Welcome back! Good news, in our recent trip I happened to come across a house that had an ammo stash. You guys remember awhile back, I think it might have been the first telling, but I told you all I would bring back a three-three-eight lapua round for you all to look at. Well, I found one among the stash. The weapons were rusted to hell from bad conditions but the ammo was kept in good storage.

Here, pass that round around along with one of my seven-six-two rounds. Here you go, don’t take too long to look at it though, got a story to continue after all.

Now, while we are passing around the shells, let’s answer some more questions, hmm?

How about you, little girl? How adorable was Spike?

Well I don’t think I can rightfully say, mainly because that would sound extremely weird coming from me, after all. He was a cool little kid to hang around, but I figure that some of you would find the way he acted to be rather adorable. Though he also seemed to have a way about him that said he was actually older than he looked. it might have been a dragon thing, but still … .

Who’s next … you! What was the weirdest thing I found in the encyclopaedia?

Heh … well I didn’t exactly read up on it, but there was a section dedicated to minotaur sex practices, mating habits, and the like. It was really weird to say the least … whoever wrote that thing must have been very dedicated or had some good sources. Hell, I know encyclopaedias for the most part include such things, but the section that had all of that under it … it was a very large section. I stayed clear of the section just for good measure … I can only imagine what was in it.

Alright, you. Did I research on the minotaur’s technology?

Somewhat, I mean that I skimmed it really, but I already knew that the minotaurs had much more out of date weaponry compared to me. I could thank Trixie for that part, but other than that, it seemed that a lot of their tech was more focused on making everyday activities easier. It was rather close to early nineteen hundreds from the sounds of it, though with an apparent use of steam tech in some things. Hell, from a mentioned page it seemed like they might have been a big part in the Daedalus’ building. I only got a gist of that part, since it wasn’t laid out in detail.

Next! If I ran out of ammo would I buy one of their guns, or learn how to reload my own?

First off. I feel offended that you would think that I couldn’t reload my own ammo … seriously, offended right now. Of course I can reload my own ammo, what good survivalist can’t reload their own ammo?! Bah! Anyway, at the time my plan was to conserve my ammo as best as possible, as well as see if I could get the necessary materials to reload my own rounds. If I couldn’t, then I would just be extremely cautious with ammo and probably buy one of their weapons.

Though you’ll learn what happened in the end with that plan.

Last two questions. You first.

Purple Smart of Sparkle? I don’t think I understand; can you elaborate? How endearing was she?

Tough to answer, considering the little amount of time I have spent with her. I mean, I can nail her personality type, but that doesn’t mean I can get used to a person so quickly unless they are the perfect match to me. I guess I would say that if I spent longer around her, she would grow on me rather quickly. I mean she was probably one of the few that naturally has the term ‘adorkable’ tagged to her.

Final question. Did I find out why the crystals gave me migraines?

Pfft! Haha, I’m sorry, but were you expecting it to be something crazy or magical? hate to say it, but it was nothing of the sort. In fact, it was merely the constant reflection of light. You can essentially chalk it all up to the crystal being too ‘shiny.’ I’ve had such migraines in the past before, usually from absorbing too much light at once, so I was kind of expecting such a reaction.

Alright, back to the story, folks! No more time for questions!

I woke up from the blissful nap thanks to someone shaking my arm.. Apparently, someone was trying to get my attention. I played dead for a little bit longer though, since I was curious as to who it was. Sure, in other situations, I would have done something forceful and quick to get a grip on the situation, but I repressed that instinct. I was safe where I was.

“Wake up, dweeb, breakfast then we are leaving,” Gilda said before shaking my arm again. It had to be Gilda … if it wasn’t, I might have grab them and wrestled them into submission for fun … maybe … if it was Dash. There was the chance that Gilda was still healing, so no action for me.

Think of it as a little prank on those who decided to wake me up ... well, would have been.

“Yeah,” I muttered, my voice half muffled by the blankets. “Go on ahead … just give me a second to wake up.”

“Can’t do that you dolt, you’d get lost without me,” Gilda said; the smugness was so apparent in her voice, I could see it even with my eyes closed. Yeah, it crossed over from one sense to another, it was that apparent.

“Fine … fine,” I said as I struggled to get up. That morning was really making me feel old. Whatever was going on with my body and Equis, I didn’t want any part of it any more. I had previously felt so young and fresh back home … in that weird world though … my age was starting to catch up.

I got to my feet and drearily looked around, forgetting that there was no bathroom attached to the room.

“Is there a bathroom nearby?” I asked Gilda, who was sitting on a chair by all of my stuff.

“Take a right and it’s the second door on the right,” she said to me before turning to look at all of my stuff strewn about the table. As long as she didn’t touch anything, we’d be good.

“Don’t touch anything,” I muttered before finally leaving the room in search of a washroom. Thankfully Gilda didn’t lie or anything, because I was not really feeling in the mood for pranks. Yes, I know what I said, but it’s different when dishing one out and receiving one.

You know what I do when I have access to a source of water? Well I tend to dunk my head underwater or in the running water until I start to feel awake. The underwater one is always better, sure, but even utilizing a shower to do so … it wakes you up without a doubt! Though only with cold water, hot water just makes you want to sleep more.

So, skip forward about five minutes to when I walked back into my room to find Gilda poking at a few things, not actually doing much aside from giving tentative prods to a few items. The main ones that had her attention were my personal charging device and a tube that I carried around with me. This one wasn’t the one that Luna gave to me, no, this one I hardly mention, but I did give a brief hint to it.

“Curious about something?” I ask as I sit down on the other chair and proceed to put on my boots.

“What are these?” she asked, pointing to the two aforementioned items.

“The first one is a portable electric charger. See the two handles?” I asked, to which she nodded. “Take the rigid one in the palm of your claw and then squeeze the moveable one twice, in fast succession.”

She did as was told and you could hear the whir of the small generator in the device. There was a small spark at the receptacle in that I attached after the rectifier. Gilda almost dropped it in shock at the spark. That’s what happens when something new catches you by surprise … shock, that’s what I was implying.

“Woah, this thing makes electricity?!” Gilda said in a shocked voice.

“Small amounts really, though the more you pump, the more that it creates over time. Honestly I just use it to keep certain devices running, and to charge batteries,” I said as I pulled my jacket over me before I started to refill my pockets with all the small stuff I kept in them. “That tube you were looking at has my alternate scope for my rifle. Hmm … come to think of it, if we are going to be in enclosed places, I should really change the scopes. Mind passing me the tube?”

She simply nodded before handing it to me gently; I gave her a curt nod in thanks before picking up my rifle and laying it down on the bed. I heard the small clicks of her talons on the floor as she came over to see what I was doing.

The scope on my M110 wasn’t exactly hard to detach, but a special little Allen key was needed to make it a lot easier for those who wanted to remove it. Luckily, I always keep said key in a small inside pocket of my jacket, one that was very well sealed.

A few seconds later, and I was slowly twisting the knobs that kept the scope attached to the rifle’s rails. A couple of seconds after that, the scope was fully detached and I was reaching for the tube that had my red dot sight in it.

Though I let Gilda undo the latches, eh why not, right? When she opened the tube, she found a Redfield Crossfire red dot sight. That means little to all of you, but think of it as a small scope that lacks magnification capabilities, and underneath the scope itself there is a small laser dot. Inside the scope itself is a small, electrically-created dot that acts like crosshairs but only takes up a very small amount of space in the middle.

Anyway, I attached that easily before tightening the knobs and placing the long-range scope in the container. That was essentially all it takes. I hadn’t touched the adjustment dials on the red dot, so it should be good, though at short range it hardly mattered for the most part. Hell, I only really used it for the laser dot underneath.

Gilda looked a little bit disappointed that that was all it took, her beak frowning slightly as I went about getting the rest of my stuff together. It took no time at all since I was proficient at packing up really quickly … many times being on the run from raiders helped to make sure of that.

In short, after about five total minutes of packing, I was ready to leave to go to breakfast. So I silently followed Gilda, though I think she was expecting me to say something or anything, since every once and awhile she looked back at me. If she was expecting a constant stream of conversation then she must have forgotten I wasn’t blue, small, and a pegasus.

Eventually we reached the main dining hall, which was full … well fuller than the dinner the previous night. The rest of the group had apparently showed up to say goodbye to us or something. I gave a small wave before taking an empty seat next to Gilda and Trixie. For some reason it was always one or the other sitting with me, never any of the others. Speciesist ponies.

So we had breakfast. Yeah, seriously it was so lifeless really for the most part … well, that’s actually stretching the truth a little bit. in reality, it was dull towards me as most of the questions were actually directed to Gilda and Trixie about stuff that didn’t really pertain to the trip.

Hell, we got through eating before I actually received my first question. Oh and the breakfast was eggs, fucking delicious. And the question was more of a statement by Purple Smart.

Don’t get me wrong, I was glad that she did what she did … I just kind of wished I was a bit more involved in the conversations

“So since you’re going to Tayros, Trixie and I took the liberty of planning ahead last night. There is a train leaving in an hour and a half that’s headed for the Manehatten port. It’s the last stop in Manehatten and the best for avoiding the big city. From there, the Daedalus should be in dock one if the schedule is correct. By the time you arrive at the dock it should be commencing boarding. Just show the tickets Princess Luna gave you and all will be well!”

“Thanks, this will help make things easier,” I said before giving her a thumbs up, then going silent. What else would I say to her, really? The conversation line was really dead on that topic. Hell, for the most part this send-off that seemed to be going on was more for Gilda and Trixie’s sake. Sure, I could consider myself a decent acquaintance of the group, but even I knew that it wasn’t about me. The whole Ponyville trip was initially about Gilda … then eventually Trixie as well. I only got something out of the Canterlot portion.

Yeah, so I just sat back and watched as they talked, then when they all started to get up and leave the room, I silently followed. Eventually we were outside the castle as it was, Trixie’s wagon parked just off to the right. Oh, and don’t forget the guards that stood outside the doors.

I didn’t know if they were the same as the ones that had originally barred my way when first in Ponyville, but that didn’t stop me from thinking about ways to humiliate them or at least poke fun at them. Of course, I never did anything, but still … tempting.

The group continued to chatter before all of a sudden Trixie spoke up, much like she did when she had been doing her show. “Watch as the Great and Powerful Trixie shrinks her wagon to the size of a key chain!”

Yeah fucking right.

Her entire caravan was encased in the pink glow that her horn gave off when she levitated things. I glanced over to her horn to see that the magic resonance that is usually given off was much brighter and larger than normal. At first, I was going to assume it was from her straining to lift the caravan or something.

Then I was proven wrong.

With a pop, which was about the same volume as a suppressor, the caravan disappeared. I was fucking shocked, mainly because it looked like she had teleported it away. I wanted to ask her what she thought she was doing … that was until she walked over to where the caravan had been … and then picked up a really small object, not even as big as half her hoof.

“As you can see, The Great and Powerful Trixie, with much assistance from her assistant Twilight Sparkle, has shrunk her caravan to a size that could fit in a pocket!” Trixie proclaimed, which actually earned a few claps from the group. Sure there were eye rolls, but there was also clapping. I was trying to say something, but I failed to form words at that moment..

Trixie proceeded to walk over and pull my right hand out with her magic. She then floated the little object into my hand. “Take care of this; Trixie can’t imagine what she would do to you if you lost it.”

“Right,” I said simply before inspecting the tiny caravan-looking key chain figurine. It had to be it yet of course my rational mind kept denying that what I was holding was the caravan that Trixie travelled with. Still … for good measure I made sure to put it in the same padded container that I kept my scopes in.

While I stared at the thing as I placed it into the container, the group started walking towards the train station without me. Hell, I had to run to catch up to them as they made good time at their trotting pace. I envied horses since they were moving at such a fast pace, yet they seemed to be conversing as though there were walking … well fast is relative, they were moving at a decent jogging pace. The type of pace where you run out of breath quick enough that you can’t really talk with others.

Eventually I caught up to them … when they stopped at the train station. Fuck my legs were hurting a little bit, though not as much as the previous day. Still, it wasn’t fun having to run through town just to catch up to the ponies, but I couldn’t complain really since … well … I’ve got nothing really, but I still didn’t complain or think of complaining.

Anyway, the ponies began to sit and chat as Twilight went to the booth and ordered our tickets for us, which was a really awesome gesture by Purple Smart. I mean we could have bought our tickets, but it was still nice to actually have someone buy something for you … it always is.

So we sat and waited for a good ten minutes, the rest talking about stuff while I just relaxed on a bench. Once again, they were lost in their own world that didn’t include the human, but I didn’t mind at all, the relative quiet was nice. At least it was until the whistling of a train that was pulling up broke it..

Oh god it was that garish thing again!

“Wait,” I said out loud, enough for them to hear me. “The train is coming from the west … we’re headed to Appleloosa again, or something?”

“No, no, no, there is a junction prior to Appleloosa that goes northeast until reaching Manehatten. It isn’t nearly as far as where you came from! That would be silly,” Twilight said with a light giggle.

“Then how long is the trip?” I asked, getting a little annoyed that I was just being told that.

