Vesper hadn't been there for most of the inspection. It wasn't that she didn't want to be around whenever the ship was doing interesting things—every chance to meet ponies in person was interesting!
But after everyone had recovered, she needed time to rest. Even her interest in Blake needed to take a brief backseat. For once, she slept without trying to dream, sprawled awkwardly over the edge of her bed.
But when she did finally wake from her dreamless sleep, it was to his voice, and a quiet rapping of hooves on wood. "Jordan? Or... Vesper? I guess you wanted me to call you that instead.
She stirred, rolling onto her back and looking up at him. She could remember nothing about her time resting, and this time she didn't even mind. Maybe there was nothing to remember. "What?"
She recovered quickly, focusing on him. But she didn't sit up. Maybe she didn't want to.
"We need to talk."
"Oh?" She grinned. "Come in."
Blake didn't move. For a few seconds he just stared, mouth hanging open. Then he recovered, looking awkwardly away. "We're coming up on the next Worldgate. But the pony navy thinks we shouldn't stop. The griffons might come back."
She flopped sideways, defeated. How much longer could Blake keep ignoring her like that? "What do you think we should do?"
"Try anyway," he said, without a second's hesitation. "Even if the evil pirates do try to attack us, they're not close enough to see from right here. They might be hours away, or maybe days. I'm not sure how long the Guardian will chase them before they give up. I think we should try it, and just stay as short as possible."
She rolled onto her belly, stretching both wings. "I agree. If we vote to stay, just get me when we land. I'll be... here."
She closed her eyes, yawning exaggeratedly. It had been some time since she felt sleepy with the sun already down.
Blake stepped through her doorway, lowering his voice. "That magic you did with the oxygen... that was incredible stuff. But you shouldn't strain yourself so much. You know what Janet says about magic."
She groaned, covering her head with a pillow. "I don't care. She was here for almost a year, Blake. I'm not going to just stand there when people are in trouble. I don't even know if we would've survived without a little dream-stuff."
He was silent then, long enough that she wasn't sure if he had gone. But then he spoke, from a little closer this time. Right beside the bed. "Just be careful, Vesper. I don't want Jordan to be stuck here when the rest of us get out. We might be going home in a few minutes."
She laughed, loud enough that the pillow didn't muffle it. "Yeah, sure. Run the odds past the other Worldgates we found and tell me how likely that is."
This time she did hear Blake walk away, vanishing down the hallway and out of sight.
She dozed then, though she couldn't say if it was for a few minutes or a few hours. Eventually she felt the ship settle under her, and then they stopped moving. A few minutes later, and another rap came at the door. It was Kaelynn this time. "Hey! Jordan?"
She sat up, and didn't play games this time. Even so, she froze for a second, staring into the open doorway. "Uh... Kaelynn?"
She slipped down off the side of the bed. "You're walking? That's cool." The seapony looked a little different than the last time, but the differences were subtle. She would've thought she was dreaming it, if she could make that mistake.
But knowing she was dreaming was something Jordan had never needed to learn. She could no more mistake it than not know it was daylight when looking up at the sun.
Kaelynn grinned proudly at her, twisting slightly to one side to show off her tail. "Yeah, it's pretty great. Did it myself this time, no help." She straightened, glancing to one side. "Oh, right! Blake said you wanted to go down and scout this time? I hope so... you're probably the best for the job, since you're the closest thing to normal we have."
"Yep." She kicked the door shut behind her, though there was nothing secret within. Nothing that wouldn't also affect her scent. "Blake's already waiting outside?"
Kaelynn shook her head. "Blake wanted me to go out on this mission instead. Him and Galena are the only ones who know how to fly the ship, so they want to be ready if we need to get out in a hurry."
"Oh." She deflated, tail falling flat. For a few seconds Jordan considered turning and going right back to bed. Let Janet go out on this mission, or maybe Ryan. But that was silly—she wanted to see more of this world, didn't she? "I guess that makes sense. So it's just us?"
Kaelynn nodded. "Ryan is still recovering. He could probably come, but there's no reason to risk it. We're not going down into some ancient ruins this time. Either the Worldgate is here, or it isn't. These are just ponies—the last ones we met were apparently nice."
She didn't sound completely confident, but of course Jordan knew why. She had spent most of the rescue in her tank, so she hadn't actually got the chance to meet them.
"Well if that's what we're doing, you should know something else. I have a pony name now—Vesper. You should call me that when we're down there."
"Oh, really? That's why they were calling you that. I thought it might be Blake's nickname or something."
They walked together through the ship, down to the mostly-empty cargo hold. The ramp was already lowered, and a few ponies were visible outside, watching them.
It was daytime. How long had she been asleep?
