When comes to interacting with other there’s no one that can say that they can get along with everyone. There’s always that one individual that somehow manages to get under your skin. But if you are one of the lucky few that is struggling with just a handful of individuals you can count yourself lucky. Most of us will find things irritating about others at a pretty steady pace, we were simply not made to like every individual we meet. Take heed though to not dismiss people with just a glance, some who may seem nothing but annoying at first may prove to everything but that. Sometimes people will need a second or even a third chance to prove their true worth, and the opportunity for that chance lies with you. But why should you listen to my ramblings about life? These are not what you are here for, right?

It was a quiet group that left for Canterlot that morning, but given the circumstances I suppose that it was to be expected. I could safely say that everyone now involved in this mess had their own reasons for keeping quiet. However so far only Gilda and I knew the full truth of what we were about to embark on. With that said, I knew that at some point we would have to fill everyone in on the nature of this trip. But I hoped that there would be time for that later. Right now the most important focus was to find an airship with the destination Gryphus. And if the travel time between countries was anything like my last trip, there would be plenty of time to talk during the transition. Also there would be time to come up with a more solid plan than what I had been able to conjure in my mind so far.

Once the train came to a halt at Canterlot station I caught Twilight’s attention. My reasoning being that if she was to come with us, she might as well start by showing us the way to the sky dock. True to the earlier promise she gave to follow mine or Gilda’s orders she began to lead us through the streets of the cliff side capitol. Needless to say our group attracted quite a bit of attention, consisting of an alicorn princess, a griffin, a pony from every race and me. By the time we entered the wharf like area that was the Canterlot sky dock I was sure that I had heard every remark possible about me from the Canterlot elite. If there was one thing that I had been able to confirm by coming here, it had to be that the snobbish ponies here weren’t afraid to complain. In fact that might’ve been the only thing they were good for.

There would be no need to care though as they would soon be but a memory I repeatedly told myself as I looked around the large sky dock. Now the next step of my plan began, finding a ship with the appropriate heading. I quickly gathered the group around me and informed them of what we needed to find. A chorus of different acknowledgements rang out as they scattered to search for a ship. I wasn’t worried that we would end up getting scattered as I had ordered them all to meet back at the entrance we had come in through in about half an hour. And so I too began to search for a potential ship, the thoughts in the back of my head being those that I hopefully wouldn’t have to sneak onto a ship this time.

Walking among the docked ships I spied the others on occasion as they were talking with various crew members from different vessels. I had to admit that it definitely was easier to search with a party of this size. My one fear though was that finding a ship that could accommodate six extra passengers on such short notice would be difficult.

And as if my fears were some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy I was unable to find a ship that was willing to take six passengers no matter how hard I searched. It was with a defeated sigh that I started to head back towards the entrance when the half hour started to near its end. All I could do at this point was to pray to whatever deity was listening that one of the others had been luckier in their search. When the entrance came into view I found Twilight and Rainbow already waiting there. But from their drooping ears I could tell that neither of them had been able to find a ship either, so in short I barely reacted when they informed me of their findings. I hated to admit it but with half the party having failed already I wasn’t too sure of our chances to leave Canterlot in a rapid fashion. When Gilda returned and just gave me disappointed look with a small shake of her head I had pretty much given up. I knew that Lyra’s social skills were subpar at best, and that left Bonbon. To be perfectly honest I had a hard time placing Bonbon into a character. Given her obvious affection towards me I had never really come to grasp how she interacted with others.

As luck would have it though, it seemed that my decision to bring the ponies along for this would result in a positive turn of events right off the bat. For I had barely begun to lose my hope for a quick resolution when Bonbon appeared out of the crowd, a smile on her face.

“I found a ship!” She declared happily as she approached.

I could feel the group release a collective sigh of relief, as the cream colored earth pony delivered the good news. All we had to do now was to wait for Lyra to show up and we would be set to go to this ship that Bonbon had found. In fact the moment we saw Lyra we started to approach her, no one wanted to risk that the spots on Bonbon’s ship got taken by another group. And seeing how Lyra had been as unsuccessful as everyone but Bonbon, she was more than happy to just go along with the group for now.

We followed our group’s earth pony to one of the farthest docks available in the harbor. There were only a few ships docked here but all of them were of the larger variant. We continued to follow Bonbon until she stopped beside a very large ship that seemed to be some sort of cargo ship if all the crates and barrels being loaded were anything to go by.

