Surviving Sand Island

by The 24th Pegasus

Fine Dining

“If you’ll follow me, madame.”

A thin, butter yellow mare sauntered down the hall, a company clipboard firmly held in her magical grasp. Her CelestiAir uniform was dangerously cut, and silver horseshoes attached to toothpick legs quietly thudded down the carpeted hall. The voluminous brown tail attached to swaying hips had reduced Rarity’s pupils to pinpricks as the mare led her to her room.

The halls of the Concordia were spacious enough to fit three ponies side by side and leave enough space for the regularly placed potted plants that lived up the bright space. Floor to ceiling windows comprised large swaths of the outward walls, offering a perfect view of the countryside around the airship. Blue carpets accentuated white wallpaper and silver chandeliers. Passengers moved up and down the halls as the wait staff of the airship showed them to their rooms, gave them their keys, and offered refreshments while they waited to depart.

Deftly maneuvering around bellhops and passengers alike, the flight attendant took Rarity to her room, placed squarely in the middle of the long hall. Her sparkling golden magic pulled a key from a pocket on her vest and slid it into the door. “Here we are, madame. Room tree-ooh-nine,” she said in her incredibly thick Prench accent. Green eyes glistened under fluttering eyelids with fake eyelashes that rivaled Rarity’s own. “Your bags have already been delivered and are waiting for you.”

“Tha… th-thank you,” Rarity managed to force out from underneath the heat in her cheeks. “Miss…?”

“Lucarne,” the mare answered with a small bow of her head. “Is there anything else that you think you will need?”

“Uh… no, not at the moment,” Rarity stammered, although she could think of one thing… maybe two, as her eyes flicked over the attendant’s form for the briefest of moments. “Thank you very much, Miss Lucarne.”

Lucarne bowed and backed away from the door. “Then I will see if there are others that need my services.” Rarity felt somepony ratchet up the thermostat, and she fought the urge to fan herself. “I trust you will be there for the captain’s speech?”

“Oh, uh, of course. When is that?”

“It will be in half an hour in the ballroom,” Lucarne said, taking quick note of some papers on her clipboard. “Right after we depart from the air harbor. Refreshments and some hors d'oeuvres will be offered.” She smiled, a show of ivory perfect down to the alignment of every last pearly tooth. “We hope to see you there.”

Rarity nodded. “Of course…”

Lucarne bowed one more time, then pivoted with a clack of hooves and set off down the hall to find another lost passenger. Rarity watched her go, fighting the urge to chew her lip to shreds as those shapely flanks flexed and moved with each strut, until the attendant had disappeared into the throng of ponies still gathered outside.

“Celestia have mercy,” Rarity murmured to herself, finally managing to tear her eyes away. Her magic turned the key in the door until she heard a satisfying iron clunk and the door flew open. She trotted inside and took a look around, failing to stifle a small, excited squeak.

Somehow, CelestiAir had managed to cram a queen sized bed and a full bathroom into a tiny airship. It was something she would’ve expected of an ocean liner, not an airship, no matter how impressive the Concordia might be. The fashionista gasped and cantered towards the far end of the room, where a porthole looked out over the starboard side of the ship, and the Equestrian countryside far below the heights of Canterlot.

“What a view,” she whispered, all but pressing her nose against the pane of glass. She pictured herself flying high above the land, with all of Equestria’s beauty displayed before her. Green valleys, purple mountains, blue oceans; the raw colors of the world. Already, the first sparks of inspiration had caught hold of the tinder of creativity. The coming days would serve to fan the tongues of fire into a blaze of art and beauty.

Rarity turned around and found her luggage at the foot of her bed. She quickly set her combinations into the locks and popped the suitcases open, and soon her magic began levitating dress after dress into the small closet provided for her. She shoved her empty suitcases under the bed and piled charcoal and several rolled sheets of parchment onto the table near the window. She’d make good use of those things in the coming days.

The bathroom was next on Rarity’s list, and she trotted in with a legion of cosmetics in her telekinetic grasp. Eyeliner and eyeshadow, lipstick and powder made their way onto her face, one after the other. It was only when the clock in her room chirped once that Rarity settled for good enough. The captain was supposed to be giving his speech in five minutes, anyway.

Rarity looked over her things spread on her bed and across her room before nodding once and making her way towards the door. She tucked the key into the folds of her dress and quietly shut the door behind herself. With a quick look up and down the hall to orient herself, she turned towards her right and began trotting back towards the stern of the airship.

She found most of the ship’s passengers already gathered in the ballroom with cocktails and appetizers in front of them. Rarity looked around the room, noting its hoof-carved columns and mahogany floor, as she looked for Rainbow Dash. She found the pegasus in the back corner of the ballroom with at least five or so tiny square plates haphazardly strewn on the table in front of her. In between voracious bites, Rainbow’s eyes managed to catch sight of Rarity, and she enthusiastically waved a hoof and pointed to an empty chair next to her.