"Alright, Vesper," Kaelynn said. "You might end up doing most of the talking down there. I'm not sure how much they'll want to talk to a fish."
It would've been more fun to go with Blake.
Vesper wasn't sure what she was expecting from a town called Canter Creek. All and all, what she was seemed like a decent match. Old style wooden buildings ran down a single central street, with a train station on the near end and an old water tower on the far side.
The pony waiting a few steps from the ramp was an old-timey sheriff, gold badge and leather chaps and all. He even had the accent, though that might just have been the translation magic of the Worldgate.
"Been a mighty long time since we've seen a ship like yours passed this way," the earth pony said, as they neared the bottom of the ramp. "Welcome to Canter Creek."
He extended a hoof towards Jordan, and she took it. "Thank you, uh... Sheriff?"
The pony nodded. "We saw you on your way down. Folks are curious about what your arrival means. Ship as big as yours, in a town small as this. Got ponies nervous."
She nodded. "We're not here to, uh... to cause any trouble, Sheriff. The Bright Hawk is here because of an old map we found." She lowered her voice to a knowing whisper. Playing along wouldn't be that different from anything she'd done with Pale Light in the dreaming. She could have fun with it.
She barely even noticed as the weight of an old brown hat settled onto her head, perfect for the setting. "We're looking for a Worldgate. Somewhere strange. Somewhere ponies go but don't come back. Or maybe somewhere strange creatures come sometimes, and you don't know how they got there."
The pony pulled away from her, eyes widening in recognition. "I know the place." He glanced sidelong at Kaelynn, so briefly that it looked like he was trying to avoid making a scene. "You're looking to take creatures through? Brought guests to Equestria from strange lands?"
Jordan nodded, adjusting her cap with a little unnecessary dramatic flare. "Maybe I am. Like I said, we mean no trouble to your town. Just looking for the way through."
Kaelynn wasn't quite so good at the acting thing. She stared, but not at the pony. Her eyes were fixed on Jordan's hat. "The sooner we find it, the sooner we're gone."
The pony looked away, out into the distance. Away from town, there was very little to see. Red rock desert, bone dry and interrupted only with scraggly underbrush. Great rock formations rose in the far distance, breaking what might otherwise be many miles of sight-lines.
"It isn't my permission you need," he eventually said. "I can tell you where to go, but it's the buffalo who have to let you through. Maybe they let you, maybe they don't."
He leaned in close, expression harsh. "If you go, I want to make something very clear. Canter Creek has worked hard to keep things peaceable with the Burning Sun tribe. We'll not be backing you up to muscle your way somewhere you don't belong. If you get them riled up after you, we'll stand aside and let them stomp all over you. They're our friends, you're just passing through."
Jordan nodded. "We understand. We'll just ask, Sheriff. And if they say no, we'll go elsewhere." We don't have the time to linger for long negotiations and get attacked by pirates. "Where do we find the tribe?"
He pointed off in the direction he'd been staring. "There's a butte maybe three hours trot from here. By airship, no telling how long it is. Look for the banded white and red rock. Start a fire with lots of smoke, and wait for them to come to you. What you negotiate is your business."
He stepped back, grin returning. "Now if you fine ponies need supplies before you go, Canter Creek is the last town in Equestria before the badlands. Finest apple pies south of Ponyville, so they say."
"That sounds g—" Vesper began, but Kaelynn shoved her, and she stopped abruptly.
"We'd like to sheriff. But we should be moving on. If we stay too long, we might bring more trouble without meaning to."
The pony nodded, backing away from the ramp. "Safe travels then, pony and, uh... fish pony." He turned away, and Jordan could still hear him muttering as he walked away. "Strange times with this new princess... strange times."
Jordan glared all the way back up the ramp. "Do you have something against dessert, Kaelynn? He said apple pie. I've been traveling for a week and I'm already sick of canned food."
"Me too. But we've got limited time, remember? We can't be tourists when pirates might be just behind us."
Kaelynn started cranking, raising the ramp. Jordan didn't help this time—she didn't want real food, so let the fish do the work for a bit. She was probably right.
"Tell Blake what we found out," Kaelynn grunted. "Get us back into the air."
Vesper nodded, spreading both wings. She practically glided back across the cargo bay, then back up the stairs. She passed Janet in the hallway, watching her with narrowed eyes.
"No luck?" the hippogriff asked. "Another bad portal?"
Vesper shook her head. "It's a little north of town. Ponies said we need to ask the buffalo about it. Have you heard about them?"
Janet hesitated. "I know there are... if they have four hooves, they're probably intelligent. I never figured out cows, but buffalo are different enough that they're probably just their own civilization."
She nodded, and resumed her trek through the ship. She found Blake and Galena on deck, near the helm. Blake might have refused to help with negotiation, but at least he kept his word about being ready to fly them to safety.