“Ah, you’re back again miss.” A dark yellow pegasus wearing a dark green bandana called out to Bonbon as we a approached.

“And you brought the group you were talking about I see.” He continued, his eyes sweeping over the group.

“Let’s see here one earth pony, one Pegasus, one unicorn, one griffin and one-” He began to list but stopped as he saw me.

“I believe human is the term you’re looking for. But don’t sweat it we’re pretty rare.” I offered the now visibly shaken sky sailor.

“Yes, thank you.” He said hastily. “But wait you said six where is your sixth member?” he asked confused.

“Oh sorry I got distracted by the ship design.” Twilight’s voice called out from the right.

The pegasus threw a glance in Twilight’s direction. “Ah so another unicorn-” He began but paused.

He slowly turned his head so that he could clearly see Twilight, his eyes flickering between her horn and her wings. I could see how his eyes started to widen when the realization of who she was started to dawn on him.

“I’m so sorry for my rudeness your highness!” He cried out in a strangled voice, dropping into a quick bow.

A string of hasty apologies followed before we finally were able to board the ship, and from what I had seen from Twilight’s interactions with the pegasus I had to admit that she had turned into a quite convincing princess. However I also realized that with Twilight being an alicorn she was very easy to identify. I made a note to bring that up in a conversation some time during the trip. If she couldn’t present a solution by the time we arrived she would have to go back to Equestria. I was here to help rescue an individual I cared for, not to help cause a political incident. That being said the risk for such a turn of events was already high, but if Twilight was recognized there would probably be no doubt about it happening.

Anyway, as I was saying with that little incident out of the way we boarded the ship and were led to our respective cabins. There were three of them in total and while they were relatively small we would be able to fit two of us into each one. It turns out that we had been lucky to find places on this ship at all as it normally only was a cargo vessel. But given how a couple of the normal crewmembers were indisposed at the moment we had been able to procure their rooms. The asking price for the rooms was kind of high though, however the urgency of our task outweighed any thoughts of economic efficiency.

And so this is where our party found ourselves now. On the airship one day out from Canterlot, with an additional five days of travel to go.

Restless. It was the one feeling that had been haunting me for the past twenty four hours. But no matter what I did the ship would still take another five days to reach Gryphus. It didn’t help that the crew was giving me weird looks when they thought that I couldn’t see them. And by going through Bonbon I was able to find out that I was viewed as some sort of omen. Apparently wild tales had sprung up during the past month and a half. Tales about a large winged being that haunted airships. It didn’t take me long to connect the dots that I was the cause of these tales. My hasty exit from that one airship I had arrived on had without a doubt caused the crew to start talking as soon as they docked, possibly even before that. And now those stories had morphed into some sort of strange sailor’s story.

With an annoyed exhale I turned away from the railing I had been standing by and headed back towards the cabin I was sharing with Gilda. The pairings had been quite obvious when it came to the cabins. With me and Gilda being paired, the other two pairs had been Bonbon and Lyra in the second one and Twilight and Rainbow in the last one.

As I entered the hallway where our cabins where located I almost bumped into Twilight.

“Oh sorry Cloud, I was just about to come get you.” She greeted me.

I raised an eyebrow in confusion. “What for? Is something amiss?” I asked her.

“Oh no no, nothing like that. It’s just that we have been talking a bit and would like to know just what this little excursion is all about.” Twilight told me carefully.

Ah yes. I thought. Truth be told I had been expecting something like this to come up soon. And quite honestly I am surprised that it didn’t come up sooner. I pondered as I simply nodded to Twilight. A relieved expression came over her features as soon as she saw that I agreed.

“Right this way then.” She said and led me into the cabin she shared with Rainbow.

Inside I found not only Rainbow and Twilight though, but also Lyra and Bonbon. Well that makes things easier, I guess I won’t have to have this conversation twice now. I thought as I sat down facing the four of them with my back against one of the walls. Since no one spoke I assumed that they were waiting for me to speak and thus I proceeded to do just that.

“Well, I will give you what information I can.” I began but changed my mind. “Actually I will tell you everything Gilda told me, and I will take questions afterwards. However keep in mind that some questions are for Gilda to answer, so in short do not pressure me if I tell you that I cannot share something. Are we clear so far?” I said, letting myself glance over the ponies.

