favorite pillow her thoughts turned inwards. Facts connected observed phenomenon linked to higher mathematics that never meshed complete lt before as her inner world connected new things she had learned into her greater whole. Fractals blossomed as she rebuilt her inner universe.

Well after the sun finally set Spike finally returned from hanging out with Snips and Snails at "the fort."

The library was dark when he entered but that was no big deal for him. Without bothering with light he made his way along the main room to where he could see Twilight's form still snuggled on The Pillow Of Snuggles. Eyes wide open but blank and unseeing, breath imperceptibly shallow and still as a statue she would have made an eerie sight to anypony else.

Spike just chuckled quietly and shook his head, fetching a blanket. Silly Twilight thinking too hard again. He tucked her in, just like she used to do for him and with a gentle kiss on the the forehead he let her to her own devices. She could stay like that for hours and he didn't want her to get a cold. With on last look he hesitated on the stairs one day he'd be strong enough and big enough to carry her up.

Author's Note:

Well It has not been abandoned but I warn you guys that I still don't have a beta for this.

Please let me know if you spot any mistakes, plot holes and continuity errors.

I am torn between continuing the slow build (for instance each mare would get her own chapter before they even set sail) and skipping to the adventure.

Do share your thoughts.

Thank you.

Comments

[Cador_2004]

FINALLY! *starts reading*

[JadeCriminal]

2595870

Daaang that was fast I just clicked publish. You might want to refresh for a few spelling errors I corrected. XD

[Cador_2004]

I was refreshing the page for updates and apparently had done so right after you published the story. I'm serious, The page in question I refreshed was using the update date filter and it was at the top of the list.

[JadeCriminal]

2595882

Awesome. Have fun!

[fireflutterpony]

Large amounts of spelling, diction and grammar errors, seriously needs proof-reading. Very fun idea, though.

[JadeCriminal]

2596033

Thanks for the support.

Grammar wise: Let me tell you, realizing you have written half the chapter in the wrong tense gets annoying.

(I am certain I'm shifting tenses in this chapter somewhere but dang if I could find it.)

Mind I never officially studied English grammar, thus I'm mostly winging it by wondering how I would say it if I was narrating the story. :twilightblush

[Gear]

I'm very glad you're updating again.

[I_S]

This, Updated.....

[AlsoSprachOdin]

Please, just GET ON WITH IT. I'd really rather read about the interaction of the Forgotten Realms and Equestrian civilizations than the daily going-on's of the Ponyville community. Please.

[Rubel]

Awesome update.

[musicluvr1974]

2599135 A bit of Slice-of-Life before we get into the Adventure part isn't that bad; one of my absolute favorite professional authors writes most of her best stuff that way.

You do need to work on your update speed, though... Most of a year?! (And I think I'm doing badly when I delay for a month...! )

[clubbzz]

I think it's time to call this story dead.