“About six hours to Manehatten. Appleloosa is a little over six,” she said with a smile. Yeah, the content was starting to sound weird in shape. It didn’t matter though, since I was going to be off it shortly.

“By the way, Ryan, I forgot to give you some stuff … unfortunately they are currently in Trixie’s trailer … hehe,” Twilight said sheepishly as I merely raised an eyebrow beyond my Oakleys. “Umm … inside the trailer is the camera I told you I was going to give you. Not only that, but there is also a green bottle in there. It is liquefied dragonfire that is linked to Spike. If you need to send a letter, just let a drop hit the paper and it will be sent!”

I looked at her for a second, the pieces of what she said slowly falling into place thanks to the help of me using the ‘it’s magic’ excuse. Eventually, I just nodded my head and gave a small thanks before returning to watching the train get closer and closer.

The thing eventually came to a stop before a whole mob of ponies started to disembark. Well not a whole mob … more like ten really, but still. I got up off the bench and proceeded to the train car that was in front of me. As I stepped in the doorway of the train car, I looked back to see the whole group doing their goodbyes and the like. Trixie and Twilight hugging, Trixie and the others hugging, Gilda and Dash uh … hugging, before Dash looked at Gilda and whispered something that was just out of my earshot. It probably wasn’t meant for me to hear anyway.

Eventually the group broke up, allowing Gilda and Trixie to proceed past me in the doorway and into the train car. I stayed in the doorway, even as the train conductor came by and started to try and marshal me inside. I simply glared at him ‘till he relented to let me stay. I kept looking at the group that I had met not so long ago and … well, I wouldn’t say became good friends with. Let’s go with decent acquaintances.

I mean it wasn’t for the lack of trying on their part, really. I’m just a cruddy old bastard that felt outside of his age group. Still, they had made a place in my memory enough that I would miss them for the time being. Sure, I would see them again, but in who knew how long. Years had already started to fly by, but that didn’t mean that at times it also crawled.

Eventually the train started moving, and the initial jerk caused me to reach for a handle. Still, I stood in the doorway and watched as they slowly started to get smaller and smaller as the train moved. They waved to me and I tipped my cap back to them before they eventually were too far to see.

I sighed before eventually moving back inside the car. When I entered the one that Gilda and Trixie went to, I noticed something to my delight. It was completely empty … well minus Gilda and Trixie of course.

So I sat my pack down at the head of the car and proceeded to sit on one of the benches that allow me to lean up against the wall.

“Well,” I said to the other two, both of them proceeding to look at me, “it seems our journey has begun.”

“Indeed. Trixie is eager to see what becomes of this,” the blue mare replied as she laid down on her own bench, across the aisle and one row down from me. Gilda followed and sat on the bench in front of me.

“So what now?” she asked, apparently already impatient.

“Now … now we dance!” I said before sitting up right and pointing the ceiling in dramatic fashion. After holding that for a few seconds I proceeded to flop backwards, once again leaning against the wall. “Actually, fuck that.”

That got a decent laugh from Gilda and Trixie alike. At least my humour was still sharp. Though Gilda had a point … what were we going to do to kill a six hour train ride? I mean sleep was an option, but there was no way that I would be able to sleep well the entire train ride away. The only option was maybe the deck of cards I kept in my pack. In the end, I decided to wait for at least some time to pass before breaking those out.

“How were your visits?” I asked them, a little curious as to how it went for both of them. Sure, I knew some details, but there was also a lot of time spent away from each other.

“Twilight Sparkle was lucky to have Trixie. She helped bring light to her life, obviously!” Trixie said boastfully, causing me to sigh and shake my head upon hearing that. Apparently, Trixie saw that as she quickly amended her statement. “What Trixie meant to say was that it was very nice to see Twilight Sparkle once more. She helped Trixie with her dilemma and now here we are.”

I nodded in acceptance before looking at Gilda with a raised eyebrow. This time she could see it since I had removed my sunglasses and put them on my cap. She actually blushed at my look. It was definitely funny to see, considering her ‘hard’ nature.

“It was cool I guess. Dash’s friends aren’t that big of dweebs after all, so it went alright. Dash and I are uh … friends again. So yeah,” Gilda said as she rubbed the back of her neck, trying to play the whole thing off in a cool manner.

“You’re welcome,” I said in response. I figured that was the best I was going to get from the catbird, so I might as well take it and roll with it. Eventually I would get her to try something else other than cover her feelings with half-truths and whatnot. That wasn’t the time, though.

“What about you? Trixie hardly saw you at all,” Trixie asked, turning the tables on me.

“Eh, it was fine. Learned some new stuff, met new people … ponies, drank a lot, and had decent meals. Can’t say I’ve had better recently,” I said, playing it off much like they did. There were obviously things that didn’t need to be discussed between us and I was perfectly content with that. I wasn’t Applejack, I wasn’t going to call anyone out on lies.

Speaking of which, I bet you all thought that there was going to be a confrontation or something regarding a lie, huh? Yeah I can see it in some of your faces, you thought Applejack and I would go at it. Well I had thought that a few times while I was there, but thankfully, there wasn’t a single time where I lied and she was around … hell, I hardly lied that whole time as it was.

So, for a good amount of time, we just sat back and basked in the silence that filled the train car. At one point, a train attendant walked through to check our tickets, so that was a little bit exciting. Other than that, it was a dull little bit of time.

Sure, I had my music to listen to, but I didn’t feel like listening to anything at that moment. Well that was at first anyway, and then an idea struck me. Trixie might be of use and we could listen to some good human metal.

“Hey, Trixie … you got a sound increasing spell or something?” I asked suddenly, nearly startling the mare. She calmed down quickly, though.

“Trixie does know such a spell, why?” she replied, looking more than a little curious at what I was thinking about doing.

“We could listen to music, to help pass the time or something. Dunno, just a thought,” I said with a shrug. Yeah, I had thought it was a good idea at first, but then saying it out loud made it seem a little lame.

“Trixie supposes it couldn’t hurt, though she wonders how we will listen to music,” Trixie said, an eyebrow perking up in curiosity.

“With this,” I said as I pulled my iPod out of its pocket. “This is an iPod. It currently is the host to over two thousand songs. I figured there would be something you might like. Get cultured with human music; you know you want to.”

“How is this going to pass the time?” Trixie questioned.

“Don’t know about you two, but music passes the time for me. I guess it can be a background thing while we do something else,” I said with a shrug. “Can you two think of anything better?”

“If we had cards, I could beat both of you dweebs in poker,” Gilda said from her laid-back position on her seat. The griffon looked damned relaxed as she was currently staring at the ceiling of the train car while lying on her back.

“Looks like we’ve got something, then!” I said as I fished through my pack. I knew I had a pair of cards in here. Solitaire is fun to play when you've got nothing else going … that, and I was on an endless journey to teach people card games.

Well, maybe not endless, since I haven’t taught you all any, but you know what I mean.

I eventually found said cards and tossed them over to Gilda. She sat up in surprise before leafing through the deck and starting to shuffle.

Either way, get ready for some background music, I’ll keep it low enough that I can speak up over it, but I’m still going to play a few songs. Only a few though, since there was a lot of time passed via music and cards. I can only talk about such things for so long, after all.

“Trixie supposes that is as good of an idea as we will get,” the blue mare said as she made her way from her seat to the couch Gilda was currently on. I was about to ask what we were going to use for a table before Trixie’s horn glowed up again, and a pink, see through table appeared. The same colour as Trixie’s magic. I looked at her in sheer confusion, to which she smiled. “Trixie is very knowledgeable in magic! A simple table construct that has a permanency glyph added. Until Trixie dispels it, it will never disappear!”

“Impressive, now about that sound-increasing spell?” I said, completely ignoring Trixie’s glare by giving her a big smile. She gave a small ‘harrumph,’ then her horn flashed and the iPod was encased in a glow briefly before it disappeared. “Thanks!”

So while Gilda kept shuffling, I scrolled through my music to see what song I could play for them. No doubt I would want to stay away from the death metal, thrash metal, and the like … that was fine actually, since I had a good range. Eventually when Gilda had dealt out the cards, I found a good song to start with.

“Let’s start with this song. Blind Guardian’s Mirror Mirror,” I said before pressing play. The song blasted louder than I wanted, so I turned the volume down until it was a reasonable level. “Now, what are we playing?”

“Poker, but since you don’t have any bits of your own we can’t play for money,” Gilda grumbled.

“Play for bits but give me a cut, and everything that I lose will be owed to you both when I do make some for myself. If I win then I keep them, how about that?” I offered, which seemed to go over well with them. So we started almost immediately, with all of us having a hundred bits. Thankfully, Gilda had enough to give me leverage.

I’ll try and skim over the poker since it was rather quiet for the most part except in between hands, which is when we talked. Anyway, the first hand went my way rather nicely. I got the small blind of one bit with Trixie forking up two for the big blind.

Yeah, we were trying to stretch this game out so we kept the numbers small to start off with.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we were playing five card stud. Anyway, I got dealt two jacks, a five, a nine, and an ace. I called Gilda’s bet of five bits before we swapped out cards. Of course, I threw away the rest while keeping the jacks, and you know what I got? Another jack among that three. Yep, I felt pretty good about that.

I ended up playing it casually and just calling Gilda while Trixie folded. She only had a high pair, so of course I won. It was a good start, honestly. I usually have bad luck in poker.

Anyway, while I shuffled, we decided to talk more; the topic was actually about the music surprisingly.

“What is this song? It doesn’t sound too bad, though a little fast,” she said as her head slightly bobbed to the music.

“I told you when I played it,” I said with a light laugh. “Blind Guardian was a … let’s just go with metal band. Pretty much all of my music is metal though some are slower. Guitars, drums, and powerful singing … that’s pretty much metal.”

“Or growling …” Gilda muttered, though loud enough for both of us to hear.

“Yeah, Gilda got a taste of the heavier side in my music. Metal is diverse and has many types of … singing, let’s go with that.” I proceeded to deal out the cards in a quick fashion, before setting down the deck and picking up my own hand.

“Trixie understands, she thinks. It sounds somewhat like minotaur music but much faster and louder,” the blue mare said as she checked her cards that I dealt out.

“Sounds like I’m going to enjoy my time there then,” I replied with a large smile. Then we went back to our game of poker.

Long story short, I promptly took the next hand with a nice bluff … and a little bit of intimidation, though I’m pretty sure it was mainly the bluffing part. I’m good at telling lies when I need to; always have been. Hell, I used to make my baseball team believe all kinds of false things about my life before meeting them. It was always hilarious to see their genuine reactions.

Good times.

Anyway, promptly after that hand, I switched on a new song. Sure, there were two others in between the Blind Guardian one and the one I am going to show you, but they were hardly interesting for the other two.

The song I switched it to was Amorphis’ Death of a King. This song was also off the same album as the song I showed you yesterday … god I loved that album when I found it, which was only a few weeks before The Reckoning happened. I got fucking lucky if you ask me.

The only reason I am showing you this song is because they actually commented on it, unlike the previous two.

“Trixie must say, this song is interesting … different from the last two,” the blue mare said as she promptly shuffled the cards in her magic. “Trixie feels that Ryan might have some musical taste, but that is yet to be determined.”

“I don’t know if I should take that as a complement,” I said with a small chuckle.

“Too slow for my taste,” Gilda muttered as she picked up her cards. I simply laughed at that statement before picking mine up as well. Absolute shit of a hand. There was literally nothing in there, the whole thing being a random mix of cards that just didn’t work together.

“I could always play more of that second type … the one that was too hard for you?” I said with a small elbow jab at her side. She glared daggers at me in response, so I held my hands in mock defence. “Don’t worry, none of that is on the playlist. Though I can add more songs to it if you want.”

There was no response as we all placed bets and got our new cards, with me deciding to do a full hand shuffle. Why not, right? What could I hope to lose, really? The answer of course was the hand, since I folded promptly after.

“Trixie ponders just how advanced you humans were. You only mentioned it briefly but never elaborated,” Trixie said, seemingly out of the blue since there was no real reason fo- … wait, no, that was a tie in after I mentioned adding songs, wasn’t it? Damn, and here my response was wrong then.

“Out of the blue, but I’ll bite,” I said in reply as Gilda won the hand with three of a kind in jacks. As she mixed up the cards, I looked over to Trixie. “What specifically do you want to know?”

“What was the pinnacle of human technology before you came here?” Trixie asked, no real flourish to her voice like the one she usually had.

“Pinnacle of human tech … I like how you worded that. However, the question is a bitch to answer, since it’s all about perspective. I mean some would say that our pinnacle would have been the latest technology or probably the internet. Don’t even ask what the internet was … it’s a long and painful experience. For me, though … that’s a tough one. Give me a hand or two to think about it,” I said in response before picking up my cards.

So we took our time with the next few hands, Trixie and Gilda winning them respectively. All the while, I pondered her question, remembering all of the tech that we had in our world, looking even at what survived. It was a little bit of an arduous journey through that train of thought … I mean I had to go back before I was born as well as recall info that I had only been told about once, if at all. Let’s just say I thought of a great answer, in my books, but I know that more than a few would probably have disagreed with me.

“I think I have an answer for you, Trixie,” I said as I picked up my next hand. Natural flush. I of course played it cool so that I could try to garner more out of the pot.