A series of nods and agreeing sounds was the reply I got before I launched into my elaboration of the mission they had volunteered for.

“Okay, first off this is a search and rescue task you have agreed to help with.” I began, causing the ponies eyes to widen.

“I can see that it wasn’t what you expected, but that is true nonetheless. The one we’re trying to find is Gilda’s sister Stella, our first stop will be to swing by Gilda’s home to speak with her father. Any questions so far?” I continued.

“I have one, why can’t the Gryphus authorities deal with a missing griffin?” Twilight asked, raising a hoof.

“Good question.” I said before expanding on the topic. “The real problem lies in the fact that she isn’t simply missing. From what I’ve been told she was kidnapped by a group of deserters from the Gryphus army a little more than week and a half ago.” I said to the collective gasp of Lyra, Bonbon and Twilight. Rainbow had a clearly tormented expression on her face.

Twilight raised her hoof again before asking another question. ”Why would a group of deserters kidnap a young griffin?”

I let out a sigh. “That is probably my fault. Remember that I said that I had to leave Gryphus due to circumstances? Well those circumstances involved me ending up in a brawl with this group. They challenged me over some sort of old recipe thing and I ended up defeating them. I thought that I had assaulted real Gryphus guards at that time, and so I ran before things escalated. It is only now when things have already gone bad that I realize that a grudge is held against me by this group and that they will use any means to hurt me those they know I care for.” I explained.

There was a sort of stunned silence that followed once the mast few words left my lips. I could see on my friends’ expressions that they were trying to digest what I had said. It was Lyra who finally broke the silence.

“That’s… that’s a lot to digest Cloud, but we did agree to come without asking what we were getting into.” She said.

“Yeah Lyra is right on that point.” Bonbon agreed, causing Twilight to nod thoughtfully.

“Thank you for not freaking out.” I thanked them before continuing. “Okay, this next part may seem blunt. But if you are done with your questions I’d like to ask a few.” I spoke up again.

“Okay, shoot.” Lyra said.

“Right, so first off I’d like to know if any of you would like to turn back home now that you’re fully aware of what is going down. I will not hold it against you if you do.” I told them.

“I will stand by you Cloud.” Bonbon said, being the first to respond.

“As will I.” Lyra added a second later.

Twilight looked contemplative for a few seconds longer before sighing deeply. “I know you Cloud, and I have already said at least once before that I wouldn’t distrust your judgment again before. I will stay.” She declared.

With Rainbow being the only one left to respond I turned my gaze towards her and found her still wearing that tormented look on her face just staring out into space.

“Rainbow?” I called out to her, but got no response.

“Rainbow!” I called more sharply, causing her to turn her head jerk in my direction.

“Are you going to stay?” I asked again.

“I… Yes! Of course I’ll stay. You can’t leave me behind on this!” She blurted out nervously.

I felt a headache slowly start to build in the back of my head as I observed how skittish the otherwise brash pegasus was acting. Alright that’s it. She will have to talk to Gilda, and if they can’t come to an agreement I will be forced to send her home. I decided in that instance. I couldn’t have her walking on eggshells around Gilda when things got bad, if they got bad.

“Rainbow could you come with me for a second?” I asked her, while standing up.

“Sure!” Came the hasty reply.

“This won’t be long.” I reassured the other ponies in the room before leading Rainbow out into the hallway outside the door.

I carefully closed the door and motioned for Rainbow to follow me to a spot a few steps away from the door we had just come from.

“Rainbow this isn’t going to work.” I told her bluntly.

I could see her draw breath to protest but I continued on relentlessly. “I can’t have you acting like this. I realize that you feel like shit right now for what you said to her previously, and what you tried to deny her. That’s a pretty big fuck up, yes. But hey guess what? I have fucked up before too, and I have survived those fuck ups so far. So here’s what you’re going to do. You are going to go to Gilda right now, you are going to start by apologizing for what you said in Ponyville and you are going to come to some sort of agreement. I’m not asking the two of you to instantly forgive each other but I will not have this current fools dance. Are we clear?”

“Ah, yes but-” She began.

“No, I said are we clear?” I repeated, catching her eyes with a stern gaze.