Rarity navigated the room of suited business ponies and other ponies in business casual attire to get to the table Rainbow had saved for the two of them. As she drew near, Rainbow paused and took a good, long look at Rarity. Her brow furrowed and her lips turned into a teasing grin as she leaned back in the chair. “Geez, Rares, what are you all dressed up for? Trying to impress the captain?”

Rarity giggled and sat down next to Rainbow. “Oh, goodness no, darling. I was already wearing the dress when I boarded, so I figured I might as well finish off the appearance. You know what I’m saying?”

“Pfff. No,” Rainbow responded, and quickly shoved another morsel of food into her mouth. “Mmm, Rarity, you gotta try these things! They’re like garlic marshmallows!”

Rarity raised an eyebrow and took note of the morsel of food Rainbow Dash practically inhaled. A delicate sniff was all she needed to confirm her suspicions and swallow the bile in her throat. “Uh… Rainbow, darling, you do know what you’re eating, right?”

“Good food, that’s what,” Rainbow said as she chowed down on another. “I don’t really know, but they’re on little plates and stuff where the chef makes those weird swirls with the sauces on the side like it’s an abstract art piece or something, so it means it’s fancy.”

“Rainbow, what you’re eating is escargot.”

“Gesundheit.”

“Snails, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow coughed and slapped a hoof against her sternum, letting the plate she’d slurped the snail off of fall to the ground. She stuck her tongue out and tried her best to wipe away the garlicy remains of the mollusk, earning several disgusted glares from nearby nobles in the process. Rarity pressed a hoof to her lips, concealing a dainty laugh as Rainbow writhed in revulsion. After downing almost a full glass of water, the pegasus pushed the plates away and gasped. “Really?! That’s just… ech! Why would anypony serve snails as food?!”

“It’s popular and elite Prench cuisine, Rainbow,” Rarity said. Her magic grabbed a few plates of chopped vegetables and seaweed rolls which she slowly placed in her mouth one at a time. “I’ve no care for it.”

“You mean you’ve eaten snails?”

“Once,” Rarity admitted with a shrug. “It was during that trip to Canterlot I had before Twilight’s birthday a few years ago. We all make sacrifices for the company we surround ourselves with.”

Rainbow frowned and nudged the remaining plate of escargot in front of her another inch or two away. “I guess…”

Both mares’ ears perked as the room began to quiet down. They turned their attention towards the ballroom dance floor, where several stallions and mares appeared in fine CelestiAir uniforms. Rarity recognized Jetstream from the gate, and the pegasus stepped forward with a microphone between the feathers of her wing. After a brief touch of her hoof to her flouncing bangs, she pulled back her lips into her bright billboard smile.

“Good afternoon, fillies and gentlecolts!” she exclaimed, waving a hoof to the ponies gathered around. “I hope you’re all having an absolutely wonderful time! I trust that our wait staff helped you to your rooms and got you accommodated?”

A murmured chorus of “yes” and nodding heads filled the room, and Rarity had to fight down the urge to blush when she remembered Lucarne. Thankfully, Rainbow Dash was too preoccupied with sniffing at the last bit of escargot in front of her to really notice.

Jetstream beamed. “That’s wonderful to hear! First off, I’d like to thank you all on behalf of CelestiAir for choosing to fly with us. It really, truly means a lot to us, and we do hope that you find everything on your flight splendid. In case you’ve forgotten, my name is Jetstream, and I’ll be in charge of our day to day activities we’re holding on the top deck. We have a filled itinerary of activities, and we invite you all to come and join us as you please.”

Rarity made a mental note to search her room for an activities guide. Maybe she could find something that Rainbow would be interested in as well. If not, there were always spa dates and yoga she could go to on her own.

“Most of our activities will be an hour long, and they’ll be held from nine until nine each day. We’ll have a few nighttime activities as well, for all you night owls out there.” She giggled and fluttered back towards the uniformed ponies waiting behind her and wrapped a hoof around the shoulders of the stallion in the middle. “And now, I’d like to introduce you to the captain of the Concordia, Captain High Winds!”

She passed off the microphone to the captain, and the two nuzzled as he took the stage. His white uniform with gold trim along the lapels was almost indistinguishable from his white coat with golden mane, and his ivory wings ruffled at his sides. “Good afternoon, fillies and gentlecolts, and welcome to the Concordia.” He smiled around perfect teeth, and Rarity wondered just where CelestiAir was recruiting to find such perfect models. Not even the mole on Lucarne’s cheek that Rarity certainly hadn’t noticed earlier wasn’t all that detracting.

“I’m Captain High Winds,” the stallion continued, “and I’ll be guiding this marvel of Equestrian engineering across the vast oceans over the next four days. The Concordia is the newest ship in CelestiAir’s fleet, and from what experience I’ve had with her, she handles like a dream.

“It’s a pretty straightforward flight,” High Winds said. He began to pace back and forth in front of the crew. “We’ll be taking off as soon as we’re finished here, and after four days of nonstop flight, we’ll be in the Confederacy. It looks like it’s going to be smooth sailing from here to there; Cloudsdale’s weather control teams reported clear skies for the next four days, and we should be landing before any storms riding up from the equator have a chance to muster strength.”