“Trixie is listening,” she replied, and judging from Gilda’s casual glances away from her cards to me, she was as well.

“Now, I could have gone with a lot of answers, and I mean a lot. We’ve had many millennia to learn and gain knowledge in a world that gave no shortcuts. So, I could have gone with an elaborate answer revolving around what my music device is. I could have said something regarding my weapons, or I could have just told you about some sort of gadget created before The Reckoning. Those would have been easy answers. To me, though … the pinnacle of human tech was flight.”

“Flight? Pfft, lame!” Gilda said in response, to which I merely smirked. I had expected as much, and a lesser man would have probably “gone after” her with statements and what not backing what was said … I don’t deny every once and awhile being a bit of a lesser man, but I do it with class.

“You were born with the capabilities to do so, Gilda. Hell, I bet you could use magic as well if it came to that. So you have always had a way of being a part of the wide blue yonder. You’ve had access to the knowledge of how flight works since the beginning … humans … we could only look up in amazement for the longest time. When I say we, as a species, have been alive for millennia, I mean upwards of ten thousand years of improvement. Yet since the Reckoning, it hasn’t even been two hundred years since we invented the first heavier than air flying machine. Two hundred out of a possible ten thousand is beyond imagining to most. Yet it’s not just defying our born nature that makes flight the pinnacle.”

We finished the hand before I continued my lecture. Besides, sometimes I do my best thinking when I had something to control the fidgeting that my hands do. Oh … and I won the hand, woot woot.

“From then on we have used flight to gain access to places that would have taken untold amounts of time to find, used it to visit other parts of the world that … well would have been like I just said … in fact those are pretty similar, anyway! It also allowed us new forms of recreation and fun, allowed us to study things that we would never had seen or truly understood without flight, and it gave us access to the stars. Without flight, we would probably have been behind by unknown years in regards to our tech. So why not consider it one of the biggest achievements we’ve ever made? It essentially allowed us to be more than what nature intended us to be.”

They both took some time to take in my answer as I dealt out the hands. Hell, it took them a rather long time, as we were able to get through three more hands, which thankfully had me holding onto more bits than I started with.

Eventually, Trixie responded. “Trixie can’t say that she isn’t surprised by your answer, though Trixie does see a whole new light on what we take for granted.”

“Really?” I ask, a little bit of sarcasm creeping into my voice. “After that little bit, you see things in a whole new light? I’m calling bullshit.”

“No dweeb, I get what she means as well,” Gilda said before folding her hand. “We take things for granted when some aren’t born with such things.”

I just stared at the both of them with squinted eyes, trying to discern if they were playing a game or something with me. I mean it only made sense, right? Who in their right mind doesn’t even argue a point before coming to a conclusion that they had been looking at something the wrong way?! No one! Even Gilda was acting weird, despite her being the most normal out of everyone I had met thus far.

“Right …” I said slowly before turning back to the poker game. Things became quiet after that, the rest of us focusing solely on the game and the recent turn of bad luck for me. Now I want you to understand why I was suddenly down to roughly forty bits out of a hundred previously given.

Cards have their own luck god. Seriously, cards is a game where you can be the better player without a doubt, but the sheer amount of chance that is involved when you’re not running numbers in your head is ridiculous!

What I mean by numbers is card counting. It’s tougher with poker but can be done with Blackjack. Anyway, apparently the card god was having it in for me as that flush I mentioned before the rant was the last good hand I had. I mean I had maybe a couple of low pairs but even with that I couldn’t bluff my way through when both of them were pulling straights and such out of nowhere!

Eventually it all came down to a last hand with me holding onto twenty bits, and I had my first decent hand in a while. A three of a kind. I was going all in, no doubt!

I apparently had done something to make the card god angry with me. Gilda ended up winning all of her bits back from me with a fucking royal flush! A fucking royal flush! I have never seen one in my goddamned life prior to that hand! Do you know how rare they are? Well they are beyond rare as far as my life was concerned! I had started so well … and then it all went down the drain.

Enough of me bitching about my card luck; I should get back to the story.

Now, despite the fact that I was expecting them to pull something or say something that would counter their willing acceptance, nothing ever came. Nothing. They just laughed at how bad my luck was regarding the card game and then continued on playing until Gilda eventually came up on top of the whole thing, taking the pot of three hundred bits, much to Trixie’s annoyance.

All the while they played, I kept the music to something from the slower half of my library, that and tried to reason out how the hell my little speech went over so well. Eventually speculation gets you nowhere and you just need to ask.

“Right, I’m confused. How did my lecture just turn around your opinion? Especially yours, Gilda?” I asked, more than confused at that point.

She shrugged at first before she went back to laying on her back and staring at the ceiling. “I was going to say something, but then I remembered you came from a world without magic. Just kind of clicked.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose at how simple of an answer that was, then proceeded to look over to Trixie. She didn’t respond immediately as she focused on collecting the cards and packing them back in the deck. Once done with that, she proceeded to float the cards over to me so I could put them away. Then she proceeded to pick up my iPod, that I had turned off, and did something with her magic before floating it over to me; probably dispelled that previous spell. When I snatched them out of her magical aura, she answered my question.

“Trixie has learned a lot of lessons about humility and looking at things from another perspective. She believes that you are right with what you implied, and as a species it does sound like flight was a good choice,” she said before trotting back to her couch. “If you had met Trixie a few years ago then the answer would have been to mock you, but that was a young and naive Trixie.”

“How old are you again?” I ask with a joking tone. In response, she utilized her magic to flick me on the side of my head, much to the amusement of Gilda, who snorted in response. “I kid, I kid!”

We settled down slightly after, just in our own worlds, really. Trixie was reading a book that I don’t understand how she got, while Gilda was apparently sleeping. I on the other hand, decided that I wanted to see the rest of the train car.

So I left my pack behind with them, but kept my weapons on me as I opened the door of the train car. See, back before the Reckoning, the little spec in between the train cars was usually covered up so that people could pass without the howling of wind annoying them or whatever the real reason was. This train and all its painfully coloured features had no such thing. Instead you walked in between cars by stepping outside.

I didn’t mind one bit.

In fact, I took my time when I exited our car. I just stood on the small platform immediately after the door. It was nice to feel the wind grazing by me, but I still pulled up my scarf to cover my face. It was nice just being outside after an hour of being cooped up in that train car. Yeah, only an hour of it and it was getting annoying. I had truly become an outdoorsman.

I think I stood for a good ten minutes, just looking out at the passing scenery, which was grassy hills interspersed by groups of trees and the occasional house. It was nice to see something other than just straight buildings again … still, I kind of missed some of natural wonders that the Reckoning created. I mean, did you know that Manitoba, which still has the most lakes out of any province by sheer luck, now has the largest waterfall I’ve ever seen? I mean, it’s probably bigger than the previous record holder, only because it literally falls off what is essentially a cliffside. Annoyingly, out of all the things that didn’t change in that place, the mosquitoes are still fucking massive.

I’m rambling a bit. Anyway, eventually I stood back up, since I had been leaning over the guardrail slightly, and took one last deep breath before proceeding into the next car.

When I first opened the door, I noticed a few ponies turn their heads to see who was entering the train car, but after sizing me up, they went back to their normal … whatever they were doing. I didn’t spend much time in that train car, as it had nothing of interest. Sure, there were new ponies I didn’t know, but I wasn’t in the mood to chat up a random stranger or anything.

So I’m not going to bother describing any of the ponies since they are absolutely irrelevant to the story. I mean, I know I have been telling you all minute details, but not for this part … that would be agonizingly long.

I quickly made my way through the train car, exiting it and stepping outside once more, where I took my time again to just watch the passing landscape. It was a nice time once again.

As I was about to cross to the next train car, another pony stepped out of said train car, pausing for a second to see that he wasn’t alone outside.

“Need by?” I asked before gesturing to the door behind me.

The older looking, golden-coloured, white maned, unicorn stallion just shook his head before replying. “No, I just wanted to get some fresh air. I didn’t expect anypony to be out here.”

“I can believe it,” I replied simply before continuing to look out at the landscape. Sure I had wanted to go in, but this was a nice form of silent company.

“Crossroad,” he said before turning and offering a hoof to shake or bump … whatever you want to call it. It didn’t sound like a name, but hell, there wasn’t anything else he could be referring to.

“Ryan,” I replied before giving him a fist bump. Immediately after, we went back to our silence, with him eventually using his magic for something, but I didn’t see what it was since I only caught an orange flash out of the colour of my eye.

“Want one?” he said with a slightly muffled voice. I turned to see him holding a small box of what looked like cigars. I looked at the box for a second before looking back at him. The cigar box was floating in his magic while he was holding a cigar in the corner of his mouth. I simply shrugged before picking up one of the cigars.

He quickly floated over the cigar cutter and snapped the end off. He then proceeded to make the box disappear before his magic flared again, which resulted in the ends of the cigars being lit up. I gave a simple ‘huh’ before puffing on the cigar a little.

I don’t smoke necessarily but I do make exceptions every once and awhile for a good cigar. This one was a good cigar. I couldn’t really describe the after taste it left, but I can tell you that I could only think of two better cigars from my past. One was Cuban, which only made me confused as to how a man in Rome got his hands on it. The other, believe it or not, was Chinese. To me that’s weird only because of the impression that I still have on China from before The Reckoning. Either way, this pony cigar or whatever it was, was damn good.

We just stood there, puffing on the cigars, enjoying the silence. Eventually, I decided to ask the only thing on my mind. “Why?”

Thankfully, this stallion knew exactly what I was referring to. “You and I are two of a kind.”

That was all he said … that was all I needed. This pony and I were truly two of a kind, the type that don’t need anything to really solidify a bond of sorts. It was these sorts of people that were rarer than you might think. Sure, lots of people want to be the silent brooding types, but this wasn’t that. This was simply two very, very like-minded people not needing to speak to have a conversation. You’ll understand one day when you find your ‘other half,’ which is not referencing future love or anything.

No, I always believe that no matter where you go, there is the chance of running into what I call your other half, someone that is nearly exactly like you almost down to the point of not needing a single word to know everything about you. This stallion was the pony half of me. Oh, and by other half, I’m not inferring that there is only one other person like that … there could be infinite people who are your other halves … if you subscribe to the multiverse and multiple dimension theory.

Anyway, eventually he decided it was his turn ask the single worded question. “Career?”

“Wanderer, you?” I reply simply, taking another puff.

“Traveler,” he replied simply before puffing on his cigar as well. Then we met each other’s eyes for the first time. It was like there was a click, and I knew that he wasn’t telling the whole truth, just like he knew that I wasn’t telling the whole truth. Whoever this pony was, he truly was my other half.

So we stood there until the cigars were on their last breath, when he dropped his and snubbed it under his hoof before walking back to the train car he had come out of. He looked over his shoulder before tilting his head, then opening the door and thus leaving me alone outside the train car.

I decided that was good enough for my exploration of the train car, and headed back the way I came.

When I returned to the train car, I found that Gilda had completely passed the fuck out, a little bit of drool falling down the crease of her beak. Trixie was still reading her book in a curled up position.

I wasn’t tired, so I just took my seat once more, plugged in my earphones, and proceeded to listen to some music. I wanted to remove this rather mellow mood, so I blasted some of my best metal that had an upbeat type of sound.

…

You want to hear it? Really? Alright.

Lucky for you, I didn’t choose a song that was too long. Here’s the song, I did say it was upbeat! Just not using the same definition of upbeat as you probably do, haha!

…

…

Upbeat huh? Yeah, that’s what you get for asking for the music before asking for the name of the song and what type of music it is! Life lesson right here, write it down or something.

Anyway, I simply sat back and kind of meditated while I had metal blasting into my ears. Unfortunately, it didn’t really pass the time any faster; we were probably half way through the trip at this point. That was a rough estimate of course, but it was still rather accurate if I remember correctly. I might have a really, absurdly sharp memory, but that doesn’t mean that the passing of time is something that I actively remember.

That’s a whole ‘nother can of worms though, regarding theoretical physics that I barely know anything on, and personal beliefs in the situation

Eventually, a pony rolled a food cart into our car. It was loaded, top to bottom with what looked like pastries, some packaged food, and a few bottled drinks. Though that was all I could see at the moment; she did have a menu of what she carried but I didn’t bother looking at it. I spied my treat right away so it was pointless to ask to see it.

Gilda managed to wake up from the smell of food alone, while Trixie put down her book and promptly began to look at the offerings. It was at this point that I realized that ponies probably had some weird way of metabolising sugar on absurd levels. The reason I say that is because of the sheer amount of sweets that was on display on the second level of the cart.

Fucking fine! I’ll tell you what the cart looks like but not the mare, since she simply took the bits and said her courtesies. The cart had three levels of open food, enough space for them to be lifted from their spot and moved out. After the three levels, there was a connected metal bin of sorts that had one door. I assumed it was for storing the rest of the food.

Anyway, Gilda immediately snatched up the only meat product that was carried, which wasn’t even a meat product since it was a fish. Yeah, I don’t even understand why they just happened to have sushi with them … that’s essentially raw fish. Sure, there is a better description, but it’s not important.

