The Journey of the Solsticeby Vespi
Chapters
The EEC
“In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration.”
Ansel Adams
This is my first story that isn't a total comedy about me and my friends. Hope you enjoy the fic, constructive criticism and suggestions are highly appreciated.
-Vespi
The most beautiful moment in any day was the sunset and the sunrise. Two moments North Star never missed, the small farm he lived on was perfect for this hobby. North Star would commonly sneak up onto his roof to view the yellow orb come up and down. The beautiful terrain in the foreground added to the scenery, large and lively green trees formed a sort of barrier in between the farm and the trail leading into town. He couldn’t help but smile at the thought of heading into town at that time, on some sort of a spontaneous adventure. Of every hobby he had tried, adventuring was his favorite. The feeling of exploration was a great feeling, every time North Star entered a strange location he felt his heartbeat, he felt a strange sensation that couldn’t be quenched unless he explored more, and more, and more until he was done.
Here was the big moment! The sun finally peaked its yellow head over the horizon, steadily coming up little by little, until it became definitely visible. It was a beautiful sight, something that couldn’t be replaced by anything on the planet. It was a type of beauty that would never die natural beauty. North Star sat there for a few moments, mainly because he didn’t feel like moving but eventually he willed himself to stand up and stretch a little bit, after all he would have to begin to do his chores soon.
“North Star can you please come down here and help me!?” His father asked
“Hang on I am coming Dad!” North Star said, he deftly got off the roof, without a single scratch or cut. When North Star began sneaking up on the roof before breakfast he would constantly scrap a knee, or hit his head or some other minor problem. After 2 years of experience of the rote procedure North Star had just plopped down from the roof when his worried mother came by.
“North Star I told you I don’t like it when you go up on the roof!” She scolded
“Come on mom” Our Earth pony said “It isn’t that dangerous”
“I know mister; I just don’t want you to get all dirty before you even start your day!” She replied, North Star’s mother, Aventine, may be the type of pony to have a heart attack over some dirt in the house but either way she cared about her foal, and her husband or that matter.
“Okay Mom if you excuse me I have to help Dad” North Star said, trying to get by his over bearing mother.
“I remember the first time your father asked you to help him” Aventine said, gazing off into the days of old “You are so grown up now”
North Star hated it when his mother tried this trick on him, but he had to admit he had grown up right. He was a dark crimson red Earth Pony, just like his mother. North Star had spiky blond hair and a wavy blond tail. He looked a lot like his mother, besides the unicorn part of course, but got almost all of his personality traits from his father. His friends constantly called him things like bold, energetic, and most importantly adventurous.
“Sorry to pop your bubble Mom but can you step out of my way please so I can help Dad?” North Star squeaked, Aventine trotted out of the way and headed back inside from which she had just came from, probably to give his brother and sister breakfast. North Star would get his own breakfast eventually, after he helped out his father.
“Hey there son thanks for helping me!” His father said with his customary good cheer. Of all of North Stars heroes his favorite was his father. His father, Compass Rose, was an ex-explorer who returned back to Marefields to raise a family and work the farm. He was a blue pegasus with wavy brown hair. On top of his hat was his favorite coon skin hat, North Star remembers the story like the back of his hoof, it had to do something with killing a Ursa Major with his two bare hooves.
“Hey Dad what do you need help with?” North Star asked casually
“Can you run into town for me and get me some seeds for the crops? You know where the seeds are, right?” His dad handed him a list and a little bag of bits
“Sure thing Dad” North Star said, he began to head towards the gate where the property ended when his father called out for him one last time.
“Also please don’t go on any stupid adventures alright!?” The aging farmer joke with a wry chuckle
North Star gave his own perky laugh and gave his Dad a nod. He wasn’t going to go on some crazy adventure for no apparent reason! Well he probably would, but not today at leastly, and definitely not while doing his father’s bidding.
North Star opened the gate and closed it gently behind him, being circumspect about the notorious clanging the elderly metal door gave when misused. North Star took out the list and studied it carefully for 5 minutes or so before heading into town.
North Star lived in the small and quaint town Marefields. The town was basically a farming community that was said to be started by his own family! The town itself was no massive metropolis full of gleaming sky scrapers and city folk, it was just a small town basically used as a supply depot for the parents and for the foal a hub for activity.
North Star headed right into the heart of the small town, passing by the school and the bakery towards the supply store or as it was called “Supply Zone”.
North Star waltzed right in, opening the door generously to let the chirpy golden brass bell clang for a few seconds to alert the store owners.
“Hey North Star what can I get you!?” Old Root asked. Old Seed was the oldest pony in the entire town, he owned his own farm starting when he was North Star’s age and had just sold it a few years before. For bits now a day he ran this store, giving out things like tools, fertilizer, and other necessities for any farm for cheap prices.
“Hey Old Root can you just get me a bag of corn seed?” North Star asked
“Sure thing North Star” The old pony said in his smiley manner. He walked behind into his inventory for a brief and terse second before coming back lugging a heavy looking bag of seeds.
“That’ll be 10 bits” Old Root said, North Star reached into the little purse his Dad had gave him and handed out 10 bits for the store keeper.
“Thanks Old Root!” North Star said, before exiting the store.
North Star lugged the bag to the school before sitting down for a brief break.
“Hey North Star what are you doing?” Apple Cider said, North Star turned around to see the apple farmer standing by him, his red cowboy hat hanging from his head.
“O hey there Apple Cider” North Star said “Just taking a break from lugging these here seeds”
“Need some help with them” Apple Cider asked; although Apple Cider wasn’t the strongest, or the smartest, or the prettiest pony around he still loved helping ponies. It was times like these when North Star wondered why Apple Cider’s cutie mark was an apple and not a peace sign or something.
“No thanks” North Star said
“Okay, hey North Star you like adventuring am I right?” Apple Cider asked
North Star just gave him an aggravated stare that was a no brainer.
“Sorry! Listen look over here! One of those fancy Royal Guards posted it” Apple Cider said pointing towards the wall of a store.
North Star was in no hurry, in fact that things would actually take longer, and he thought he deserved a quick break.
North Star got up and headed over towards the wall, on it was a lone poster.
“What the hay…” North Star said plucking it from off the wall, it read:
Greetings all ponies!
Do YOU like going to far off places?
Do YOU want to do something with your life?
Do YOU want to meet new friends and explore the world?