"Didn't expect to see you back so soon, Vesper." Blake glanced over the side, at the town visible close by. "Are they chasing us off?"
She explained the brief exchange, before pointing off in the indicated direction. Even at this distance, she thought she could make out the pillar of red rock. "Over there. They'll sell us stuff too—sounded like good food. But Kaelynn thinks we should get moving."
"Smart fish," Galena said. "We fly, then. Dragon pony, let me see you take off. I will watch and not help, even if you are about to crash."
Jordan glanced between them, eyes narrowing. Had Blake not wanted to come with her so he could spend time with the griffon? She couldn't smell anything, but... it would make sense. The bird hadn't been a guy before, or one of Blake's own friends.
"You're coming with me next time," Vesper said, nudging Blake with a wing. "Kaelynn's nice, but I don't want to negotiate with buffalo without someone who looks big and intimidating."
I think that Vesper's suspicion is unwarranted since Blake is probably not very interested in romance at all currently and I seriously doubt that Galena has an interest in him. It's also clear that the summoning takes a lot of energy from Vesper. I wonder how their negotiations with the buffalo will go but I doubt that they'll be lucky this time.
Bat seeming a lil jelly and maybe a bit territorial. When does the hissing come?
I am curious as to how the Buffalo treat/think of the Portal. Also how they treat travelers... Time will tell.
Honestly, it looks like Vesper does not want to go back. Seems Jordon is more comfortable being female. Blake however is not comfortable at all, which is why he's ignoring her.
Blake once to get home as soon as possible so things can go back to normal. I honestly petty the guy.
This kinda bugs me. We know what happened to Tracy, sure. But why was Rose, a pony who literally spent her whole life in Equestria and doing her native magic, able to go human with zero problems? Did Tracy's potion addiction just count for more than an actual lifetime of accumulation?
10852609
When she gets a whiff of mango.
Easy thing is to tell anyone they meet, "We're just looking for a way home."
In Blake's position i'd find Vespers advances quite worrying. That is a serious personality change from the Jordan he knew.
10852645
The portal changes you to fit the destination. The problem lies not with becoming human, but staying that way. Rose was never on Earth long enough for her Equestrian magic to reassert itself.
So, Estrus is a thing, and Vesper is aware she is dealing with it right now. Despite being aware, she still isn't thinking straight. Aside from Galena and possibly Janet, none of the others would even be aware of what her smell meant, yet in her mind, they all know. Add to that her suspicion of other females being near the male she has targetted possessively as hers, and it is clear she is very much out of her right mind at the moment. Hopefully, it will pass soon, and she can start thinking straight. Also, hopefully, she doesn't do something stupid like attack one of the other females because she sees them as a threat to her chance to mate.
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It's explained in one of the final chapters of Fine Print. Basically, the Everwake kept Tracy full of magic in a body that had no way to deal with magic. There's no problem on the Equestria side because he's a fully functional magical creature there. On the Earth side, his human body couldn't process or vent the excess magic, so it just built up until something had to give.
The more it goes the less I am convinced they'll actually be locked in, but comments seem to be quite convinced it will indeed happen... Did I miss something that would confirm Janet's fears?
10852722
That doesn't make sense either. Otherwise all those corpses they keep finding human side wouldn't have been uniformly human. Nor would Sunset even be one at all by now.
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And this doesn't even imply it would be permanent, just that Tracy juiced himself too hard all at once. If magic bleeds off over time human side, presumably it'd bleed off until a pony couldn't be a pony anymore.
10852759
Maybe if Tracy kept trying by going through the portal, sticking it out until it burst, then using the gate again to return to a human form, again, and again, and again, hoping that his return trips don't fill him up.
Maybe then he'd be able to stick to a human form, but I think Equestria's too magical for that to work unless the return trips were REALLY quick, like lightspeed.
----
Likely magic evaporates easier if you're dead. So if you die as a human, your corpse looks human. ... Bringing a corpse back, Equestria-side, would provide more info.
10852759
The bodies they found on Earth died before having time to change back. As for Frau Baconhair, I'm not sure that EQG is canon to this world. Alternatively, the mirror portal works on different mechanics.
10852759
The mirror portal was mentioned in Fine Print as a portal to "a different human world", not Earth.
We have seen magic in that world, likely enough to sustain a transformation.
Not sure dead bodies have internal magic, so there wouldn't be anything to force the transformation to break
10852788
IIRC the mirror portal gets mentioned in Fine Print, just connects to a different earth.
Hmm... I'm a bit concerned. Jordan/Vesper seems to be getting a bit too comfy in her pony body— possibly to a point where she prefers it and may want to stay in Equestria, especially because of her access to dream magic. She's also obviously marked Blake as her potential mate, and if she does indeed want the previous, he'd need to stay also for her to get the best of both worlds. And Blake clearly has no interest. I think she's just setting herself up for disappointment and heartbreak.