I simply shook my head upon seeing her going ham on that fish … it’s a fucking saying, alright? Jeez … anyway, I eventually managed to guilt Gilda into giving me enough bits to buy myself a nice big bag of trail mix … and by big bag, I actually managed to persuade her to give me the current stock, which was equivalent to a four litre jug of milk … of trail mix. It was going to be a decent trip after all!

Yeah, and the best part was that it was the “M&M” kind by my standards. Essentially that means it had little chocolate pieces included in the mix. Any trail mix without the chocolate aspect is deemed heresy in this camp from now on! Heretics will be executed immediately!

…

I was, joking! Gah, you guys take things too literally … though I was only sorta joking. Only about the execution part.

Moving on!

Trixie was the last to choose something, but when she did … a packaged thing of peanut butter and crackers. Yeah, that mare had an addiction or something to those things; I can understand loving something, but it seemed like that was the only thing she ate when it wasn’t a planned out meal.

The snack mare left after we had our food, and we all went back to what we were doing. Gilda was lounging while patting her belly, apparently liking that fish, while Trixie went immediately back to reading her book. I, on the other hand needed something to do to keep my hands busy. So what else then clean my gun and do some basic maintenance.

Yeah, I started to kind of get OCD about cleaning it, I mean when you have little else to do and you’re a fidgeter, you find something to keep your hands busy or it starts to get annoying. I mean I could have done some lap drumming, but I’m pretty sure that would have caused an irritated Gilda to try and kill me after a while.

I took my time dismantling and cleaning my M110. By that, I mean it took me a little over an hour to do so, because why the hell not right? I could do it quickly if I needed to but I really had no rush, so why not take my time.

Now, on the home stretch of the train ride, which is the last half of the ride in my books, we ended up hitting a stop at a station. Apparently a rather busy one as well, because of what followed.

I was a little surprised by the stop, so I opened a window and saw a station platform that had roughly twenty ponies or so based on a quick guess. Thankfully we were the last train car, and based on my journey through the next one, there was easily enough room for the new additions. By that, I mean I hoped that not a single pony would come to our car. I could only imagine the sight.

Unfortunately we were graced by three mares coming to the back train car, probably hoping to find it empty. Instead, they ended up finding a weird creature, a relaxing griffon, and a reading mare. They were most likely fine with the latter two, but when they took one look at the weird creature cleaning something, they slowly backed up from the entranceway to the train car before closing it slowly.

Best pony version of “nope” that I had seen, and would ever see. All three of their faces bugged out slightly, just enough to be noticeable but not enough to be over exaggerated, and then they just gave a nervous grin before walking backwards. It was amusing enough that I broke into a fit of laughter once they had closed the door.

I laughed pretty hard, all by myself, Gilda and Trixie not really bothering to join in or even look at me. I think they finally realized that I laughed at things that were not necessarily funny to them. Hell, I laughed at a lot of stuff that most people wouldn’t find funny.

Once the train started rolling again, I started to settle back and go back to what I was doing.

I’ll be honest, the rest of the train ride, which was two hours of nothing, were exactly that. The only thing that happened was me listening to music and eating trail mix, while the other two did their own things … aka read her book and nap, respectively.

Do you mind if I skip the boring two hours? Fine, I’ll play you another song in exchange. Here’s your options for genre type. You’ve got power metal, prog metal, thrash metal, sludge metal, or death metal. Choose!

…

…

Sludge, really? Well I can’t say that it’s a bad choice, just unexpected. Alright. Here’s Gojira’s L’Enfant Sauvage. And yes, they are a French band.

…

…

Not exactly everyone’s cup of tea, huh? Glad I could see some nodding along with it, I don’t blame you anyway. It took me awhile to really get into them as well. Still, they are a great band in my books … unfortunately they weren’t able to release any new albums before The Reckoning. I was hoping for something at least, but nah … too many versions of that same situation.

Alright, so I’ll skip ahead to when we started entering Manehatten. You see, I was expecting everything that I saw, I mean with that sort of name, there was no way that it would be some sort of small town. Thankfully my deduction that the pony world had essentially copies of things from our world, I was right. Manehatten was truly Manhattan.

Skyscrapers in the distance, large apartment-looking buildings, warehouses and a large amount of big business-looking buildings … it was truly what I expected from seeing the pony version of a well-known American city. It’s tough to explain to you since it wasn’t anything really different for me. If I had seen something out of the ordinary I would totally have explained it, but this … no, I was expecting it … as I’ve said more than once.

Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of New York from before the war, so I can’t really give you a comparison … I’m sorry everyone, but despite everything, this is one time when I can’t go into detail. There was too much of what I was more or less used to … it was almost too human-like.

Either way, I still looked out at the myriad of passing buildings, not even bothering to pay attention as multiple ponies ended up boarding into our train car, apparently not caring about its previous occupants. Hell, Trixie and Gilda had to share a seat … I have good peripheral vision.

A couple of stops down the line was when I finally cued in on something … there were speakers that announced the stops. Yeah, the entire time I had somehow completely missed hearing it … well not really ‘somehow’ since I was almost certain that it was due to the fact I had been listening to music the entire time. Hell, I only just managed to pull out my earphones before a voice came over said speakers.

“Manehatten docks! Last stop in Manehatten!”

Thankfully, I was all packed up by the time we came to this station … our station … whatever. Either way, Gilda and Trixie proceeded to hop off their seats once the train finally came to a stop. I picked up my pack as well before following them out of the door.

The sight that came in front of me? A smaller looking station, kind of like Ponyville’s in design in that it was a single building that wasn’t too much taller than me, really. Probably only nine or ten feet tall, or if you’re normal then roughly three metres plus, while being long enough to probably have multiple rooms.

It wasn’t the station that drew my attention … no, it was the fucking humongous thing in the background. Right, so maybe humongous isn’t even the right word … let’s go with … Godzilla-like. That seems more fitting in a way.

…

Godzilla was a make believe giant lizard that destroyed cities. Moving on.

What I was looking at looked like a massive galleon that had some sort of giant engines sticking out the back of it.

A galleon was an old ship, made of wood, and utilized massive sails to move around on the sea. That’s the best description you’re going to get from me, since it’s been a long, long time since I have seen one, let alone described it. I can only remember so much despite said augmentation. Oh! Here, have any of you ever heard tales of pirates that roamed the ocean? You have? Perfect! Remember the type of ship they sailed on? There you, that’s a galleon more or less.

Now, this galleon, with what looked like rocket engines on the back, was probably ten times the size of what you’d imagine for a galleon. Hell, this thing looked like it could transport an entire city's worth of people!

“What. The. Ever. Living. Fuck. Is. That?!” I said, actually punctuating each word with as much ‘wut’ as possible.

“That’s the Daedalus, you idiot,” Gilda said before walking ahead with Trixie, leaving me staring at the ship in complete and utter shock. I didn’t know what to think … I truly didn’t. Hell, thinking back, it’s tough to exactly picture it as it is.

Let me try here. Alright, this might be a little rough in the description.

The body looked to be made of wood like a galleon’s, but the underside had what looked like a metal plating, and yes, I could see the underside since it appeared to be hooked up to a bunch of massive towers or something to hold it in place. The whole ship was painted with brownish coating, and it was obvious that it was a furnished wood. Though on the metal at the bottom of the ship I could see very distinct coloured plates. One was painted blue with what looked like stars in columns on the horizontal sides of the metal pieces. That wasn’t all, though … that piece only covered half of the ship’s underbelly. The other half was another metal piece that was coloured with what looked like a cross between red and orange paints that alternated vertically with white strips. It kind of looked like the American flag all in all, except that the pieces had an obvious divider and that the stripes were vertical instead of horizontal. Those were the key differing aspects.

As for the rest of the ship, well since it was actually up in the air, I couldn’t see much past the broadside, but I can tell you about the engines a little.

Let’s see … they were fucking massive. Any of you remember the rockets that were used to launch spacecraft? Yeah? Well there was essentially two of them. I don’t mean that massive one in the middle, but those white support rockets that were on the sides. That’s how fucking big the engines on this ship were. The only difference was that instead of just being saddled up along the side of the sip, they seemed to merge into the ship after a little bit.

While staring up at them, a thought crossed my mind … I would jump ship if I found out that they ran on steam. Don’t ask why … just don’t.

I have to say that for the most part it was an extremely impressive craft. The ponies had done something really impressive for their tech, and while it was extremely cool, I still liked the more aerodynamic designs of our ships. The only questions I had about it were why it was hanging up in the air, how something that fucking heavy could hang up in the air, and if we were going to board it before it was dropped into the dock.

I had to forcibly shake myself from my thoughts when I heard Gilda yelling back at me to hurry up or I would be left behind. Yeah, right … I was the one with the tickets, after all. So I started walking and eventually caught up to them, my eyes eventually deciding to stop staring at the massive ship … instead moving on to scanning around to see what the Manehatten docks looked like.

Let me tell you something … those ponies were neat freaks. Neat freaks mixed with more than a hint of OCD as everything looked to be meticulously placed, not a single fucking fibre out of place in that entire dock. Hell, the ponies who looked to be working there were also moving around in a very militaristic fashion. My guess was that this ship was more or less an Equestrian Navy vessel that was being used for transporting people.

How did I know that last part, about the whole ‘transporting people’ thing? Well you see, there was a tower leading up to the deck of the ship itself, and at the foot of that tower was a fucking massive line of everyday ponies. I was tempted to facepalm at the possibility of waiting for fucking ever, and by the looks on the girls’ faces, they were thinking the same thing. Of course, that was until I remembered exactly who signed off on our passes.

Actually, come to think about it, I never actually read over the documents outside of the banknotes. I took a wild guess and figured that Luna had expected such a thing … well more like a wild prayer.

So I put down my pack and withdrew the tickets from the envelope. I mean I needed them anyway, might as well check it before taking a spot in line.

Lady Luck had returned!

On the ticket was an explicit statement that said ‘whoever bears these tickets has full access to Royal perks in accordance with Equestrian Royalty and Minotaur Leadership.’

That meant no fucking lines! That and some other stuff, but I was more excited about getting to cut in front of everyone standing in that line. Sure, I felt a little bad about it, but not enough to actually go against what I could do with the tickets. Call me selfish, but waiting for hours is not something I like to do if I can help it

Now, Trixie and Gilda were a little hesitant of just striding past everyone. By that, I mean they were all for it but they didn’t want to do it while looking like complete bosses. So you have three random people walking towards the front of the line at the base of the tower. Two of them, a blue mare and a griffon, were walking normally as though it was nothing new to them. The third on the other hand … well he strode with his head tilted upwards, a smirk on his face, and shifting his entire shoulders with each step.

Really, just imagine the most badass and stuck-up type of walking you can do. What I did matches or even tops that. I had no qualms with looking like a dick, I really didn’t. I want to give you a good reason for it, but honestly outside of not giving enough fucks, I can’t say I had a reason for doing it.

So we strode up to the front, a few complaints being shouted every now and then, but we didn’t stop to pay them attention, only because of the amount and the pointlessness of it. If there was a way to calm their minds easily I would have taken it probably, but there wasn’t.

When we eventually got to the front, I noticed a few ponies giving me looks. Based on looks alone, they were the type of people that were massive pricks to others, just because they could be. Assumptions aside, they got what was coming to them.

…

Look, I’m sorry in a way, because I do sound like a massive dick here, and I won’t deny that I was, but everyone has their moments of just wanting to shove other’s faces into the mud. Most people don’t actually act on it, and hell, I never acted on it for the most part … minus sarcastic responses. This one time was one of the few times I acted out on my inner dick’s feelings. Call me an asshole or whatever, but what happened, happened, and there is no changing it now.

A group of three, what I assumed were Marines or something because they didn’t wear guard armour, approached us as we neared the front. Instead, they wore a mixture of blue and white armour, kind of like in a camo pattern but not as random. It’s a tough description since I could see patterns, but the patterns themselves had no real pattern as to where they went … fuck it, you see my desert camo pants? Yeah, it was like that only with blue and white splotches. The armour itself wasn’t as directly metal as the Royal Guard ones, instead it looked closer to a very thick fabric. As for helms, they had much the same helms as the Royal Guard, but once again, the helmets didn’t look metal, just like body armour in a way. It’s a rough description, I know, but it’s the best I can do. Sometimes there isn’t the right words available for describing what you see.

The one thing I noticed explicitly out of the entire get up was that in the middle of the helm and on the left side of the chest piece was what looked like an upside down anchor with a light blue background, almost the same colour as the blue on the bottom of the ship. Well those decorations, and the fact that they had what looked like crossbows and swords on their backs.

“Get back in line, civilians. There is no cutting of this line,” the lead guard spoke in a very curt and plain manner, much like a serviceman who dreaded their job or something like that. “If you refuse to comply then we will detain you.”

“At least you make your intent shown …” I muttered before pulling the tickets out of a breast pocket I had stored them in before passing them to the guards. “Viola! Read ‘em and weep.”

The lead guard gave me a very flat look as though he was asking me if I thought this would actually change anything. Hell, the ass didn’t even take my tickets, he just kept looking at me before his mouth opened to speak. I was having none of that!