If you do we are accepting all volunteers for the Equestrian Exploration Corps or the EEC! Head researchers believe there is a land formation off of Equestria! If you want to explore a new world and see a new beautiful world then join the EEC by 1/30/12 and meet us at Fillydelphia harbor by 11/31/12! We are accepting all ponies that are strong, healthy, smart, and adventurous! Join the EEC today! Join the exploration!
“That sounds up your alley am I right North Star?” Apple Cider said
That did sound a lot like North Star. The ideas of wealth, of helping Equestria, and the ideas of exploration were surging through North Stars head at an alarming rate. Every bone in his body told him to say yes, to drop everything he was doing and head to Fillydelphia right this instant.
“Thanks for telling me this Apple Cider you’re a true friend!” North Star said, taking the poster and running back to grab his seeds.
“That is what I like to do” Apple Cider said, talking to himself as North Star bolted towards home.
North Star didn’t really know why he was running, all he knew was he wanted to get home quickly and tell his family. He wasn’t a greedy pony at heart, in fact he always tried to act like Apple Cider and be friendly and think of others before himself, but this was something different. Equestria was believed to be the only landform on this planet, yet here there are scientists saying “I think there are actually other places we can live”!
North Star was about to collapse when he came towards the creaky black gate, he took a moment to control his panting and chose to sat down for a moment. He then hoisted up the brown seed bag and quickly opened the gate, sparing his ears of the painful squeaking the gate constantly emitted.
He stashed the seed bag in with the other bags before heading inside for some much needed explaining and an even more needed breakfast.
North Star walked inside the house and was greeted by his older brother and younger sister casually finishing up breakfast.
“Hey there North Star” Cavalier said, Cavalier was North Stars older brother. He was faster, stronger, and basically better at sports then North Star. If anything he would probably become the town guard pretty son, what with the fact that he could tear any pony in town a new one without even trying.
“North Star you’re back!” squealed his litter sister, little Rose, who as it seems eyeing the remains of some lobotomized oatmeal. North Star couldn’t help but smile every time he saw his sister; she was so innocent so naïve, unlike his brother and himself who had been pre disposed to things deemed inappropriate from their friends.
“Hey there you guys are eating without me?” North Star asked with a smile
“What do you want us to do we were going to starve!” Cavalier said with his own laugh, getting up to give North Star a handshake.
“Did you two hear the news?” North Star asked, his siblings both looked at one another and then at their brother.
“What do you mean North Star!?” The two asked in unison
“You ponies didn’t hear? Look at this poster!” North Star said, presenting the two the poster
“Wow they found a new land place!?” Little Ross asked
“Yup, I think I am going to go help them and explore” North Star said
“But North Star, this poster says that this thing is in Fillydelphia, and it is overseas.” Cavalier said “Are you really going to do this!?”
“Of course” North Star said “Adventuring is my passion, you ponies don’t think it is a good idea?”
“You could get killed!” Little Ross squeaked before stop short by Cavaliers hoof
“What she means is… this stuff is dangerous” Cavalier confessed “And frankly we need you around the farm, shouldn’t you tell Mom and Dad before running off to join this EEC?”
“Don’t worry I will at Dinner” North Star said
North Star kind of hoped dinner would never happen and just be water under the bridge, sadly it came and North Star had to tell his parents about his idea. But fortunately his sister had told them first.
“You want to do what!?” Aventine asked “Are you insane! This could be dangerous!” she began, the last thing North Star and the rest of his family wanted to hear was a rant about family values and all that stuff.
“Relax Aventine” Dad said “He knows things could be dangerous, he knows he might get killed, he-“
“KILLED!?” Aventine squeaked like a frantic chicken “I DON’T WANT MY BABY COLT GETTING KILLED!”
North Star’s father gave him a sorrowful look “Sorry son didn’t mean to set her off”
“It’s okay Dad.” North Star said, he turned to look at his Mom “Relax Mom I am not going to get killed, relax. Besides Mom this is what I want to do in life, I want to explore.”
Aventine gave a long sigh “Are you sure about this? I don’t think they will just let you leave whenever you want.”
“I know Mom” North Star said “I think this is what I want to do in life. Will you guys get by without me?”
Every pony looked at one another and then finally at North Star
“We will son” Compass Ross said “Do what you want to do”
***
Things hadn’t changed much in the last week, North Star was still fervent about going to Fillydelphia and despite all of Aventine’s crying, all of Little Ross’s begging and all of Cavalier’s warnings North Star was surer about it than anything he had ever done. He actually felt like this was going to be his dream job, going around the world with the EEC.
The day North Star was going to leave for Fillydelphia was dogged with rain and wind, nonetheless almost the entire town headed towards the train station to wish North Star good luck, they had known him all of his life and he had known them all of his life, in a way they were all his family. The moment was obviously emotional, not making it any easier for North Star but it was something he had to do. Even Cavalier was looking a little teary when the announcer said North Star’s train was arriving in a short time.
“Good luck out their kid” Cavalier said “Try and not get killed”
North Star gave out a nervous laugh “Don’t worry pal I’ll be home as soon as I can”
“Good luck out there bud” Apple Cider said giving him a hoof shake “It’s been a pleasure”
“Thanks for your entire help friend” North Star said with a 2nd nervous smile. Things went on like this for another 20 or so ponies, always telling him good luck and giving him a hug or a hoof shake. The last pony in line was Compass Ross.
“You are a lot like me son, I’m really proud of you.” North Star’s father said removing a tear from his eye
“I love you Dad” North Star said
North Star finally saw the train come into the station and slowly walked towards it, he handed the pony in front his ticket and hopped aboard. Outside were his family, relatives, and friends; all waving their hooves wishing him good luck.
North Star returned the wave and smiled back. He wasn’t a small town farmer colt anymore, he was going out into the world. He was going to explore a new land.
The adventure had begun
The Solstice
North Star thought the beautiful sun rises and the sun sets in his small town were magical, the city had the same effect on him but in a different way. The sun was beautiful naturally, it was made far before he had been made, made before any pony had been made. On the other hand Fillydelphia was created building by building, street by street, section by section. It goes to show that any pony who wants to do something massive has to start somewhere.
“Now stopping at Fillydelphia harbor, have a nice day.” Announced the conductor over the loud speaker, North Star grabbed his bag and jumped out of the train into the sprawling train station. It didn’t take him long to realize things were very different in the city, it wasn’t the same wholesome type of scenery you’d see in Marefields, North Star didn’t know any pony and any pony didn’t know North Star.
This though didn’t stop North Star from asking a couple questions. He approached 2 posh looking ponies minding their own business reading the same newspaper.
“Excuse me do you know which way the harbor is?” North Star asked, the two ponies didn’t try and hide their unexplainable hate for North Star.
