Rainbow groaned, her head pounding heavily as she slid up from the wooden floor. Heavy flares of this pain shot through her head as she struggled to her hooves/talons, stumbling around. The world failed to cease rolling and buckling, and Rainbow headed to the nearest window to puke. Only after she did, hurling stomach acid and other contents of her stomach out of her did she realize that the headache wasn't making the world buckle and roll; it was actually rolling and buckling. She was on a boat.

Specifically, she was in a cabin. She was laying next to the bed in the officer's quarters, with the ships rolling causing her to stumble around. Her wings flew out erratically, in a vain attempt to balance the hungover Pegasus. Looking around the room, she saw the walls were all kinds of messed up. They were all wet, covered in what smelled like imported Griffonian rum, and many spots were also covered in a spattering of multi-colored paint.

She struggled to remember what exactly happened last night. She held onto her head, straining to have something breach the haze of her hangover. All that came up from that haze was her and her Bridesmaids meeting up at her house. She remembered who they were exactly: Her Bridesmaid Sutura, the commander of the naval contingent, Commadore Clarisse, two of her Tribunes, Domitia and Seneca, and Gwen, the Consuls wife. Beyond that, however, everything was fuzzy.

She was pulled from her thoughts when she heard another set of groans join hers. Looking over on the other side of the bed, she saw Sutura beginning to stir. She was wearing a necklace made out of amphora corks and had half a fish sticking out of her mouth. She sat up, spitting the fish out, and rubbed her own head. "Oh, h-hey Praetor! Man, some night, eh?", she said, before letting out a massive belch.

"Was it?," Rainbow asked. "I can't fucking remember anything 'sept us meeting up at the Castrum. Clarisse had something, and... It's fuzzy after that."

"Yeah. Can't say I'm much better."

The two of them stood shakily, looking at each other. Both looked like they were about to collapse, but both had something on their minds. Rainbow was the first to vocalize it, asking, "Hey, you got a pocket watch. What's the time?"

Sutura pulled out the small silver oval, flipping open the lid to look at the interior. "Like, uhhhhh…. ten. Why?"

"The weddings at one!," she cried in alarm. They had three hours to get back to shore, up to the Praetorium to get their dresses, then up to the wedding in Creui' Imperial Park. She could do it in no time normally, but she didn't really trust herself hungover. Plus, there was the matter of her bridesmaids.

Sutura seemed to realize and match this worry, as she said, "We need to get the others. You check the galley, I'll check the Helm and the other officers quarters!" And with that, they were off.

Rainbow stumbled out of the room and into the hallway as fast as she could, groaning and muttering profanities under her breath as she did so. Finally, she burst out of the officer's hall, out onto the open deck of the ship.

It was a small ship sloop; the kind of ship generally used to transport troops and/or supplies to shore during a naval operation. The deck was wide, with a low railing and no weapons. A stairway by the bow led down to the rower's deck, with two more sets of stairs next to her leading up to the helm. Said deck was strewn with clay amphoras, darts, splattered food, and more than a few piles of puke. One of which had Gwen face-first in it, some of the chunky substance still leaking out of her beak.

She stumbled over to her, careful not to stumble too far in any direction and fall over the low rail into the water. When she got close, she gave her a light smack with a talon, just enough to shut her beak. Said shutting caused her to swallow the rest of her puke, which caused her eyes to go wide. Before Rainbow could get in a word, she bolted off to the rail, leaning over it to hurl the acidic substance into the strait. Rainbow, after giggling lightly at the 'Free Cunt' sign attached to her flank, said, "Eh, you ok?"

"No," came the simple reply, followed by another hurl. As that happened, Tullia came up the stairs from the rowing deck, a look of deep concern on her face.

"Ah, good, Seneca. Get the oars ready to move. We only have a few-"

"Yeah. Eh, about that....", the Tribune said, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.

Before Gwen or Rainbow could say anything, a loud screech echoed up from below decks. Tullia tensed, shutting her eyes hard and leaning forward. A second later, a blur shot out of the stairwell, taking a large section of the bow around the stairs with it. The blur ground to a halt mid-air, and it revealed itself to be a small Roc.

Rainbow hadn't personally seen one before, but she had seen pictures of them. It looked like a massive eagle, easily the size of Big Mac. With razor-sharp talons, a beak-like a battering ram, and a narrowed predatory glare, it was quite intimidating. Still, it was young, tiny even; most Rocs, full-grown one anyway, were easily the size of a house. It let loose another screech, then shot off toward the Griffonian side of the strait.

Still looking at the place where it flew off, Rainbow said, "Uh, Seneca."

"Yeah," the Tribune said.

"How the fuck did a young Roc get below decks?"

"Don't ask me, Praetor. I just woke up with it peaking me like a worm dropped off by momma bird."

"What in the hell happened to my ship!?", another voice yelled out. Turning around, they saw Sutura had found Clarisse and Domitia, and they had by then stumbled out of the officer's quarters to head to the rower's deck. Clarisse had on her dress uniform, yet it was messy and covered in dried garum and what looked suspiciously like cum. Domitia, on the other talon, looked like she had slept in the strait. She was soaking wet, and her hair had been flash dried sticking out at odd angles. Following them was a Terran stallion with a green coat, lighter green mane, and a cutie mark of a Fishhook; one she was fairly certain wasn't on the boat last night.

"I don't know, and I somewhat don't want to," Gwen said.

"Geez, Dom," Tullia said. "The fuck happened to you?"

"What Gwen said."

The deck was silent as all of them took it in. Rainbow then said, "Well, enough of just standing around! We can figure it out later! Get to the oars; we got three hours 'til we got to be at the Park. Let's go!"

They all saluted, rushing off to their various positions. Clarisse ran off to the helm while the rest ran down through the massive hole in the deck to the oars, leaving her on deck with the mystery stallion. He backed toward the rail, pointing over it at a small fishing boat tied to the side. "I'll, uh," he said. "I'll just go. Have a nice wedding!"

Next Chapter: 75~Union Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 17 Minutes