“If you don’t read ‘em and weep, I will have to tell Luna and Celestia that their favourite human was denied access by their own navy! Whoa, I can only imagine just how much ass chewing will happen if that occurs!” I said slightly dramatic-like while slowly pushing the tickets under the nose of the stallion who wanted to have none of my bullshit, but the Princess name drop was enough for him to look at the tickets, at least.

Of course we had a crowd watching this debacle, and though none decided to make a big fuss about it, I could hear a few of the ‘higher class’ ponies talking about how, and I quote from one of them, “the Princesses would never associate with something as wretched as that thing.” Yeah, it proves that even colourful ponies of the magical land of Equestria could be snobbish pricks that needed to be punted in the balls.

Long story short on what happened next; I did a little ‘fuck you’ dance as the guards confirmed the authenticity of the tickets, then led us up the tower.

It was a glorious thing to have done. Especially the ‘fuck you’ dance, which involved me giving them all the middle finger while doing a slight jig behind the three guards who led us up the boarding tower.

...

Of course I was singing ‘fuck you’ all the while. I can also confirm that more than a few guards and regular ponies chuckled at the sight. I mean I only directed the ‘fuck you’ dance at the assholes who made those type of comments, so of course some might laugh.

Moving on. We were on our way to the top of tower, and thankfully there wasn’t an endless set of stairs to climb, instead they used what they called ‘levitation pads.’ There was about four of them that took you to the top, and about eight ponies or so could fit on one, at least by my estimate, since the six of us had decent room. When they said ‘levitation pads’ I really wanted to get into another ‘alicorn/pegacorn’ type of debate, since they were elevators no matter what they wanted to call them.

You don’t know how glad I am that I don’t need to explain elevators to you all. Moving on.

When we left the tower at the top, a nice little breeze greeted me first. The second thing I noticed was a pony in a formal type of navy dress standing in front of us once we exited the tower. I could only assume that said mare in front of me was the Captain of the ship. I mean it made sense, since I’m pretty sure Captains introduced themselves personally to each V.I.P and such.

“Welcome aboard, I’m Admiral Tempest and this is my ship,” a light blue tinged fur bat pony mare with a black mane that was done up in a bun said to us. By light blue I mean it was so close to being grey that only a careful eye would notice it. She stood with a posture that told me she had spent many years in the navy and such. Now, the mare wasn’t that young really, being a slight bit older, but from what I could tell she most likely deserved that rank for prior service history. It was only a feeling, but something told me she held her title in name only. Her voice… seemed familiar..

The entire introspection happened in a short period of time before she spoke again. “Now, am I to understand that you are carrying Royal Tickets? ‘Cause a forgery is not something to take lightly.”

“You know the world’s gone to hell when you can’t trust the word of others any more,” I said, a little bit louder than I should have as I handed her the tickets. She looked at me for a second before chuckling lightly.

“Few have said truer words,” she said with a light smile as she examined the tickets.

After examining the tickets for a few moments, she gave a small whistle, shaking her head at the same time. I was tempted to ask her what that was supposed to mean before she handed back the tickets to me, and in a very unprofessional way said, “So I guess my sister was right when saying you boned the Princess. Though I can totally see why she went for you. I definitely wouldn’t mind getting a piece of you as well, if you know what I mean.”

Jaw dropped. Her eyebrows wiggled.

Face paled. Her eyebrows wiggled harder.

Eye twitched. Her eyebrows were still going.

I was currently on a ship being run by Candlelight’s sister.

When she said those words, I could literally hear it in her voice - there was an uncanny similarity in how she spoke, so much so that I might as well have been talking to Candlelight. And as my eye twitched, I noticed just how much they looked alike. Sure, she had that blue tinge to her coat, but I could see it without a doubt: a striking resemblance.

Now you might ask why I was that shocked. Well you see, while I found Candlelight funny for the most part, I had been able to keep my distance because of her shifts and the fact that it was a large city we were in. I could have gone anywhere if she annoyed me or such. Here, I was stuck aboard a ship that was being run by her sister, and by the way she said that last line … she wasn’t gay.

“What are the chances that I can jump off this bridge and not be caught by one of you?” I said as I motioned to Gilda and that group of pegasi sailors lined along the sides of the bridge in their motionless at attention stances. It wasn’t an enclosed bridge but the railings were high enough that it would have been more than a little tough for ponies to hop the railing, I know I could have.

“Zero, sir,” one of the pegasi sailors spoke up, and I swore I saw him smirk.

“Fuuuuuck me,” I said, pulling my hand down my face in a dramatic facepalm.

“That’s the plan,” Tempest replied with more than a little amusement in her voice. Of course I just heard Trixie and Gilda laugh at that reply, it would only make sense for them to laugh at my pain.

I looked around briefly before sighing. “Fine, let’s get this over with.”

With that, I walked right past a smirking Tempest, one of the sailors following along with me. Sure, I dragged my feet a little at knowing that what was going to happen was without a doubt happening, but I figured I might as well get it over with.

No, I’m not referring to sleeping with Tempest. Fuck you all; all of your mind are in the gutter. I was referring to this ride in general. I was headed to my room, nothing more, and don’t think otherwise.

“Wait! It’s standard protocol that VIPs are supposed to share the first night with the Captain of the ship!” Tempest called as I walked past her, my laughing companions in tow. “By that, I mean -”

“I know what you mean! And no they’re not!” I cut her off as I yelled back without actually looking at her. I just kept following the sailor who was leading us down the deck and towards what I assumed was the entrance to the passengers’ quarters. “You’re not a captain either!”

“How about a quickie, then?!” she called back, seemingly never leaving her spot.

“No!” I replied promptly, not even thinking it over.

“How about oral?!” she yelled back just as we got to the door. “A quick sixty-nine?!”

I didn’t even bother responding, instead ducking my head as I followed the sailor into the depths of the ship. The entire trip was going to be one long attempt at seducing me; I just knew it. I didn’t have to have magic or some mystic foresight that allowed me to know this, it was just the truth. It might as well have been literally written on the walls.

And by literally, I mean it. I might as well have walked down the ship’s hallways and seen it repeatedly. It would read, ‘she’s going to try and fuck you!’ That’s how blaringly obvious it was to me.

Now I know a few of you who would think exactly the opposite, but remember … I wasn’t there for otherworldly pussy. If I had a single goal while being there, it was to see the world and continue doing what I had been doing back on earth. I’ll leave it to wonder if that means it happened or not … at least until I give you the answer in the end.

So, the hallways were surprisingly large for a ship, but then I remembered just how fucking large this ship was. It had that typical wooden ship type of feel, with one being able to see each plank, but thankfully, the halls were painted with a light shade of blue and white. I would have hated looking at all that brown for however long the trip was.

Yeah, surprisingly enough I didn’t actually ask how long the trip was, and nor did I think to ask during that trip. I guess I was a little odd in that regard. Most people would have dreaded the time spent in travel, but even with the whole ‘Tempest’ thing, I was looking forward to the time killer.

Eventually the sailor stopped in front of a rather large set of ornate doors. Why were they ornate, you may ask? Well if I still had the tickets, I would flaunt them in front of you and tell you that it gave us the same access as royalty, since you dolts don’t listen very well. I said this earlier … damn some of you can be slow.

When I opened the doors to reveal our living quarters … we all just stood there looking at the room in awe. Everything was furnished with the most beautiful furniture you’d ever seen. We’re not talking about just decent looking furniture, no … we’re talking about the fact that everything looked to be made of fucking gold! That table with four seats at it, gold .... not to mention that the chairs were gold-looking with a purple, almost silk-looking seat. Hell, there was a couch that looked just like the chairs for the most part! Gold and purple silk everywhere!

“Is … is …” I asked, barely managing to get a single word out, my shock was that immense.

“It is not gold, sir. Just appears to be, though the silk is real. A gift to the Princesses and Minotaur Prime Minister from Saddle Arabia’s Sultan,” the sailor said in a practiced manner. I could only imagine how many had asked that question. “There are four separate bedrooms, each with their own bathroom. A bell just around the corner, in the room, can be utilized to call for food. Otherwise, there is the main restaurant two decks down. Just follow the signs. If there is anything else, do not hesitate to bring it up with the Admiral. Here are your keys to the room, and have a good stay.”

I managed to give the sailor the thumbs up before taking the keys from his magical aura, then slowly walking into the room. I thought that my room back at the castle ... that I didn’t really use, was nice, but this was … this was something else entirely. In fact, it was far too much for me to handle at one time. Yet most importantly, I needed fresh air, especially after being stuck in that train for way too long. So without further ado, I simply set my bag down on the lavish couch before heading back the way I came … though I did decide to knock on the table to see if it was actually gold.

Two knocks later, and the door was confirmed to be wood painted gold. Hell of a job they did, but alas, it wasn’t all gold … and here I was going to start cutting chunks out of it if it were. Cut enough out of the rooms, and I could be rich when I returned home.

“I’m going to head topside until they force me back down here. Feel welcome to join me or not,” I said with a shrug. Surprisingly enough, they both shook their heads in response.

“Trixie is going to explore the ship. This might not be her first time on it, but she can tell there has been upgrades. But first ...” she said, before disappearing into her room. Then I looked to Gilda.

“I’d join you, but I’m starving right now. Going to see if any of the dorks on this ship cook meat,” Gilda said before walking past me and down the opposite direction of the way we came in, which I only assumed would lead her deeper into the ship.

Now, I didn’t explain the hallway or the journey to our rooms very well, but that’s only because it was a very short trek to the room for you. See, the moment we entered the door into the ship, we turned right, headed down the hallway for a bit, and then stopped in front of our door.

Oh, yeah … also forgot to mention that our room had a sick view out of the rear of the ship … or aft if you want to go nautical. Whatever.

So I made my way back onto the deck of the ship, just to see a steady stream of ponies coming aboard, though their destination was entirely different than ours when we came aboard. In the time it took for us to get to our room, the bridge we had walked across grew two additional sections that actually branched off to the left and right in a downward angle. From my view I couldn’t see where they led to, but I only assumed one of two answers were possible. Either there were doors on the side of the ship that acted as the main access, or they just ended and ponies jumped into a free-fall.

Guess which one was right!

…

I’ll fucking cut you. Don’t think I don’t remember your face, jackass!

Yeah! That’s right! You better fucking move away, let the crowd protect you! Fucking dickbag …

Anyway, I was about ten steps out of the door before I felt very soft hooves wrap around my back. Yes, and by back, I mean a pair at my waist and another around my neck in what was the farthest thing from a choke hold. Hell, I was surprised that the pony that jumped me didn’t knock me over just from that.

“Welcome back,” her voice purred directly into my ear. I entirely mean purred, because you know who was currently holding onto me like a backpack would. Honestly, I didn’t know how to respond at first, part of me freezing up due to sheer amounts of ‘wut’ while another part of me contemplating just what to respond with.

“Aren’t you supposed to be an Admiral?” I asked Tempest as she rubbed herself into my back, apparently snuggling in.

“I am an Admiral. The Admiral of Fleet Proteus, in fact, who just happens to be on temporary leave while the Fleet is docked. And as Admiral of this ship, I am commandeering you,” she said before nibbling on the lobe of my ear. During this entire time, I stood there with a very dull expression on my face. Even her nibbling was not enough to remove my deadpan look.

“And what would your sailors say about this?” I asked, more than a little curious on what I would expect for the rest of this trip.

“They will say nothing if they know what will keep them from working latrines the entire trip. Besides … they’re … ‘used’ to this by now. My crew is specifically chosen,” she said, and I didn’t need see her to know that there was a smirk on her face.

“Fine, if you’re going to be my backpack then I’m not stopping what I was doing,” I said, changing the subject a little. I wasn’t kidding earlier when I said that ponies with wings were lighter than I expected. It was like I was carrying my packs once more … well a little heavier, but nothing that was of a burden. Besides, I figured that I could make the whole thing out to be a hilarious act if I ran into the right ponies.

I don’t know if she heard me say that, since she was too busy nuzzling into my neck. I think that’s the right word anyway. Either way, I figured I would walk the ship’s deck and just get a feel of how massive it was.

Now two things to note from that walk. First, was just how fucking large the ship was. This thing took me almost five minutes to walk across, and that was without stops from others. The stops were actually amusing as it was ponies stopping me to ask Tempest for orders. Do you understand how amusing it was to have your own bat-pony backpack acting all official and officer-like while being attached to you? It was fucking funny as hell.

That acts as good transition to point number two. It’s kind of tough to walk and focus on other things when you have a bat-pony backpack constantly snuggling into you and rubbing her hooves and wings up and down your body. A weaker man would have broken down, no doubt.

Don’t give me the odd looks with regards to this section. I know they looked like ponies, but remember … sapient. It sounds odd to think of at first, the whole … thing that Tempest was doing, but especially for them and their world filled with sapient races, when you get down to the bare bones of it, they are just like us … but look different. It’s a weird topic, but I can see from some of your faces that I’m not the only one in thinking that there was no problem if it came down to it.

Hahaha! Oh, that’s priceless! Watching a crowd search out for the aforementioned! Don’t judge now, or I will kick you out. Only I can judge you here and that’s because this is my story to tell. If you tell your own, then you can judge all you want.

Back to the story, hmm?