“The harbor is towards the ocean you fool” The stallion said “Is there anything else to say?”
“Which way is the ocean?” North Star asked benignly
“Towards the ocean, don’t you know anything!?” The mare said, now looking up to address North Star.
North Star had two options, tell these ponies off or be nice to them until they puke.
“I’m sorry; can you please give me a cardinal direction?” North Star said, fabricating a shoddy smile
“That way just leave us alone you simpleton!” The stallion said, pointing down a long road, through the fog North Star could see something large and white.
“Which way is the harbor!?” North Star asked again
“That way now go away or we will call the cops!” The stallion said raising his voice, several nearby ponies turned their heads to see what the commotion was about.
“Thank you and have a nice day” North Star said with a haughty smile. North Star chose to head towards the harbor without causing any more problems, he came here to explore, not start problems with posh ponies. He could already feel adrenaline pumping through his body, overloading every piece of his existence; he loved every moment of the day. Even the train, though boring and rote most of the time, seemed exciting when they let the passengers head outside to stretch their hooves. North Star had gotten so involved at staring at a mountain range in the background he almost forgot to get back on the train!
He walked for several blocks before he realized what he was looking at, a ship. This was no ordinary ship; it looked like a floating city. There was not 1, not 3, but 5 massive masts on top of the ship and at leastly 3 levels of above sea level. He instantly noticed that 90% of the ponies present were not volunteers but rather just viewing the occasion. It gave North Star pangs of sadness knowing he could have brought his family a day or 2 early so they could watch him leave. As he got closer he saw 2 ponies manning a little booth, the one pony sitting waved him over hastily.
“Are you viewing or volunteering?” The pony asked
“Volunteering” North Star said
“Great, take this and go stand with those ponies over there” The stallion handed him a quick pamphlet and pointed to a group of a dozen ponies or so all loitering around.
North Star didn’t need any more instructions and trotted over towards the group, North Star was no social butterfly but in a group of a dozen he was sure he could make a friend or two.
“Nice to meet you all, my name is North Star” North Star announced to the group, maybe 5 or 6 of the stallions actually turned their heads to meet the newcomer, the rest just drifted away trying to form some sort of an excuse for being so unfriendly.
“Nice to meet you I’m Doctor Whooves” A brown Earth pony said, unleashing his hand for a hoof shake
“Nice to meet you Doctor Whooves, I’m North Star.” North Star said cheerfully, he knew he could make a friend off the bat “So what are we exactly doing here?”
“They told us to wait before boarding; do you know anything about being a sailor?” Doctor Whooves asked
“Nothing really” North Star admitted “Do you?”
“Nothing really” Doctor Whooves said “I’m actually just a doctor, I saw a poster in Ponyville talking about this EEC stuff and I wanted to join, and here I am.”
“Shoot y’all don’t know anything about sailing either?” A cow colt pony asked, he turned around and looked alarmingly a lot like Apple Cider besides his coloring. This cow colt pony wore a 10 gallon hat like Apple Cider, but it was a worn down brownish color instead of Apple Cider’s ivory white hat. His hair was also longer then Apple Cider’s and less tamed.
“Name’s Braeburn” The pony announced “So why do you think this EEC wants so many ponies if none of us have any experience with the ocean? Shoot I’ve never even been in water before!”
It seemed illogical to North Star, almost all ships sent to water are made to catch fish for people back on land, and there hadn’t been any revolutionary inventions in admiralty either.
“Hey you’re from Applelossa aren’t you?” Doctor Whooves asked
“I actually am, how’d you know?” Braeburn gave Doctor Whooves a suspicious look
“I guess I don’t look like my little brother huh?” Doctor Whooves said with a chuckle “My little brother lives in Applelossa?”
“Really, shoot he does actually look like you!” Braeburn said “Didn’t recognize you for a second”
“Sure you didn’t” Doctor Whooves said with a chuckle. North Star was about to delve into the conversation more when he saw the 2 ponies heads turn towards the booth. The same stallion was asking a lavender unicorn the same question
“Are you viewing or volunteering?” The stallion asked
“Volunteering” The unicorn said boldly, accompanied by her were 5 mares, North Star assumed they were just random people in the unicorn’s vicinity and were just loitering outside for the sake of loitering, that is until Doctor Whooves gave out a low impressed whistle.
“Braeburn isn’t that Twilight Sparkle?” Doctor Whooves asked in a hushed tone “The one who defeated Nightmare Moon and Discord?”
North Star had heard the tale before, about the elements of harmony and what not. He assumed it was just a popular story and it was just fallacy, apparently he was wrong.
Braeburn didn’t respond and just gave Doctor Whooves a quick “Shhhh” gesture and pointed towards Twilight’s own conversation.
“Y’all can’t be serious about this?” A cow mare asked, she wore a hat exactly like Braeburn and had a similar cutie mark, coincident or connection?
“I still don’t understand why you all don’t want to come” Twilight said “It’ll be an adventure!”
“Sorry Twi it’s just I… I … I don’t really like water” The orange earth pony confessed
“Relax Applejack it isn’t like the ship is going to sink!” Twilight said
“Yea I would Twilight but I’m not a fan of all of this chain of command and everything.” A pegasus said, the only thing more pompous then her movement (Which was obnoxious and aggravating to look at) was her accent.
“Please Rainbow Dash, it won’t be that bad.” Twilight said
“Frankly darling I’d love to come” A white unicorn said, moving past Applejack “But work is too important to me, and I doubt any of these sailors would happily buy my fine clothing”
“That and you can’t stand anything dirty” Applejack said with a snide smile
“That is okay Rarity, I’m sure you could do something on the ship” Twilight said, her tone had changed from assertive to more of a plea. Apparently she really wanted her friends to come with her, but none were willing to relent.
“Well umm good luck Twilight” A timid little pegasus said, brushing by Rarity and Applejack
“Thanks Fluttershy, you know there will be plenty of grass for Angel and all of the other animals if you come.” Twilight said, her voice was becoming sadder with every word.
“I’ll come with you Twilight” A pink earth pony announced, bouncing past Applejack and the other friends “It will be an adventure just you and me!”
“You can help Pinkie Pie, but what about pumpkin cake and pound cake?” Twilight said, apparently she desperately wanted her friends to come, except this one.
“O your right Twilight! Shoot!” The earth pony said stamping her front right hoof on the ground.
“Goodbye Twilight” A mysterious voice said, North Star barely noticed the baby dragon stationed right under Twilight.