Let's see if the tribe will let them through. And let's hope the impending pirates don't kill any remaining good will they might have.
It's gonna be a hard sell resisting that magic though.
No doubt her natural talent is letting that magic seep through. It might be inevitable.
In the event the buffalo get stomped, you're not going back them up, are you?
Last thing we need is a cat...-bird-horse-bat fight.
Big and intimidating. I'm pretty sure she means looks good.
so are the pirates going to give up this easy. not a chance. the only way they will stop is if they are completely stopped..
Well, this seems promising... though it's entirely possible that the buffalo have no intention of letting creatures cross. Or it's hostile territory on the other side. Or the pirates come in at the worst possible time. Or all three at once. We'll have to see.
Also, Vesper really needs to cool it. No means no, girl, no matter how much your hormones are screaming "please."
10852743
How do you know she's going through Estrus?
10853049
Well, her behavior is a big hint, but the confirmation is the issue with the smell. She is giving off a strong pheromone funk associated with estrus and indicates she is at her most fertile and used to attract males. She has referenced her own funk and worried over others (other than Blake) smelling it, so she even knows what it is and what it means.
10852664
Wasn't Janet another Griffon? like Galena? I thought the only Hippogriff was Ryan when shapeshifting?
10853060
Well, I believe that she only subconsciously realizes this. I don't think Vesper realizes what she's doing. Her actions are all on autopilot. She realizes that she can smell the scents of others. She knows what that means, but she doesn't realize what shes doing. Jordon from what I read is a go with the floe kind of person. So Vesper may just be going along with her impulses.
10853176
Nope, she's always been a hippogriff. She joined up with them when they were at Mount Aris with griffins though.
Our only griffin is Galena.
And it occurs to me that they never told Janet that Galena really was a griffin so that could be awkward if they ever do find a way back.
10852645
10852722
10852751
If I remember Fine Print correctly, would the magic have worn off on the other side if Tracy/Spark had stayed in the human world and cut off his connections (friends, lovers, etc.) in Equestria?
I think that was Twilight's take on it, but I'm not sure if that was later clarified to be "overridden" by the potion use.
At any rate, I'm not sure that Janet is 100% right about this. I think she mentioned that the portals could disappear, but that's generally wrong. She's probably trying to err on the side of caution as well.
I think the main problem is wanting to stay, either by choice because they like it or because of the influence of their new bodies and magic on their minds.
All in all, I do think Janet has the best shot of going back (and staying back). She has tried to avoid getting tied to Equestria by magic, friends, exciting new experiences, etc.
10853579
Yeah it just seems inconsistent, because we apparently got confirmation of the mirror portal to Sunset's world -- where human Sunset has spent the last goodness knows how long juicing the living shit out of foreign magic bled over from Equestria and has had basically no problems (or at least not those specific problems).
Like any high exposure Tracy got from a potion addiction and boinking a pony, Sunset has to have utterly eclipsed by being a primary focus (and one-time target) of weapons grade Equestrian friendship magic, shooting lasers, sprouting wings and/or fire, fighting expatriate monsters, and basically playing My Little Harry Dresden on a continuous basis with all the crap Equestria kept dumping there. She's been mainlining Equestrian magic in the wrong world to a degree Tracy never approached. Constantly.
Hell, forget Sunset. Any of her friends, including human-Twi, would have been tripping a magic Geiger counter harder than Tracy ever did.
10853579
Fine Print spoilers!
To be fair, her only experience with Worldgates is Discord's portal, which closed right behind her, so she absolutely believes they can close.
If he had cut the potion use, Tracy still wouldn't have necessarily been fine. He started experiencing the effects of magic before he went on anti sleep aids, as early as when his idiot friends showed up and he felt his tail while on human side. Everwake merely accelerated the process that was already happening.
10853341
They did that intentionally to protect Galena from repercussions. While she may have been imprisoned by the pirates when they found her, Galena was one of the pirates previously.
Now that they're away from the authorities and presumably trust Janet they could tell her, but they could just as easily have simply forgotten.
Vesper's getting jealous.
Really should be using "Just-talk-no-justsu".
10853592
The mirror works differently and isn't a worldgate. This has actaully been mentioned in the comments a few times.
Blake was not prepared for that view.
Interesting phrasing, almost as if Vesper and Jordan are two different people. Though I may be reading that wrong.
Depends on how Lovecraftian this scenario is about to be.
Okay, not very.
With actual stomping.
This could be a problem at some point.
She doesn't wanna go anywhere without her big, buff man.
Lack of ending quotation mark