So I stood at the foremost point of the ship and got to look out at the sea that was ahead of us. I contemplated what the sea was going to be like. Some of them back home were known to be rougher than others, while some were the exact opposite. Was the Proteus Sea going to be a treacherous journey, or would we be sailing through calm waters? For that matter, how exactly would the engines work underwater? Was there some kind of pony magic that kept the fire from being extinguished immediately? Or perhaps it utilized some sort of pressure-type movement.

All of those thoughts raced through my head until I felt a nip on my exposed neck. Damn, bat ponies had sharp teeth! “Hey! Be careful, or I will drop you right now!”

“The ship doesn’t give its Admiral orders,” she said before apparently licking that spot. This mare was starting to weird me out, but I knew of weird people … still.

“The ship can decide to break at any time … or perhaps go over the edge? Can the Admiral carry a ship on her own?” I asked coyly before looking over my shoulder with a raised eyebrow.

She paused her licking for a second before grumbling a bit. Finally she answered, “Fine.”

Then she went back to nuzzling into me. Goddamn, this mare was crazy. However, I had a feeling that this was just a show or something. Even Candlelight and her antics had another level to her than just being a- and I overheard this term from Horizon in the bar- ‘tail chaser.’ Though I’m pretty sure that the same saying was used back before The Reckoning, it was a much more literal saying here.

Eh, deal with the obsessive, clingy, and horny part of Tempest to get to the normal pony beneath that. I mean, that’s how it happened with Candlelight, so why wouldn’t her sister be the same?

Uhp uhp uhp, no spoilers right now. You’ll hear about it as I go on, so don’t be greedy, now.

I continued to stare out at the endless sea in front of me, the waters looking surprisingly calm and even-tempered. I know there are tons of those moments with our own world, but usually the oceans back home didn’t give off a feeling of serenity at the same time. It was a nice feeling, really. It almost took my mind off of the bat pony backpack.

My staring was broken when I heard an ‘ahem’ behind me. So I turned around to see who had cleared their throat to get my attention. What I saw was a grey male pegasus with white hair standing behind me with a very dull expression. He didn’t look that old for the white hair, but then I remembered that ponies encompassed the whole goddamned spectrum of colours. One thing I noticed above all, was that his face was hardened more than any sailor I had seen so far. By hardened, I mean that there were a few scars across his muzzle and the look alone said he had seen some shit.

Finally, I looked down to see him wearing what looked like officer’s clothing. I could only assume upon first look, and basing it off the pony clinging to my back, as well as the sailors I had seen earlier. Whoever the pony was, they were probably important.

“Can I help you …” I asked, leaving the question open ended so they could tell me their name.

“First Mate Skyline, and you’re not who I wanted to talk to, sir,” he added before pointing a little behind me. I picked up instantly, so I turned around, letting him deal with my backpack. “Admiral Tempest, we’re almost finished with our preparations for launch. All passengers are aboard and the crew are finishing their pre-launch inspections. We’re ahead of schedule and should be ready within five.”

There was a deep groan into my shoulder before I felt the bat pony let go of me and return to standing on her own legs. I turned around to see Tempest smoothing out her uniform, all the while grumbling about her crew being too efficient. I nearly chuckled at that, it was too funny to see her get annoyed at having to stop clinging to me.

She looked over her shoulder at me, before giving me a wink … twice. Then, she walked off with an overly exaggerated sway in her hips. I, in the meantime, just turned around to look out at the sea once more. I loved that calmness.

“You should be back in your room for launch,” I heard Skyline’s voice speak up once more. It surprised me that he didn’t follow Tempest, though I didn’t care too much.

“I’d prefer to be on the deck when it happens, if I can. Always liked the experience of first setting sail into the ocean,” I replied. That earned a small chuckle from Skyline; I didn’t know why he chuckled at the time, yet I understand now.

“Fair enough, sir. Come, I’ll take you to the command deck and you can watch, though Admiral Tempest will be there,” he said with a knowing wink as I looked down at him. I shrugged my shoulders before gesturing for him to lead.

See, I forgot to tell you that there was one little difference about the ship. See, aside from the galleon part, the section that usually had the person steering, otherwise known as the helm, was actually an enclosed area on this ship. It looked to be made almost entirely of glass from a distance … and even from up close. They probably had some magic or something over it to protect it from the elements.

As we walked across the deck, Skyline struck up a line of thought that almost had me blushing. “So, Admiral Tempest has taken a liking to you, I see. You’re lucky … in a way.”

“Oh?” I simply replied, eyebrow propped up in question.

“She knows what she’s doing and she’s rather picky about those she … heh, ‘courts.’” Skyline was wiggling his eyebrows back at me, the meaning not lost on me.

“I can see that … without a doubt the most forward gal I have ever met,” I replied with a light chuckle. “Is she always this clingy?”

“Clingy? Sir, you’ve got a whole betting pool on you two already. I think you’re the first to turn her down for this long. If you can manage the rest of the trip … well I’m sure it would be a record.”

“A betting pool, already? Well call me amused at that, though I think I can manage the rest of the trip. Though I expect a payout when I win,” I responded with a smirk.

“Really? What, you like dick instead, sir? I mean, no offence, it’s perfectly fine, but I would be lying if I said it wasn’t surprising,” Skyline mused, but before he could go any farther, I broke out laughing. Well, perhaps not outright laughing, but more of a choked back laughter. Either way, it stopped his musing.

“No, no, no, nothing like that. I’m just far enough along in my life that sex is just not up on my list of things to do,” I replied, almost laughing halfway through my explanation. “By the way, how old is Tempest?”

“If I didn’t serve under her since basic, I wouldn’t know. She doesn’t divulge a lot about herself in casual conversation, sir. Though for the record, she is thirty-three. The youngest Admiral in all of Equestria. Don’t let all the of sexual innuendos and advances fool you, sir. She’s one of the best tacticians in the entire Navy.”

“Good to know,” I say before opening the door to the helm for Skyline. I followed suit, making sure to shut the door solidly.

“Don’t forget to do the locks up,” Skyline said, to which I rolled my eyes before doing up all the locks, and let me tell you there was many. Two full bar locks, a latch at the top and bottoms, and finally a chain lock. Once done, I turned around and walked up the remainder of the stairs to let me see the helm.

I was a little surprised at just how advanced the helm area was. I mean there was nineteen fifties-era tech! Consoles that had read outs and buttons … unless you’ve seen said consoles, it’s near impossible to explain them to you. I mean, the best I can say is that they looked like rather large, three feet high boxes that had all types of old computer-style gadgets on them, including a keyboard!

There was a total of five of said consoles in the room. Two were flanking the rather out of place steering wheel. Then, three more were facing the aft of the ship. That steering wheel, I mentioned? Not made of wood but instead made of what looked like a light alloy … possibly aluminium, though the design was the same as a typical galleon. Not really sure, considering I didn’t ask about it.

“So … how do you run those consoles of yours?” I asked Skyline as he led me over to a group of seats that were behind the steering wheel. The chairs were shaped in a half circle with a large backrest to them. The colouration on the outer portion of the chair was white, while the inner was red … it reminded me of many science fiction movies.

“Magic-infused crystals and electric wires. Wires send the pulses to the right crystals, which then send another pulse through another set of wires. That essentially is what happens, unless you ask one of the techies.”

“Huh,” I replied simply before sitting down in one of the chairs. Just as I finished sitting, Skyline jabbed me in the side.

“That is the Admiral’s chair, I suggest you move before she-” he said before was cut off by an exclamation from said Admiral.

“Look who’s decided to join us!” she said with a large amount of enthusiasm before trotting briskly over to me. I made to get up and relinquish the chair, but Tempest was having none of it.

“No, no! Sit! I can always find another chair,” she said with a mischievous smirk, before looking around. “Well it seems that there are no empty chairs left, I guess I’ll just have to make do.”

I let out a deep sigh at that. Want to know why? Because there were two open chairs that were flanking me. Sure one was probably for Skyline, but she could have easily taken over the other chair. No, I knew just where she was going.

With a quick hop and spin before a flutter of her wings, she landed on my lap gently, then promptly leaned back so that my chin was able to rest directly on top of hers. The entire time, she was smiling with childish glee, and fluttering her eyes at me. I didn’t respond, and instead just looked at her with a questioning stare.

“What? It’s a very comfy spot,” she said before giggling lightly, followed by her clearing her throat. “Is everything ready, First Mate Skyline?”

“Aye, Admiral. We’re clear to depart,” he said before sitting down in his chair.

“Perfect! Strap in, sailors, an-”

What did you ask?

Did you seriously ask me where I put my gun?

Christ, you interrupted me for that? I … I … I guess I didn’t explain it, did I? Fine, storyteller oversight! I stored my M110 in the cabin, making sure to put on the safety and unloading it completely. Other than that, my pistol was still on me, as well as all of my ammo.

Better? Good.

Anyway …

“Perfect! Strap in, sailors, and prepare for ignition,” she said out loud, before looking up and me and whispering. “Let me strap you in.”

Before I could respond, she promptly turned around on my lap and pulled two straps from the side of the chair. She then manipulated them so they connected in the middle, around my stomach, while my shoulders went through their respective loops. She then proceeded to re-sit herself in my lap, looking ahead. “Hold onto me tight, my big stallion.”

I reluctantly wrapped my arms around her, causing her to give off what sounded like a small ‘squee’ or something akin to squeezing a squeaky toy. It confused the hell out of me, but Tempest didn’t even get phased by it.

“Helmspony! Take us out of the harbor!” she exclaimed, to which the helmspony, a blue earth pony mare, saluted before hitting a button in the center of the steering wheel.

At first, I wondered what that was supposed to do, but then I felt a massive lurch from just under us. I knew it was the large engines, but I figured that they would activate when we were in the water. In fact, I decided to ask just that.

“Wait, aren’t we going to be dropped in the water, first?”

Tempest just laughed before grinding herself a little further into my lap. “Water? No, my dear stud, we don’t need water. Activate the wings!”

The ship shuddered again after a few seconds. It was then that the realization of what was happening hit me. We were on a fucking airship. A magical and technological airship. I was done. Completely and utterly done.

Then there was the massive force of us being propelled up into the air at what looked like a forty-five degree angle.

I thought about closing my eyes at first, but then figured if I was going to die, then I might as well see the fiery explosion. Thankfully … and slightly unluckily, we didn’t explode. Instead, we kept surging forward into the air. All the while during our liftoff, Tempest had her forelegs up in the air and was screaming ‘woo’ as though we were on a rollercoaster.

Okay, I can see many confused looks on your faces. Let’s get through them one at a time to get rid of confusion.

What I meant by an airship was something that looks like it should be a boat, but in fact has the capabilities to fly like planes do. You guys know what planes are obviously, right? Good, well imagine this galleon again, though without a mast, has massive engines, and then has wings on the side that don’t flap. Then picture it flying through the air.

That’s essentially what the Daedalus was.

Next issue.

Rollercoaster? Well it was an amusement park ride, where people go in very small train car type of vehicles. About four people per car, sometimes more, sometimes less. Then, a group of them that are connected go through a set track, often at rather high speeds. The track itself takes them up into the air, and proceeds to do large drops, rises, and even loop-de-loops. It’s meant to be a thrill ride, and many people got large amounts of joy out of riding them.

Apparently, Tempest was one of those types.

I honestly don’t know how to drag out an extended scene of the ship just accelerating up into the air. So instead I’ll cut to the chase and say that after a good couple of minutes of having Tempest yell ‘woo’ all the while feeling the thrust of the ship pushing me into my chair. It can easily be implied that I was ecstatic to finally be high enough in the air that the ship could level out.

After a few moments of being at a level course, Tempest decided to get the crew organized again … from my lap.

“Perfect launch, everypony! You all know your positions … if you don’t, then please find your way out of my helm. First Mate Skyline, do inform the passengers that we have reached cruising level and they are free to roam about the ship as they please. And get the air density spell going, we don’t need non-pegasi passing out on the deck,” she said from her spot on my lap. I proceeded to sneakily disengage my ‘seatbelt’ while she was speaking, but I didn’t manage to escape before she turned her attention to me.

“As for you, my big, strong human, why don’t you get comfy right there,” she said as she turned around on my lap so that she was now facing me before purring out, “I don’t mind a crowd.”

“Yeah … no …” I said before giving a gentle push, causing her to slip off my lap and onto the deck. Then, I proceeded to walk quickly to the door, which someone had opened prior to my arrival at it. As I departed the bridge, I could hear Tempest in the background.

“You’ll succumb eventually! They all do! It’s inevitable! I’ll have you inside me one way or another!” Tempest shouted as I made my departure from the area, quickly ducking back down in the direction of my room.

I simply shook my head at that mare. She was damn insistent and up front. If she wasn’t a rather adorable looking pony I would have been creeped the fuck out, but I have to say it eventually does start to wear on you. If she looked anything like a regular pony from our world, then I would have been creeped the fuck out of, but instead, just like every other creature, there was a sort of … cartoony aspect that gave off a more approachable aspect.

I know I never discussed it much, but it’s true that they had a look to them that didn’t feel exactly realistic, while at the same time being obviously real. They looked more like something that should have been drawn by an artist or would fit better in an animated cartoon from back before The Reckoning.