“I’m going to miss you the most Spike” Twilight said “You’re my little brother”
“Excuse me we are still standing here…” Rarity said
“Sorry guys, last chance, are you sure you don’t want to come!?” Twilight asked
“Last chance, are you sure you want to go?” Applejack asked, Twilight gave out a loud exhale. North Star had been in that phase too, the phase where you aren’t sure if you’re being selfish or the ponies you are leaving are being selfish.
“This is what I want to do” Twilight said “Good luck guys, I’ll be home as soon as I can” She took one last look at her friends and headed towards our group, looking dejected and sad.
“Shoot that was sad to see” Braeburn acknowledged
“Yup” Doctor Whooves said, the moment Twilight came in audible range Doctor Whooves and Braeburn turned their heads, being one of only 3 mares in this group of 12 Twilight was probably already feeling like an outcast, especially without her friends. That is why North Star chose to not fall into peer pressure and help out the new comer.
“Umm hey I’m North Star” North Star said with a smile
“Hi I guess, I’m Twilight Sparkle” She said, this newcomer didn’t seem to be a sailor either. She was a unicorn (where most sailors/fishermen were earth pones) and didn’t exactly look strong or athletic.
“So I guess you saw the poster too huh?” North Star asked
“Actually no, the Princess asked me personally to do this with my friends.” Twilight said, she looked back to see if her friends were still there; they were not.
“You know the Princess?” North Star asked, his eyes the size of saucers
“I’m actually her apprentice” Twilight said with a prideful smirk.
“Apprentice to the Princess!?” North Star said, he had never heard of an apprentice to the princess before, was this a hoax on Twilights part or real?
“Hey guys is Twilight the Princess’s apprentice!?” North Star asked
“Eyup, you didn’t know that North Star?” Braeburn said casually
“I knew, but then again we lived in the same town” Doctor Whooves said
North Star gave a nod and looked up again at the ship. It wasn’t any dinky little fishing ship, it was a behemoth. The 5 masts were not the only masts, but rather just the largest, North Star could now see several small masts in between the 5 larger ones, and they must have been auxiliary masts in case the 5 massive masts got damaged. The ship was brightly colored in sea foam green, golden yellow and stainless white. In gold lettering on the white background was the ships name “Solstice”. The ship had to be 600 feet long and as it seemed was made out of the best material, that or metal just floats (North Star knew almost nothing about sailing. On top of the deck were dozens of sailors, dressed in their distinguishable white clothing. It relieved North Star knowing he wasn’t going to have to learn everything about living on the high sea on the fly.
“Group 5C you can now board” A sailor said, or was he a captain? He wore the common sailor’s clothing but wore a golden and white hat instead of the common sailor’s white cap. On further inspection the hat bore the Princess’s insignia.
One by one the dozen volunteers in North Star’s group scaled the ship. North Star was astounded at what he was feeling, the one time he went fishing on a small ship the smallest movement caused the boat to sway. It seemed like 100 elephants dancing the Charleston couldn’t get this boat to move! Was it cemented to the bottom of the ocean?
“Good afternoon recruits” The pony said, he was a strange pony, or at leastly a deformed pony. The stallion looked like he had the beginning of a wing, but it looked as though it had been cut off.
“I am sure most of you are curious about this” The stallion said, motioning to the stump, on his other side was a full grown wing.
“This is rule 1 about sailing, don’t get yourself killed. I’ll give you idiots a hint; there was a wing here a couple months ago!” The voice didn’t seem very hostile but seemed more brutal. He sounded like the type of stallion who was going to be a type of drill sergeant, but on the high seas.
“What is your name colt!?” The stallion barked at Braeburn
“SIR BRAEBURN SIR!” Braeburn barked into the stallions face, accidently spitting right into his face. Apparently Braeburn had watched too many army movies.
“Okay maggot 1. I am a warrant officer, you will address me as such, and 2 DON’T SPIT IN YORU SUPERIORS FACE!”
“WARRANT OFFICER YES WARRANT OFFICER!” screamed Braeburn
“You can just say it after your sentence once” The Warrant officer said, he turned to North Star
“Maggot what is your name!?”
“My name is North Star warrant officer!” North Star said using a more relaxed tone instead of Braeburn.
“WHAT DID YOU SAY I CAN’T HEAR YOU!?” The Warrant officer howled
“MY NAME IS NORTH STAR WARRANT OFFICER!” North Star said, using Braeburn’s tone.
“Better” The warrant officer said, a sailor came from the opposite side of the ship and whispered something into the officer’s ear.
“We are setting sail in 5 minutes, sorry to cut class short foal. Welcome to the Solstice” The warrant officer said, hobbling with the 2nd officer towards the front of the ship.
“That was an… interesting experience” One of the stallions joked
“Come on you guys! Don’t y’all want to say good bye to every pony?” Braeburn said, waving the group over towards the railing. Outside were thousands of ponies all waving and saying goodbye to the ponies aboard. North Star managed to move in between 2 cocky looking sailors to get a better view. One last group of ponies shuffled onto the ship and then several ponies rushed to deconstruct the ramps.
All around him ponies were waving and saying good bye to their loved ones, Braeburn was waving goodbye to his family (All 50 or so of them) and Twilight managed to see her friends in the middle of the pony mass.
Eventually the ship began to move, the masts were opened to their full size and began to shutter and float in the breeze. Without a 2nd warning the ship began to move, the ship began to lazily head towards open sea as the sailors scrambled to get to their positions.
Eventually the sound of the ponies back on land became fainter and fainter, and instead of looking like full grown ponies they seemed to look more like ants.
“All of you please come with me” one of the sailors said. North Star didn’t know much about the chain of command here so he assumed he was doing the right thing and followed him; he led them through myriad areas saying they were going to the “Party Hall”. At the end of the trek North Star realized the “Party Hall” was the nickname for the meeting room. North Star and his group were one of the last groups to enter the massive room and North Star himself barely managed to find a seat in the sea of ponies, several ponies in his group had to stand.
North Star immediately looked around and explored the area. The room looked more like a theater then a meeting room, the floor was covered in chairs except for 5 walkways in between the hordes of chairs. North Star’s train of thought exploded when a sailor walked onto deck and fumbled with a microphone for a second before clearing his throat and projecting in a deep voice:
“All quiet for the royal Admiral Flotilla”
Everyone became quiet when a younger looking unicorn walked onto stage, the unicorn had the same white coat that most of the senior officers seemed to wear and wore a hat that covered most of its hair, except for several strands of pink hair that could barely be seen.
