Hearthswarming Far Away

by publiq

Intermission

A pink-maned pegasus stallion took a double-take. Petunia grew impatient. What possible force could compel him to take a third look at her cutie mark and back at the ship’s manifest?

He noticed her flattened ears and twitching tail. Something was wrong with the little stowaway and his best option was to deal with her without making a scene.

“I’m sorry, little ma’am. Your ticket and boarding documents are valid but I cannot find you in the passenger manifest.”

Petunia squealed in frustration. The other pegasus looked up from her copy of the manifest and gestured to Maud.

Maud perked her ears and trotted over. “She’s with me,” Maud announced.

The pegasus mare turned to her colleague. “Check the cargo section,” she suggested.

The expected pushback was swift. “But she’s a pony!” he replied indignantly.

“These ponies have a special destination. They’re not Hearthswarming week vacationers. Their tickets are one-way as far as we are concerned,” the orange buckskin mare replied.

The stallion lifted his socked hoof and turned a few pages until he finally made his way past the vacation destination. Sure enough, there were two passenger ponies listed in addition to the captain and cargo.

“Sorry about the delay,” he said as he turned to face Petunia, “Please step aside with your friend there until all the other ponies have disembarked.”

The young mare weaved through the other line to stand next to Maud. Out of her right eye, she saw strange creatures with two heads at the base of the ramp.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” Petunia turned to the orange mare. “Are those the br-b-brumbies I’ll live with?” her voice wavered with terror as two single-headed monsters merged into one.

“Nah, those are the Roos,” the level-headed pegasus replied. Had Petunia known more about aviation, she would have wondered why that mare was aboard a ship and not in a control tower. The mare continued, “Every day is Take Your Filly To Work Day for them. The brumbies…” she trailed off as the next passenger approached for paperwork inspection.

After ten seconds, she nodded and let the unicorn stallion trot down the plank.

“You were going to talk about brumbies,” Petunia reminded her as the next passenger approached.

“I wonder if the brumbies you’ll stay with will be shocked to discover that you have hooves where hooves should be and not out of the top of your head. The way the map reads, I doubt they’ve met an Equestrian pony before,” the crewmare’s voice remained calm as ever. However, Petunia could not shake the feeling that she told a joke. Even Maud was easier to read.

Her curiosity satisfied, Petunia then decided to follow Maud’s lead of taking another nap to pass the time. Shortly after, the pair was awoken with feathers tapping their muzzles.

The orange mare from earlier began her new instructions, “I’m sorry to wake you two. I wanted to introduce you to your captain and set timing expectations. We will remain in port for another two or three hours while the cargo is unloaded and we do a post-flight safety inspection. That’s not enough time to visit the port, so napping is probably your best option.”

Maud and Petunia followed the mare as she trotted to the bridge. Petunia once again remembered that Maud was not significantly older than her and must be equally as antsy to gallop.

Their pegasus escort turned her head to address them without breaking pace, “It’ll be about seven or eight hours until you reach your destination. I hope Cherry doesn’t talk your ear off.”

Cherry? Was she the captain or the third pegasus crew member?

Eight paces later, the three ponies climbed the stairs to the bridge and knocked on the door to the control room. A hot pink earth pony greeted the trio.

“Thank you, Amy,” said the mare.

Earth pony. Could she be the captain or was she in charge of security? Regardless, the orange pegasus named Amy trotted off to direct the longshoremares that had just arrived. Maud stared past the earth pony blocking their way into the empty control room beyond.

Petunia’s curiosity got the best of her, “Excuse me, madam,” she started. Judging by the ears perked directly in her direction, she had indeed gotten the pink mare’s attention. Petunia continued, “I’ve never met a mare named Amy before.”

The pink mare snorted herself into a whinny of laughter. Once she had calmed down, she was finally ready to explain. “Amy? Her name is short for First Mare Amaretto Apricot.”

Maud put the pieces together before the mystery mare had the chance to continue or Petunia had to figure it out. “You’re the captain,” said Maud.

“Indeed I am!” she exclaimed while waving her yellow mane everywhere. A mane that yellow could mean exactly one thing: proud Palomino heritage. “Captain Cherry Berry at your service,” she continued.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” said Petunia as she put on a goofy horse grin.

“It’ll be nice to have passengers,” replied Cherry. “The manifest says that your names are Petunia Paleo and Maud Pie. Which one of you is which?”

“I’m Maud,” answered Maud.

Cherry turned to Petunia, “Then you must be Petunia. If you rolled on your back, you could blend in with the oceanic horizon if you wanted.” Cherry lightly flared her nostrils at the joke.

Petunia blushed. Cherry continued, “It was a pleasure to meet you. I need to take a nap before I fly our last leg. I need to be alert to fly this solo without my pegassistants. It should be an easy trip. The local weather teams regularly clear most of the way as a shipping lane.”

Maud and Petunia turned towards each other and walked away, as it was clear that Cherry had gotten lost in talking logistics to herself.

Before they could resume their nap or discuss their first impressions of seeing the captain in the flesh, their attention was drawn to a crescendo of cantering. Within a few seconds, the pink pegasus who hadn’t thought to check for spare ponies as luggage was blocking their way down the stairs.

“Miss Apricot sent me to let you know that your personal luggage has been moved to the top floor. Since your last leg consists of only you two, the captain, and no crew, she has requested that all ponies aboard stay upstairs for the final stretch,” he instructed the mares.

With that, he trotted off to resume the unloading efforts. Maud and Petunia glanced at each other.

“He’s in Manehattan,” Maud broke the silence.

Petunia was confused. “Who is in Manehattan?”

“The other pony. You wanted to know why he was not reassigned to study under me. I’m the consulting rockologist rather than his new advisor because he’s a student in the chemistry department in Manehattan.”

Maud’s idle hoof indicated that she planned to pass the time between now and when she would be able to stand on solid ground through more sleeping. Petunia joined in on the nap. It was clear that the captain would like some company while they traveled and that Maud was not going to be sociable until she had all four hooves on some regolith.