…

…

Sorry … I just thought of something really disturbing. That train of thought led me somewhere I didn’t realise until now. When I was really young, there was a bunch of things that were being commercialised for kids and all of that, and as a kid who watched cartoons, you couldn’t help but catch a commercial for cartoons or the toys being sold with them. Well, looking back, I remember a toy line that was sold to little girls back in the nineties. it was called My Little Pony if I remember correctly. I don’t remember a thing about it really, except for disturbingly bad looking animations and weird toys.

The thought of this Equestria having a cartoonish feel makes me feel like there is a connection, but I know for a fucking fact that there isn’t. The world I went to wasn’t fucking cringe worthy, I know that for a fact … well not cringe worthy in the same way, at least.

Let’s move on, okay? This line of thought is not one I want to continue.

So, eventually I made my way into my room, opened the door and proceeded to faceplant into the first couch I found. Apparently whatever exhaustion I had decided to come sneaking up on me immediately after we hit cruising altitude. It wasn’t some odd phenomenon or anything, no, it was just my body finally realising that I wasn’t a young kid any more and that even spending hours upon hours doing nothing often can lead to being tired as fuck.

“I hope it’s supper time,” I muttered into the velvet couch.

“Almost. When I checked, the chefs were preparing the food,” Gilda said from my left. “Oh, and I managed to convince them to serve meat.”

Honestly, I didn’t even care that she was there. Hell, I was too tired to act. I mean I knew she would be there since this was our room after all, but still … didn’t care that I didn’t notice her until that moment.

“Sure you did,” I said, not moving from my spot.

Gilda did some sort of movement or something, at least I think she did, because there was a brief silence before she changed the subject. “Where were you, anyway? Getting bonked by that leather wing?”

Yeah, apparently each species has some sort of derogatory name for them, or so I assumed, based upon Gilda’s rather crude statements. Those mainly happened later, while that was the first time I had ever heard her say something of the kind. I didn’t question it … if she wanted to use it, it wasn’t in my realm of things to deal with.

“I got a front row seat to the take off. And no, Tempest has yet to get into my pants,” I replied before finally turning my head to regard Gilda. She was laying down on a couch on the other side of the room. Sound really travelled well in that room. “How many more days do I have to deal with her?”

“No clue, dweeb. Ask The Great and Powerful Dork,” Gilda said while rolling her eyes.

“Where is she?”

“Probably in her room. What, you expect me to know where she is at all times or something?”

“Something like that,” I muttered, though she probably heard it anyway. I moved to get up when I was gifted by Trixie walking out of her room, which was perfect, since that meant I could flop back down onto the couch. “Trixie! When’s supper, and how long is this flight?”

“Trixie has no clue on supper, human. As for the trip, we will be in the air for two full days according to Twilight Sparkle,” the blue mare replied as she moved to hop up on a chair on the same side of the room as Gilda.

“Great … two full days of having Tempest pawing at my dick,” I muttered, which caused the other two to start laughing. Sure, they thought it was funny but neither of them knew the struggle … actually they probably did. Though that wasn’t here nor there at the time. So instead, I just groaned into my comfortable couch.

Then a brief thought struck me, causing me to instantly push myself up high enough to gaze at the table by the window. What I saw caused me to sigh in relief. My gear was still there, rifle and all. With that confirmed, I faceplanted once more into the couch.

Subsequently, there was a knock on the door, followed by Trixie telling them to come in. I didn’t look over to see who it was, instead just listening for the time being.

“Supper is about to get underway and Admiral Tempest has invited you all to her table. If you accept, she expects punctuality in forty-five minutes,” the mare said from the doorway.

“Trixie can assure her that we all will be delighted to join,” Trixie said, much to my groaning protest. She had undoubtedly accept just to watch me squirm. Well … probably not, since Trixie didn’t seem like the type. If it was Gilda who had accepted, then I knew it was to watch me squirm. Either way, I still groaned in protest, but it was of no use as the door was shut quickly.

“Fuck you,” I said before pushing myself up, then moving off the couch to grab my gear. Once that was accomplished, I moved to what I assumed was an empty bedroom, and it was, before turning around and giving Trixie the middle finger one last time. They just laughed at my dramatic exit.

I needed to get cleaned up if I was going to be at a public meal. I mean, I wasn’t in horrible shape in terms of things, but still not in the best either. So when I got into my room, which had another ornate bed like the one in Twilight’s castle along with a few pieces of furniture and a door leading to the bathroom, I placed my gear on the bed, locked the door, and proceeded to strip.

I opened the bathroom door to find a rather large one for a fucking ship! It even had what looked like a fucking shower! A fucking massive shower, at that. It was obvious that this was a minotaur-collaborated ship because that shower was fucking eight feet tall at least. Largest damn shower I had ever used … minus the waterfalls I’ve found. Those are an exception, though.

So without further ado, I quickly showered and got myself nice and squeaky clean, more for my own benefit than to look good for the meal. I mean I had no dress clothes, except my second pair of clothes that Rarity had washed for me … well they were my first pair technically, but now we’re just getting nitpicky.

Anyway, fast forward about thirty minutes and I was fully dressed again. My original shirt was on instead of my Kreator shirt. Said original shirt was just a simple white T-shirt mind you, but I think it was more fitting than the Kreator shirt. Anyway, along with the shirt was my camo pants as usual, pistol holstered on my right leg, my ammo belt, dragon skin vest over my shirt, no hat, and no glasses.

Once again I had changed back from my travelled look to my douchebag mercenary look. All that I needed to complete the change was a military beret or something like that. Yep, that was as formal as I was going to get.

I really should have worn my jacket, and you’ll know why shortly.

So I exited my room to see Gilda and Trixie sitting and waiting for me. They noticed I’d changed and decided to do some mock swoons to get a rile out of me. I simply endured it with a deadpan face before opening the door and gesturing for them to get their asses moving. They laughed and laughed while I just sighed and beared with it. I didn’t have any good comebacks at the moment, so I went with it … but I knew that their reckoning would be at hand!

…

No, not The Reckoning, you moron! It’s a saying when you’re planning on getting someone back.

So we followed Gilda, who had apparently scouted out the dining hall, and I’ll be honest, I really didn’t focus on anything else but making sure I followed and didn’t get lost. The halls of the ship were decorated the farther in we got, but it was of nothing substantial. Just some colour and a few paintings but nothing else, really. If there was something of note then I would tell you, don’t worry.

When we finally descended what turned out to be the last set of stairs, Gilda took an immediate left and opened up the double doors to show us this massive fucking room. Well, maybe massive is overdoing it. Sure it was massive compared to all the other rooms I had seen in Equestria, but honestly it was nothing more than a really large ballroom that had been transformed into a dining room.

There were tons of tables spread out evenly throughout the room, along with a stage that had a band playing music on it. The side we entered from had the stage to our right.

Ponies were mingling at their own tables while also walking towards empty ones. Of course it wasn’t just ponies there but also other races, including my first look at a minotaur. And let me tell you, even though he was sitting, this guy was fucking big. And jacked. I only caught a brief glimpse, but if he was the standard for minotaurs, then I was going to be a shrimp compared to them.

A waiter came up to Gilda, not knowing who she was, and it was a beautiful thing to hear him try and correct her on our arranged sitting.

“This way, miss. Let me show you and your … companions to an empty table,” the male unicorn said. He honestly had the colouration of an average white human, though the fur was actually white. Still, white fur, brown hair, and a brown moustache … which made no sense, considering they had fur, but whatever. Sure it wasn’t the first time seeing a pony with facial hair, but it still confused me.

“Unless it’s the ‘Admiral’s’ table, then push off,” Gilda replied a little harshly while also actually using a title for the first time since I had met her. Hell, she had barely called Celestia and Luna ‘Princess.’

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but that table is reserved for guests of the Admiral, and you are not her guests,” he said with a little bit of a sneering tone. I was tempted to just laugh at Gilda having to deal with him but I didn’t. Instead I just shook my head at the scene. That was when I felt something hit me in the back, and a rather familiar weight latched onto me.

How she did that was beyond me.

I decided to wait and see how things developed before interjecting.

“Listen, you self-righteous prick, we’ve been invited at said table. We’re staying in the bucking Royal Room as well!” Gilda said, trying to pull some sort of bizarre seniority. I just watched and let Tempest nuzzle into my back once more.

“I highly doubt you have such accommodations. None of your party have such a distinguished to them,” he said haughtily. “Now if you refuse to cooperate, I will be tasked with removing you from the dining room.”

Gilda was ready to punch the waiter when I decided to interject by clearing my throat. When both of them looked at me, I simply turned around to show off a certain bat pony that was clinging to my back. I felt her stop nuzzling me for a second, but no words were spoken. After the brief lapse of nuzzling, she went back to it. I turned around to find the waiter stunned into complete silence, eyes bulging yet pupils shrunk to pinpricks. I’m also pretty sure his jaw was dropped.

“So … Admiral’s table?” I asked in a nice tone. The waiter just nodded dumbly before pointing to a table that was at the back of the place, on an elevated level. I could see the First Mate already sitting up there, as well as a few ponies I hadn’t seen before. They were probably pretty important as well. As we walked towards our table, I nodded my head before saying, “Thanks.”

Gilda and Trixie looked at me like I was crazy, then looked behind me to once again see Tempest, who was nuzzling into my back, probably doing so without a single care in the world. I wouldn’t be surprised if she gave no shits about what others thought, I know I hardly do.

“Before you say anything, I would like to say that while annoying, you get used to having a furry backpack. That, and she’s surprisingly light,” I said to Trixie and Gilda as we walked to the table. I proceeded to get licked along the neck for that response, which I assume she took as a compliment, considering she didn’t bite me. Honestly, she was more animal than anything at that point.

When we got to the table I pulled out seats for Gilda and Trixie before heading to mine, and what I knew was going to be Tempest’s right next to me. Now, during this entire thing I noticed who else was sitting at the table. One was a white unicorn mare that had a light pink mane, and let me say … she was more like Cadence than any other pony I had ever seen. Slap on some wings, colour the fur and mane, and boom! Cadence. As for the pony sitting next to her, he was a white unicorn as well, though the coat was more grey in colour. Blue mane, and get this … he wore a suit top and a fucking monocle. I knew there was only two options on how this would go. Either horribly, or fucking amazing. Depending on how well he could take humour.

Now, the best part of our arrival at the dining table was the fact that none of the ponies present saw the mare strapped to my back. Yes, it was kind of obvious, but they didn’t notice, trust me on this one.

So after I pulled out Trixie’s and Gilda’s seat, I walked over to mine and proceeded to stand behind it, much to the confused faces of three of the ponies at the table. They looked around a little nervously before the male unicorn decided to speak up.

“Why do you stand, my good ...?” he said, trailing his words so I could answer.

“Human, though you can call me Ryan. As for the reason I am standing … well I’m waiting for our ‘missing’ dining partner to get in her seat,” I said, friendly at the introduction but my voice turned slightly annoyed when I started to refer to Tempest.

“I’m sure she will be along shortly,” the female unicorn spoke up, in a heavy French accent. Damn.. Usually it’s not that bad when a French person speaks English, but this time … it was damn thick. I’m sorry, but I can’t do the accent to imitate … just too tough.

“If she stopped fooling around, she’d be here by now,” I said with a deadpan voice, making sure Tempest knew I was directing that at her. She gave a small ‘harrumph’ into my back that I barely caught before grabbing me tighter. She was acting like a little child for crying out loud! This mare had issues.

“Now,” I said in a sterner voice that confused three fifths of the table, but it worked in the end, as I felt her give a resigned sigh before releasing me and dropping down to the ground. This brought a little shock to the two unnamed guests, and a chuckle from Skyline.

She proceeded to slowly get into her seat, before I sat down as well.

Can you guess what happened when I sat down? Yeah, she tried to leap from her seat to mine, but I was expecting it this time. So instead of having a bat pony on my lap, I had one in my grip. I was a little annoyed at this point, just because it was getting a little ridiculous. So, I promptly stood up and carried a surprised Tempest through the first door I found. Turned out to be a section between the dining hall and the doorway, but it would work.

When I set her down, I squatted to get down to eye level with her.

“Listen … I don’t mind the advances per say, but this is ridiculous. You’re acting more like a little kid, than anything,” I said in a stern voice to her. Her ears splayed backwards before returning to their more alert position.

“And I can’t act like this, because? Why do you get to decide how somepony acts? For that matter, why do you get to decide how somepony shows affection?” she said before prodding my chest with a hoof.

“I don’t, but this is a little too much,” I replied, not really sure on what to say to such a good point.

“You want me to tune it down, then give me a good reason to,” she said with sultry eyes and a shit eating grin. The two don’t match well.

“Fine … how about a deal?” I offered, to which her eyes started to twinkle in wonder at what I was offering. “You can tease me on this flight within reason, but nothing happens. If we see each other after this flight and my time in Tayros, I promise to give you what you want.”

She raised a hoof to her chin and assumed a thinker’s position. She ‘hummed’ and ‘hawwed’ a few times before finally nodding her head. “Deal, but not just once.”