“Good afternoon recruits, I am Admiral Flotilla” The unicorn said, it was a female! “We will explain everything to you in time. First off we have to go over some ground rules on the ship, this includes any stops we have and may be established when we land at our destination.”
The unicorn then grabbed a list and began reading them out loud. North Star never knew there were so many rules on a ship, North Star lost count after 150 or so.
“Are there any questions?” Admiral Flotilla asked; she had told everypony to wait until the end for questions, the only one who actually had a question was one earth pony down in front.
“Yes you?” Admiral Flotilla asked pointing to the green earth pony
“Yea for Rule 70, can we have a mare in our bunk if she is a grenade?” The earth pony asked, receiving snickers from his cronies near him. North Star knew the type off the bat, the jokesters, the class clowns; he had just graduated high school to be sent back to middle school.
“No, no activity like that at all” Admiral Flotilla said with a strong voice. “Are there any other questions?”
The earth pony raised his hoof again
“For Rule 3 can we leave a fellow EEC member behind if we are being chased by Nightmare Moon or something? And what would we do if we were being chased by Nightmare Moon?
“To answer both of your questions make it your top priority to keep your friends and fellow EEC members alive. For your second question we’d just lose as much weight as possible by throwing idiots like you overboard.” Admiral Flotilla joked; it surprised North Star that royal admirals can call crew ponies idiots. Then again it wasn’t like she was wrong…
“Are there any other questions?” Admiral Flotilla repeated, the earth pony raised his hand again.
“One more stupid question and you are court marshaled” Admiral Flotilla threatened
“Relax it isn’t a stupid question bro” The earth pony said, any statement that ended with “bro” and was directed towards a superior was deemed stupid by North Star.
“Are you a lesbian?” The earth pony asked, now that was a stupid question. The smallest atom was set shock still by the joke. You could practically hear your brain cells dying (From being in the same room with this colt).
“Court marshaled!” Admiral Flotilla said, she then snapped her hoof and pointed towards the earth pony; 2 burly looking sailors then trotted down from the stage and grabbed the earth pony and dragged him off.
“Are there any other questions?” Admiral Flotilla asked
The rest of the orientation went without any more interruptions thankfully for North Star. Admiral Flotilla said the next day all of the recruits would be divided up and designed their jobs. Other than the fear of becoming the ships janitor North Star felt relieved that this stuff wasn’t going to all happen at once.
“Feel free to use any of the ships facilities tonight” Admiral Flotilla said benignly "Enjoy yourself for once"
North Star and his group were then given their barracks number and given directions to said barracks. They were allowed to pick whichever bunk they wanted; naturally North Star took the bunk closest to Doctor Whooves and Braeburn.
“Talk about a first day” Lyra mumbled, Lyra was one of the few mares in the group and at first the quietest. But recently she had really been opening up to every pony.
“You can say that again” Twilight responded, levitating her bags into her locker, next to her bunk, next to North Star.
“I wonder what our jobs will be” North Star thought out loud
“I bet most of the pegasus will be weather controllers or something” Braeburn said
“I could see that too” Doctor Whooves said
“Well good night everypony we got a big day ahead of us tomorrow.” North Star said, trying to position himself comfortably on his small bunk.
“Welcome to the Solstice!” Lyra joked
“Welcome to the Solstice” Braeburn repeated
Markers and Signalers
North Star expected a more brutal and loud wake up call, not Twilight giving him a quick nudge urging him to wake up. North Star felt wide awake when Twilight gave him a little nudge, he got out of bed and did his best cat stretch. He couldn’t help but smile as the yellow sun began to peak its head out from the opaque water.
“I didn’t hear a whistle” North Star complained, he glanced around and realized that everypony besides Twilight was gone.
“There was no whistle, come on we are going to miss breakfast” Twilight said, she quickly dashed towards the door and gestured for him to follow. North Star ran as fast as he could to catch up to her, almost running into the metal walls. Although the ship looked completely wooden from the outside (Besides some metal plating visible right by the water line) it was mainly metal on the inside.
Twilight began to briskly trot into a large room and North Star followed. This was the mess hall as it was called; it looked a lot like his old school cafeteria. There was a sailor standing right by the door, as if expecting North Star and Twilight to come inside at that very moment.
“What were you two doing?” The sailor said with a chuckle
“Nothing, I slept in” North Star said
“What is your group?” The sailor asked, looking down at a clipboard
“5C” The two said in unison
“5C is seated over there” The sailor said “Have fun you two”
Twilight and North Star trotted towards their table, the sailor on the other hand randomly headed outside.
“Asshole” Twilight said with a frown
“Thank god you’re here we thought you died or something” Braeburn said with a smile
“How late am I?” North Star asked, he looked down at his stomach, the last thing he wanted to do was miss breakfast before getting his work assignment.
“Not that late, but late enough to send Twilight to wake you up. Doctor Whooves said he’d get you lunch” Braeburn said, taking a big bite out of an apple.
“Thanks I appreciate it” North Star said, he was glad he had friends like Doctor Whooves and Braeburn, without them he’d be still asleep and still hungry.
“Hey who took my carrot?” Twilight asked, scanning the table for the offender, perfect time for Lyra to have a carrot in her mouth.
“Sorry” Lyra said with a giggle “Want it back?”
“No thank you” Twilight said
“There he is!” North Star turned around to see Doctor Whooves standing there, a lunch ready for North Star.
“Thanks” North Star said, before delving into his lunch. For being on a boat the food seemed surprisingly good, the lunch was one hay sandwich, an apple, some pinkiade (A kind of vitamin water) and some baby carrots. North Star turned to see most of the other ponies in our group were finished with their meals, had they eaten that fast in 20 minutes? Either way North Star automatically grabbed his sandwich and began to eat it as fast as possible. He didn’t know how long lunch was, and wasn’t about to learn the hard way. He was so concentrated on eating his lunch he almost didn’t hear Twilight Sparkle.
“North Star can I have your carrots?” She asked, North Star gave her a nod and readied her horn for magic. She levitated his tray over to hers and dumped the carrots into one of the compartments on her tray.
“Thank you” Twilight said
North Star took several more bites out of his sandwich before he heard a whistle from the door way.
“Groups 5C go to the main deck for work assignments” The officer said, he looked oddly out of place in the group of crude sailors. He was a white unicorn with black spiky hair and a black spiky tail. He seemed a lot more friendly then any of the other officers.
North Star got up quickly and dropped what remained of his sandwich and his apple into the trash can, placing the tray with the others on a cart. He had to jog a little bit to catch up with the rest of his group, almost making a wrong turn but fortunately finding his way.