“Thank goodness,” Rarity whispered. “The last thing I need is to be stuck in my room getting airsick.”

Rainbow raised her eyes from the spotless plate in front of her and licked her lips. “You get airsick? Since when?”

“Since I nearly fell for a mile straight to my death, that’s when,” Rarity retorted, a pouting frown on her face.

The blue mare blinked. “Oh. Yeah, I guess that’d do it.”

The two turned their attention back to the captain, who’d returned to Jetstream’s side. “…after which we’ll be touching down somewhere around noon, just in time for lunch.” He smiled and draped a wing over Jetstream’s back. “If you happen to need anything, you can see my wife. She’ll be happy to accommodate you with any and all requests you might have.”

He passed the microphone back to Jetstream, who took it once more in her feathers. “And there you have it, everypony. Our flight schedule for the next four days! And like the captain said, feel free to find me if you have any requests or complaints. Me and the attendants will do everything in our power to make things better for you. And now, for the rest of our crew…”

Rainbow and Rarity tuned her out as Rainbow’s forehead met the table. “Mehhhhhh,” she groaned, staring at the empty plates in front of her. “When are they going to bring out the food?”

“As soon as they’re done here, I would presume,” Rarity said. Her sapphire eyes looked over the practically licked clean plates around Rainbow. After a moment’s pause, she stacked them for her with her magic and set them aside. “Go ahead, Rainbow, get some more. Nopony’s judging you.”

“Apart from the Suits,” Rainbow grumbled, her ruby eyes focusing on the back of a business stallion seated a table away.

Rarity rolled her eyes. “I’m not judging you,” she said, touching Rainbow’s hoof. “You’re not going to see any of these… Suits… ever again. Besides, it’s obvious that you actually do like the taste of escargot.”

“…I guess you’re right,” Rainbow admitted, and her wings buzzed as she drifted over to the hors d'oeuvres table. She scooped up three more plates of snails, as they bore only three pitiful, tiny snails per plate, and set them back down at her place. Grimacing at the food, now that she was aware of what it really was, she delicately shoveled it into her mouth and swallowed after a moment to savor the taste.

The staff at the front of the room departed after a round of applause, and soon ponies with platters of food resting on their backs began to make their way throughout the room. They reached Rarity and Rainbow Dash and set down the first course, a bowl of soup and a salad, then quickly carried on their way. Rarity grabbed her fork in her magic, while Rainbow looked on at her food with a barely restrained primal hunger.

Rarity caught it out of the corner of her eye. “Rainbow, please use your utensils, darling,” she said, sliding a fork into Rainbow’s outstretched wingtips. “You don’t want to appear any more animalistic than you already are.”

Rainbow stuck her tongue out at Rarity, but nevertheless drove her fork into her salad like a farmer pitchforking hay. She took one enormous bite, briefly mashed the leaves between her teeth, then swallowed them. “So, how’s your room, Rares?”

“Oh, it’s splendid,” Rarity said between ladylike sips of her soup. “A queen sized bed and a full bathroom? On an airship? Why, I didn’t think it was possible. But that’s what you get when you pay for business class, I suppose.”

“Heh. Nice.”

“I can’t imagine what your room must be like,” Rarity said. Her magic twirled her spoon about in her bowl. “If you got to use the corporate card and all…”

Rainbow simply shrugged. “Eh. It’s a room.”

Rarity scoffed. “I simply don’t believe that. I want to take a look when we’re done here.”

“If you really want to.”

Apparently, the conversation lasted too long for Rainbow’s stomach. With a casual toss of her wing, she chucked the fork aside and buried her face muzzle-deep into the salad. Rarity could only watch in horror as Rainbow tore her food apart like a starving timberwolf. The noise alone attracted the eyes of several nearby ponies, and Rarity felt an embarrassed fluster building on her cheeks.

She sighed and picked through her meal with what ladylike grace she could muster. One day, somepony was going to have to teach Rainbow Dash some manners.

Comments

[RoboRed]

Dat stewardess.

[Bishieluver01]

Is it weird i want to try that escargot? It actually sounds kinda good...

[The 24th Pegasus]

8436849
I've had it before. It's sort of like a garlic marshmallow. Interesting taste; I'd probably have them again if I saw them on a menu somewhere.

[bahatumay]

Huh. TIL.

[zaponator]

8368591
Stewardass...

[RoboRed]

8632412

[MisterClacky]

Was not expecting the dramatic effect of the stewardess' booty. Had to reread, I originally thought she was repressing a nervous breakdown over how unattractive the mare was described. Never seen 'toothpick used as a positive adjective when applied to a body part.

Blueblood and the rest of her crushes must have really dampened her on dudes.

[FridayPie]

8436906
Maybe they add something, I thought it tasted abit like sage... Wait, it vine leaves used, right?