I gave out a resigned sigh before standing up and proceeding back to the table, with her in tow. At least there was a chance I would get out of it, right? Yeah, there is always a chance when you make such deals.

Either way, I secured a less clingy trip for the most part. However, I knew that she would still make a few advances, just not as many as my backpack. At least, that was what I thought at the time.

Out of context of the story, I will say that yes, there was a noticeable change in the amount of advances. Back then, I figured that at the best that would be the case … the worst was that it wouldn’t change that much.

When we sat down again at the table, we were just in time to catch the waiter that was asking for drinks. Tempest took a martini while I asked for my usual … the best whiskey they got - poured over some ice. The classic ‘whiskey on the rocks’ never failed to get me through bad suppers or awkward situations. While this was neither, it was still a good measure.

“Let’s start with introductions, shall we?” the male unicorn started. “My name is Fancy Pants, entrepreneur and noble among the Heavenly Court. This is my fiancée Fleur Dis Lee. She’s one of Equestria’s top models, and is currently designing a fashion line alongside Lady Rarity.”

The mare gave a polite hello and nod when being introduced. Then it turned into a round of introductions by the three heroes, once again. Yeah, this isn’t the last time this is happened. Trixie was next.

“Beatrix Lulamoon, better known as Trixie. Trixie is a travelling showpony and bard,” she said with a smirk. First time I had heard her use ‘bard’ before … huh. “Trixie has travelled much of the world, but even then it sometimes take the right company to find the best tales.”

“Travelled the world you say, I would love to hear a tale or two!” Fleur said with a large smile. Sounded damn genuine for a ‘noble.’

All the eyes turned to Gilda. I was thankfully sitting next to her, so when I saw that she was going to make a snappy reply to these rounds of introductions, I placed a hand on her back. She looked at me at first, a little bit of anger in her eyes, but it died down and she proceeded to do a decent introduction.

“My name is Gilda, and I am from Griffonstone. That’s about it, no fancy titles or anything,” she said, getting a little annoyed at the end of it. She really undersells herself.

“There is always time to add one,” Skyline, of all people, answered her introduction. “Just got to get out there and do something.”

She seemed to accept this at first, but just gave it a dismissive huff eventually. Well if all things went right, she could claim a few titles by the end of my adventure in Equestria. And no, I’m not giving away spoilers at that.

Then the eyes turned to me. I could use more than a few titles, but they would be lost on every single pony there. I took a second to think about how I wanted to describe myself, before shrugging and winging it.

“The name is Ryan, new to this world entirely. Was called a lot of things back home but none of it would mean a thing here. As for what I do … let’s just say I go wherever the wind takes me. Currently on my way to Tayros with these two,” I said while gesturing to Gilda and Trixie. “Beyond that, who knows?”

Everyone but my companions nodded their heads in acceptance of what I was saying, and then Fancy Pants spoke up.

“New to this world? Did I hear that right?” he asked, a rather bushy eyebrow quirked up in interest.

“Exactamundo. The Princesses are looking into sending me back, but until then …”

“Fascinating! A being from another world!” he exclaimed with what seemed like genuine interest. “I happen to know of a writer or two that would love to hear some tales of your world, if you are interested.”

I shrugged at the answer. Sure, I had lots of stories to tell, but I wasn’t much of a storyteller at the time, usually keeping things quick and to the point.

And just look where we are now, huh? Haha!

“Perhaps once I’m done travelling the world, Fancy Pants,” I replied.

“Then I’ll make sure to give you my card, for when such a time arises,” he said, before floating a business card over to me. I grabbed it slowly and tucked it into my pants pocket. Then Fleur spoke up.

“That is interesting fashion, no?” she asked.

“Not as much about fashion as it is about practicality. You can ask Rarity about it if you want,” I replied, which earned a small smile and nod.

With no more questions, it turned to Tempest; though I don’t know why she was introducing herself since … well I guessed everyone knew who she was.

“I’m pretty sure you all know my name at least, but I might as well join in on the fun of telling little facts! I’m the youngest Admiral to serve in the Equestrian Navy, and have been serving the Princesses for nearly fifteen years,” she spoke with pride, though admittedly I was surprised that she didn’t say anything sexual. Then I winced, thinking I jinxed myself … until Skyline spoke up next.

“First Mate Skyline, served under the Admiral here for four years, in the Navy for eight,” he said, keeping it short. Huh … things were going well, surprisingly enough. So well that our drinks arrived at that moment.

I wanted to knock back my glass for good luck, but instead I just sipped at it and thanked the waiter. Let’s just say that there was a feeling that something was going to happen. There are moments when you just expect something to … and now was the perfect time for something to happen.

You don’t know what will happen exactly, but you know something will. I just hoped that it didn’t involve my sidearm.

There wasn’t a word spoken around the table at first, the introduction apparently enough to satisfy, but then Fleur and Trixie started talking about some of her travels. Sure, I could hear what was being said, but I didn’t really pay attention to their talks. I was a little too preoccupied with just looking at the dining room and seeing the rest of the guests.

Back when the world was right, I loved to just take a seat with a friend somewhere and just watch people go by. We’d get a kick or two out of snide comments about the people we saw. We never spoke them out loud or anything like that, instead keeping them to ourselves. Sure, looking back, I was a little bit of a dick with that regard, but it never hurt people.

At that table though, apparently the two females flanking me saw that distant look I had in my eyes. Then I felt dual pokes into my kidneys, somehow perfectly timed that they hit me at the same time. If they didn’t coordinate them, then I am amazed at just how perfect their timing was.

“Hmm?” I said as I rubbed my sides. I never said they were soft pokes.

“You were staring at nothing, dude,” Gilda said from one side. Then Tempest cut in from the other side.

“Staring at nothing when you could be staring at me,” that sultry type of voice spoke up again. I didn’t bother chasing the bait on that one.

“Just crowd watching. Something I do when I’m not involved in anything,” I said, my gaze shifting from the duo to the crowd once more. I think it was the diversity that caught my attention more than anything did. I didn’t remember seeing any others except ponies in the line, but that could have been just an omission due to me not paying attention to it. When I looked out at the dining room, I saw more than just ponies sitting around and eating.

Griffins, minotaurs, what looked to be weirdly shaped bi-pedal dogs … a few zebras, and there was even a fucking dragon! Said dragon was tiny as fuck compared to what I imagined when I heard the word dragon, so I wasn’t sure if that was the right term to use for that race. It was a nice sight to see, especially since, as you all know, we’ve got a severe lack of diversity on our planet when it comes to sapient species.

“Not involved, huh …,” Tempest said from beside me. I know it’s rude not to pay attention to fellow dinner guests, but I was a little short on perfect dinner manners as of late. Tempest said something but I didn’t quite catch it, my thoughts focusing on one specific character in the crowd. A male minotaur from what I could tell, and the guy looked to be telling a rather grandiose story, one that included actions and the like.

“Equestria to lanky twerp!” Gilda all but yelled right next to my ear, causing me to flinch and return my focus to the dining table, which had every set of eyes looking at me. I rubbed my ear briefly before speaking again.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” I asked to no one in particular, not sure who had tried to get my attention before Gilda decided to nearly blow my eardrums out.

“Those scars on your arm,” Skyline said, gesturing at my arm that had been resting on the table while holding my drink. I looked down and turned my arm over a few times. Apparently my mind had went down into a system crash or something, because it took me a second to understand what he was talking about.

“And?” I asked, before pulling the whiskey up to take a sip.

I heard an annoyed sigh from Tempest before she responded in Skyline’s place. “Where’d you get them from? They really add to the air about you.”

“Got them from living back home. If you live constantly on the road, you come by more than a few who want nothing more than your belongings per se. Don’t really feel like talking about it right now,” I said dryly. I didn’t really feel like talking about past memories.

I think Fleur was about to speak, when she caught a look from one of the people at the table. She didn’t ask whatever was on her mind, instead deciding to restart the conversation with Trixie. Meanwhile, I felt Tempest scoot her chair closer to mine, and give me a hug around my chest. Damn those ponies are touchy-feely types.

She didn’t move her chair back when she let go, instead opting to keep it close. Perhaps there was more to her than the whole sex thing.

The rest of dinner went by without a single hitch, not a thing happening. Hell, I hardly spoke during the rest of it. Just little tidbits that involved small talk about the food and such. The rest of the group thankfully overlooked my less than talkative mood and carried on conversations amongst each other.

Hell, they even got Gilda talking about stuff, mainly about Griffonstone, but it was still something to hear. Fancy Pants was one hell of a charismatic dude, knowing just the right words to say and knowing what to avoid. I could tell that he was a decent type just from the dinner alone.

It was shortly after the waiters had removed our plates and given us a dessert menu that I ended up cutting my stay at the table short.

While I want to say that it was just because I didn’t want dessert, which was what I wanted to use as my excuse, it wasn’t the truth about it. There wasn’t anything bad, nor did I have a flashback, or breakdown or anything like that.

I just felt like I was bringing the table down with my rather sullen attitude. They were there to have a good time, while I was just there because of formalities.

No, instead when the waiter came around to check on us, I asked where the washroom was. He directed me to a set of doors that were just around the corner, roughly in the same area that we had come in from.

“Be right back,” I said to the group before making my way to the restrooms …, then right past them, and back up the way we had come.

I meandered through the halls for a little bit, just noting anything that I’d missed. A picture or two here and there; some of them involving minotaurs while others involved ponies. Other than that, there were doors and carpet. It was a rather sparse ship for the most part.

Eventually I found myself in the hallway that held our rooms, but I skipped over them entirely, going above deck for a little bit. I felt that need to be out in the air once more instead of being cooped up in a stuffy ship. So I wandered all the way to the front of the ship, noting that there were multiple latches and doors imbedded in the deck of the ship that I never noticed earlier. No doubt, they were quick ways for the crew to shift stuff up onto the deck.

This was a commercial vessel after all, so it only made sense that they have a way to bring out entertainment or at the very least some sort of seating.

Which reminds me, another thing I noticed that wasn’t there last time I walked the deck, was seating. Tables and the like were scattered evenly around the deck, offering places for ponies to sit and such. Hell, there even looked to be a makeshift bar with a pony standing behind it, organizing bottles. Why not take advantage right? After all, I’m basically an alcoholic, without the whole ‘getting drunk everyday’ part.

I surprised the pony with my order when I approached the bar. Apparently, she wasn’t expecting anyone at that moment. “Can you make a Sazerac?”

She gave a little ‘meep’, almost dropping the bottle in her hooves as I caught her off guard. She didn’t say anything as she stared at me while clutching what I assumed was where her heart should be in her chest. After a few moments of looking me up and down, she shook her head while releasing a sigh.

“Give a mare some warning first,” she muttered before preparing the ingredients. “Yeah, one Sazerac coming up.”

I nodded, though she didn’t see, instead focusing on mixing the drink. A thought struck my mind, “How much does it cost?”

She gave a small snort of laughter while she continued to prepare the drink. “Never been on the Daedalus? As long as you’ve got a ticket here, everything is paid for … tickets are pricey enough as it is.”

“Ahh, makes sense I guess,” I replied, before she placed the glass on the counter in front of me. I picked it up before tilting it towards her in a gesture of thanks.

Once more, I meandered on the deck, sipping on my drink while gazing out at the partially cloudy night sky. Fuck, was it ever so beautiful. The stars sparkled brighter than I had ever seen, though that was probably due to the fact we were flying. Beggars can’t be choosers, though … so I went with it and just chose a table that was a little bit farther away from the rest. With that, I sat down and just gazed out at the horizon and everything above it as the ship moved smoothly through the night sky.

I was finished with my drink by the time I decided to contemplate going back and apologizing for just leaving like that. I knew it was a dick move, especially to the rest, but a part of me asked if I really cared that much about it all. I wasn’t going to see most of them ever again, minus Gilda and Trixie, so it hardly mattered.

Yeah, I was in a little bit of a depressive mood, but that’s what happens when you start thinking about the right, or should I say wrong topics.

I ended up getting another Sazerac before calling it quits and heading back to the room. I was lucky, though there were other ponies starting to come up and enjoy the night sky on the deck, not a single one of them was one I knew. I got even luckier when I made it back to the room and found that neither Trixie nor Gilda were there. So, I decided to call it quits for the night, heading into my room and undressing just enough to climb into bed.

It was an alright day by my standards.

And you’re all free to go again. Another chapter in the story of my time in horse world. I probably won’t be back for a few days. Got a short jaunt north with another expedition, so expect to be back to listen in three days or something like that.

‘Till then, take care, and ask your local bartender for a Sazerac. I know that at least one in your town can make it.

Author's Notes:

Well I promised weekly updates! Here is the next one of the bunches of four! Introducing one of my other favourite characters to write; Tempest! Yep, she's a very, very, very, very, forward gal and has personal space issues. The only reason why she does what she does is because of personal thingies and she equates Ryan to a minotaur ... which in her mind means a good lay.

If I missed anything that needs clearing up then just comment it and I'll add it.

Also said Traveller is very mysterious, no? Who is he I wonder?

Chapter title song: Dream Theatre - On the Backs of Angels

Thank's to my awesome editing crew as always, AuthorGenesis, Doctor Candor, PhiliChez, and Word Worthy!

See ya next week!