“So what is our work assignment? Braeburn asked
“I don’t know” The officer said “These are just temporary groups. Your permanent group is your work assignment group.”
North Star cringed; he had already gotten so attached to his old group. North Star then let his mind wander a little bit; he wasn’t exactly sure what he could do. He didn’t have any special talents like the Doctor Whooves or the Princess’s apprentice Twilight Sparkle.
Group 5C was then marched onto the “Secondary deck”, which wasn’t really a deck but an underground open room for certain things like this. It was basically a smaller party hall meant for small meetings with individual groups.
“Okay everypony can take a seat” The officer said “Okay Doctor Whooves you are going into Group 8A, or the medical unit.”
“Figures” Doctor Whooves said, standing up to receive his sheet of paper
“Also you can all report to your assigned barracks after you get your work assignments; after your pick a bunk and everything head to your work station though.
“Braeburn” The officer called out
“Yes?” Braeburn asked in good cheer
“You are part of Group 17E, or coal flingers”
“Buck…” Braeburn muttered
The officer then continued to give most of North Star’s group their work assignments. North Star was dismayed to see that he, Doctor Whooves, and Braeburn were all split up, but he didn’t have any say in it.
“And lastly, Twilight Sparkle, Lyra, and North Star you are in group 15D, or the signaling corps.” The officer said
“Wait so what do we do?” North Star asked
“Basically you control lines of communication throughout the ship and make sure everything works dandy” The officer said, handing the information sheets to Lyra, then to Twilight and finally to North Star.
“So what do we exactly do?” Lyra asked
“Well pretty much nothing unless there is a problem.” The officer said “Enjoy yourself, you got lucky.”
North Star was relieved he didn’t have to do a lot, the one thing he really wanted to do was explore this new landform he had heard so much about; but he could settle as a signaler until they actually landed.
It turns out North Star’s barracks was right in the smack middle of the ship, on the 2nd floor of the ship. It turns out there was an elevator right outside of their barracks which led to what the officer in charge of the signaling bay called “The nest”. After North Star deposited his few belongings in a bunk and locker he got to go up with Twilight and Lyra and see this “Nest”. What the officer was talking about made sense, the signaling bay was in a bunker right above the deck. There was a long window that stretched from one side of the wall to the other and served to provide light for the entire room; the only other place light could come from was from a window on top of the door. Surrounding the elevator (Which was positioned in the middle of the room) were 6 or so little desks with radio equipment. The commanding officer told North Star that the signaling bay was sort of like the blood stream for the weather ponies. Spotters would find cloud formations then mark them with a marker gun (A unknown invention to North Star), and then send the information to the signalers, who then sent the information to the weather station which dispatched fliers to destroy the cloud.
North Star took an unoccupied desk and sat down, he didn’t know the first thing about what he was doing but hoped for the best. In front of him on his desk was the marker gun, it was a small joystick that was used to aim a cannon like tool that fired coloring that stuck to clouds.
“North Star before you get shooting you are red” A mysterious voice said. North Star turned around to see the head signaling officer looking at him from the officer’s position at the back of the room. North Star didn’t know a lot about this pony, he hadn’t seen him before and the pony didn’t say much about himself when he gave instructions on how to use the equipment.
North Star did as he was trained and pressed the red button on the side of the throttle that prepared the marker for launch. From there he eyed a small mass of clouds to his right; he gently moved the joystick to the right and saw the red laser follow. He stopped the red beam of light right in the center of the cloud mass. He then gently pushed the black trigger and the cloud instantly was hit with a red marker.
North Star then grabbed his head phones “Do you see the red marker?”
North Star waited several moments for a response, just when he was about to give up he heard his response
“Yup I see it, sending a pony in right now” The voice responded. From behind North Star’s line of sight 2 pegasus ponies flew by and began working on the cloud mass, a couple kicks and punches in several key locations later caused the cloud mass to drift apart.
“That was easy” North Star said with a chuckle, hoping to gain another response from his friend over the line.
“Yea, apparently the colts have been telling me signalers and weather control have it easy most of the time” The pony began “The weather ponies are already killing each other over who gets to kick clouds.”
“I thought you ponies hated work!” North Star said with a chuckle
“Yea we also don’t like having to sit here all day with our hooves up our asses” The pony said giving a laugh to North Star. “Yea only problem I’ve heard is when there are storms we are up until the code red is done.”
“That must suck” North Star said “Then again all I am doing is shooting clouds and telling you to go kick them”
“I don’t actually kick the clouds” The stallion said “I just run it down to the weather bay and then they send a pony or two to get it done. My name is Spade by the way, I am sure you remember me from the orientation.”
“Wait a hoof…” North Star said, up to that point his voice had sounded eerily “Were you the retard that got court marshaled?”
Spade chuckled “Almost court marshaled, the Admiral gave me a warning.”
“I’m surprised she didn’t throw you overboard” North Star said with a smile.
“Yea only problem is I’m not becoming admiral any time soon” Spade said
“Good to hear you aren’t that stupid” North Star said
“Believe me, I am stupid, just not at this moment” Spade said.
“Good to hear, hang on Spade I’ll be right back” North Star said, putting down his headphones. He had taken down his first cloud, but most of the other clouds hovering nearby the ship were already getting dismantled by the other 5 signalers.
“Hey ummmm Mr.” North Star said, embarrassed that he couldn’t remember the head signalers name
“Warrant Officer Ziggy” The pony said, this pony wasn’t exactly out of place, just out of order. He seemed more like your run of the mill care free sailor then an officer.
“Okay Warrant Officer Ziggy…” North Star said
“You can just abbreviate it WO” Warrant Officer Ziggy said
“Okay… WO Ziggy what do you do when most of the clouds are gone?” North Star asked
“Colt we are just getting started” WO Ziggy said, now trotting over to North Star’s station “You got to mark all of the clouds in radius to the ship, here use this” Ziggy motioned to a small control board. “This is for the drone, use it to hit clouds you can’t see or hit.”
North Star turned on the power button, out from above the roof almost a small metallic object appeared right in front of him. It had the circumference of a basketball and it’s outer shell was marred with discoloration and some scratches.
“Here use this throttle to move old Bertha around” WO Ziggy said, North Star realized it was the same controls for the marker gun but with the drone. In front of him on his desk was a small camera that served as the drone’s line of sight. It took him only 30 seconds to ram the drone into one of the masts.
“The up and down are inverted” Ziggy said with a chuckle “No one gets that at first; it means up is down and down is up.”
“Wait… what?” North Star asked, confused.