Rainbow visibly withered under the gaze before managing to croak out a “yes”.

“Good then get to it.” I said before turning and walking back to the room with the other ponies, having no doubt that she would do what she had been told to do.

As I reentered the remaining three ponies looked up at me, and a second later their expressions turned into questioning ones. I didn’t need to be some kind of genius to figure out what they were wondering though. So before they could ask I provided the answer they were most likely seeking.

“I had Rainbow go talk to Gilda. If they can’t solve their little issue, or at least put it on ice for now I will have Rainbow go back home.” I said.

“But-” Twilight said before I silenced her by holding up a hand.

“But nothing. You agreed to listen to either Gilda or I when it came to decisions and this is one of those decisions. I have my reasons for doing this, and I realize that both parties are somewhat at fault here but it has to start somewhere. That is all you need to know regarding this topic for now.” I told her and she nodded reluctantly.

“Good, that allows me to bring up another issue that I have been thinking about, namely you Twilight. Or rather the fact that you are one of currently four alicorns. Do you have any way of disguising yourself through magical means? I’d much prefer that we do not cause an incident on a national scale.” I continued.

“Hmm, that’s actually a valid point.” Twilight replied thoughtfully. “I suppose I could disguise my wings with a concealment spell.” She went on to suggest.

“No, it might not be enough. Don’t get me wrong Twi, it’s a good idea but I’m assuming that your appearance is rather well known by now and just hiding the wings is a risky gamble. What else do you have?” I countered.

“Ah, I suppose that’s true. Well I could transform into something else, like a griffin perhaps.” She suggested.

“That sounds good Twilight, however I sense that there’s a but tied to that suggestion.” I said raising an eyebrow.

“Well, yes. You see I’d have to spend time acclimating myself with the griffin form as I have never transformed into one before. That would take quite a bit of time, a week at best.” She said, sounding dejected.

“No, that sounds like the best option we have for now. In fact, you should perform this spell as soon as this conversation is over. With a bit of luck and hard work you can at least learn to move around to a passable degree before we arrive in Gryphus.” I told her in an encouraging tone.

“Alright then I’ll give it a try.” She replied, not sounding all too convinced.

“Aight last topic then, I need to know the skills each and every one of you poses. Given how I have worked closely with Twilight and Rainbow before I know a lot about their capabilities. That only leaves you and Lyra.” I said, turning my head to look at the earth pony and the unicorn.

Bonbon looked around, surprised by the sudden attention I had turned towards her. “Well, I wish I could say that I’m something amazing like an alicorn princess or a skilled martial artist but I’m just a plain old confectioner.” She said in a disappointed tone.

“Hey don’t sell yourself short Bonnie! You have an amazing way with words and I’m sure that you will find that you will be very useful.” Lyra interjected, catching her friends tone.

“Yeah, I’ll just offer those soldiers some sweets, right?” Bonbon replied snarkily.

I decided to intervene at point before an argument broke out. “No Bonbon, Lyra’s right. The fact that you have decided to stay despite knowing what you’re getting yourself into is admirable enough. Despite everything I say regarding this issue I’m honored that all of you want to help me and Gilda.” I told her.

“I… Thank you Cloud.” She mumbled, a light blush working its way onto her cheeks.

I offered her a final nod before turning to the last pony in the room. “Aight, finally we have you Lyra. What are you bringing to the table?” I asked her.

“Eh, well besides being an amazing lyrist I am also a former guard specializing in the modern style of Still way.” She quickly summarized.

“I keep hearing mention of this Still way. What is it?” I asked curious as to what it actually was.

“Oh, Still way? That’s an old combat form developed by unicorns during the time of tribes. But given how effective it was and still is today it has been kept as the standard CQC method used by unicorns in the guard. It is said that-” Twilight launched into a winding explanation about the history of the Still way martial art, and all Lyra, Bonbon and I could do was to exchange not so subtle glances as Twilight entered her zone.

Author's Notes:

Okay, here's chapter 14 and I hope that you enjoyed it. Now this chapter didn't pan out exactly as I had planned it but I guess that's just life. Next chapter will possibly contain either Rainbow's or Gilda's perspective, I have yet to decide which. I might end up writing both, or even writing neither and doing it flashback style. Time will tell and you will know what I picked some time next week.

Anyhow next working title is, A hint of rain.