“Don’t worry about it, use this button here to send the drone higher” WO Ziggy motioned to a button attached to the side of the joystick “And the button under it to send the drone lower”
North Star began to maneuver the drone now, swerving past the mast the drone had just hit and into the sky. North Star eyed a large cloud formation to his left. Like the first target he gently moved the drone towards the cloud mass and pressed the red button. The laser popped out of nowhere and was half aligned with the cloud. For several minutes the frustrated North Star tediously tried to angle the drone’s laser with the clouds center. It would have been easier if the drone had a 2nd joystick that served for the laser only, but he wasn’t the inventor of it and was still astounded that such a thing existed.
“Okay Spade got a target for you” North Star said, shooting the cloud through its heart (If clouds had hearts) with the marker.
“I see the red marker, cool flying thing” Spade said
“Thanks” North Star said with a smile “Technology these days”
“Beats having to go swim out there” Spade said
“Amen” North Star said. North Star was about to say more before he saw something in the far, far, far background, jetting out of the sea. North Star began to move his drone towards the unknown object, from the drone’s line of sight it looked like a mountain. But they had just been sailing for not even 2 days, was there land this near Equestria all this time?
“O my god” North Star said, finding a disturbing discovery
“What is it?” The inquisitive Spade asked
“It is a storm…” North Star said mouth ajar. What he had mistaken for a mountain was really just a giant mass of weather. The clouds were dark grey and mean looking, some almost twice the size of the clouds North Star had just vanquished.
“Hey Ziggy can you come over here?” North Star asked, he didn’t know much about storms at sea.
“Yea what is it SA North Star?” Ziggy asked
“What’s a SA?” North Star asked
“It is short for Sailor Apprentice” WO Ziggy said “wait what do you have to show me?”
North Star scooted out of his chair so his commanding officer could see his discovery.
“Is that a mountain?” WO Ziggy said excitedly
“No it is a storm” North Star said full of dread
“O” WO Ziggy said “O…o…o…Ooooo… now I see it” for his commanding officer, Ziggy seemed like a funny colt.
“What do we do?” North Star asked nervously, unaffected by Ziggy’s joke.
“I got to tell the brass” WO Ziggy said, half running and half galloping to his desk.
“Twilight you’re in charge when I’m gone” Ziggy said, throwing on his coat
North Star frowned; of course the Princess’s apprentice would be his superior.
The second Ziggy slammed the door behind him, was the second the entire room became abuzz.
“Wait what did you find?” Lyra asked anxiously
“Is it land already?” One of the others asked
“Calm down everypony and please come go back to work” Twilight said, getting up from her desk “I am in charge until Warrant Officer Ziggy comes back and I expect-“
“What is that?” Lyra asked, somehow she had galloped from one end of the room to the other without getting caught by Twilight.
“It is a storm” North Star said dreadfully “One big storm”
The second North Star said “Storm” all of Twilight’s power couldn’t do anything, the other 3 ponies bolted towards North Star’s desk and gazed at the storm.
“That doesn’t look very good” One of them said
“Let me see, let me see” Twilight begged, trying to move past Lyra and one of the others. North Star being the good stallion he is, moved out of his desk to give Twilight and the others a clearer view.
“Wow” Twilight said awestruck “That looks dangerous”
All the other ponies surrounding North Star gave their own nods and approvals. Just in time for WO Ziggy to waltz into the room.
“SN Twilight Sparkle, SA North Star; the Admiral wants to see you” Warrant Officer Ziggy said, his face ghastly pale.
Omens
Sorry for how long this chapter took. Since i am taking this fic more serious i am making the chapters longer (Next chapter will be far longer) it takes a little longer. Stay swaggin
-Vespi
“North Star I’d like it if you looked at me when I talked to you” Twilight Sparkle said with a reprimanding voice
North Star finally gave out a loud, obnoxious exhale and removed his face from the window; the sun was just setting beautifully. Ever since he was very young he loved watching that big yellow ball of light and energy goes up and down, signaling the start and end of the day. The sun was almost like stress relief to North Star. On one side of the ship was a massive storm; on the other was a tranquil sunset.
“What were you saying Twilight?” North Star asked; trotting in the direction of the bridge.
“I do not like it when you contradict me in front of the other sailors” Twilight said with a sigh
“I didn’t do anything; Lyra started it” North Star said in his own defense. He wasn’t the type of pony to throw others under the bus but this time he was serious; he hadn’t done anything wrong.
“I hope the admiral believes you North Star, I really do” Twilight said
“What is that supposed to mean?” North Star asked, they were now approaching ever closer to the bridge, they were now walking up a set of metallic stairs.
“Well it isn’t like she brought you down here to give you a medal” Twilight said with a giggle.
“True” North Star said “Or maybe I’m just getting a promotion”
“Sure whatever you say” Twilight joked. They walked in silence for the rest of the time; which wasn’t very long. The 2 finally headed to the bridge, the pacing admiral was anxiously awaiting their arrival.
“Hello you two” She said “Please follow me… so somewhere where we can talk in privacy” She began to trot towards a door guarded by 2 burly looking marines wearing glowing golden armor and gilded helmets. One of the guards instantly rushed to open the door for the admiral.
“Please feel free to sit down” Admiral Flotilla said, motioning to chairs facing a fancy wooden desk. For a giant ship, Admiral Flotilla lived like the princess. Her room was more like a house compared to the sailor’s accommodations; her living area had several rooms! The front room where North Star stood seemed to be her office, which seemed amazingly prestigious and professional. Although the ship was a metal cage almost her room had wooden paneling and snug rug carpeting. On the walls were pictures of the distinguished Admiral. The room itself felt more like the house of a young married couple then the barracks of an admiral on duty.
“Nice office” North Star noticed
“Thank you” Admiral Flotilla said, taking a seat at her desk. North Star didn’t want to be blunt about the subject, but on Admiral Flotilla’s desk was a picture that seemed out of place. Most of the pictures in the room were of just Admiral Flotilla. But in one picture, stationed on the corner of her desk, was a picture displaying not one; but two white mares. North Star was hesitant at first about putting a name on the 2nd mare but evidently knew who it was. The 2nd mare was the fashion model Fleur De Lis, North Star instantly noticed the resemblance, in Fleur De Lis’s small, elegant hand writing was:
“To my big sis
-Fleur De Lis”
“Like this picture?” Admiral Flotilla said noticing North Star’s infatuation with it.
“Meh; I was just trying to guess who the 2nd mare was.” North Star said, he was already pretty embarrassed at the moment. The way he had found out about Fleur De Lis was through a magazine actually; a grown up magazine, about… fashion.
“Is that Fleur De Lis?” Twilight asked “My friend Rarity talked a lot about her, I heard she is one of the top models in Canterlot!”
“That sounds like her” Admiral Flotilla said “She just could shake her flank to get what she wanted; I had to actually work for it.”
A dreadful awkward silence filled the room like a toxic gas
“Anyways tell me what happened in the signaling bay today” Admiral Flotilla asked
“Well we just had a little problem with discipline and North Star-“Twilight Sparkle was cut off by the admiral’s aggravated glare.
“I mean what did you see?” She asked impatiently
“There was this big storm I saw while using my drone” North Star said, giving Twilight a mischievous smile while the admiral wasn’t looking.
“I understand” Admiral Flotilla said “We would just like to assure you that this is nothing to worry about and most likely this ship will not even be near the storm in several hours. Storms like these tend to pass by the ship, as they are not meant to occur out in the middle of the sea. We just wanted to tell you that there is nothing to worry about. After all when the ship is using coal and wind at the same time we could outrun the storm in a matter of half an hour!”
“Wait this ship uses coal?” Twilight asked; as a small town librarian and apprentice she didn’t know a mast from starboard bow.
“Yes, Equestria has had a lot of new inventions in the boat industry. Ponies put coal in hot furnaces to create steam to power turbines to power the ship to propel it.”
That didn’t make any sense to North Star but he did know that houses in Equestria used coal for heating.
“Okay” North Star said “That was it”
“Pretty much” Admiral Flotilla said “The only reason I summoned you both was because we didn’t want you to go tell everypony on board about the storm, since most of our EEC are non-sailors they will be scared to death. So basically please refrain from telling everypony that a small storm is trailing behind us.“
“Okay thank you Admiral Flotilla I believe we have to get back to work” Twilight Sparkle said
“Carry on then” Admiral Flotilla said; the two sailors then got out of the admiral’s comely looking office.
North Star and Twilight Sparkle then began their trek back to the nest.
A week came and went, 7 sun rises and sun sets presented themselves to North Star before plunging into the sea to prepare themselves for the next day. North Star continued to work in the signaling bay; learning many tricks and tactics from his friend on the wire, Spade, and his commanding officer Ziggy.
North Star also actively tracked the storm cloud; it seemed almost to follow the vessel. Sometimes when Ziggy wasn’t looking North Star would explore with the drone and find the dark mass haunting the ship almost. North Star didn’t feel as frightened about the storm as he had when he had first discovered it; letting the belief of the ship beneath him being destroyed. That is until exactly 7 days after noticing the storm.
North Star was in the middle of his rote procedures. He had to admit that being a signaler was pretty easy at times, and at others nearly impossible. Most of his time was spent hunting clouds with the marker gun; or if necessary the drone and then calling the targets into Spade; who in turn send a pegasus pony or two to stamp out the target.
There was only one time that North Star realized how difficult signaling could be; during the first storm. The first storm seemed almost like a dwarf to the one that was near the ship. Nonetheless it was almost impossible to finish your day while in the depths of a storm. Time after time North Star believed the storm had finished only for a new wave of clouds and rain to spawn in the sky instantly. The rain made it difficult to control and sea with the drone and the constant screaming (Mostly signalers calling in their targets) made North Star’s head throb. Sometimes he would fall asleep for a second; only to see a dashing yellow or emerald green, or azure blue marker fly by the glass and hit a nearby cloud. North Star spent the easy days resting for the hard days and trained on the hard days for the storm looming over the ship; if that day ever came.
The day started normal for North Star; Ziggy came in and woke everypony up; screaming and cursing all the way. Next everypony dressed themselves in their uniform (Almost like a type of camo, signalers were considered part of the army and not the navy) and everypony jammed themselves into the elevator to get into the nest.
North Star felt oddly awake that day; happily whistling while he made his bed and got dressed. He was on the first ride to the elevator (Who he took by himself, as everypony was still busy toiling on their morning chores) and trotted over to his desk, on the far left of the window. In fact he was “Signaler 1” or “Signaler Red”. North Star couldn’t help but smile at how technological the ship was, a week before he had no clue on how the marker gun worked, well on his third day one of the mechanics let him come up and showed him how it worked.
The marker gun was basically 6 turrets seated right above the bunker where the signalers stood. The signalers would aim and fire the guns using electronics that pierced the cement and worked its way up into the gun. From there when they fired the trigger the marker gun would launch a small bomb that magically stuck to clouds; this “round” as it was called then turned the target into its color destined by the signaler who shot the gun. North Star was red, Lyra was yellow, Fleece was green, Twilight Sparkle was light blue, Blue Orange was purple, and Cloudy Daze was white. It was an intricate system that required a dozen mechanics and tedious hours of maintenance in-between shifts. The same mechanic showed him how the drone worked; but that was simply impossible to understand.
Things with Twilight Sparkle seemed somewhat frosty. The two almost seemed like rivals but in reality North Star had nothing against Twilight Sparkle and Twilight Sparkle had nothing against North Star; the two just had 2 different ways of leading. North Star was more down to Equestria; he allowed the ponies to do what they wanted to do as long as they did their work (Even though technically he wasn’t even their superior). Twilight Sparkle on the other hand thought everypony should work 110% 100% of the time; which North Star in a way kind of respected. Either way Twilight and North Star both felt they were being pressured by the other to gain the hearts and trust of the other signalers and Ziggy.
North Star was thinking of a way of showing up Twilight Sparkle, by suggesting some revolutionary improvement for the signalers, when his thoughts were penetrated by Lyra’s cursing.
“Lyra what is wrong?” North Star asked
“The storm you were talking about is getting pretty close…” Lyra observed; apparently the admiral had told her to not talk about the storm in public a lot; in a form to prevent the entire rumor of the ship sinking to spread (While full of colonists) like wildfire. Sadly even after that preventive measure some of the sailors had begun to notice the bulge of dark grey and black coming from the heavens.
“It is…” North Star said; the storm was closer to ever, and clearly visible from his desk; lighting was now easy to spot; bolting out of the inflamed black clouds.
“You don’t think it is going to come over the ship; do you?” Lyra asked with a worried face
“I don’t know; it has been like that for the last week” North Star admitted “It will eventually move away from the ship”
“I guess you’re right” Lyra said, turning back to her desk to continue working.
North Star for some reason found it hard to get back to work; the idea of the storm actually hitting the ship loomed in the back of his mind without pause. He tried to focus on work, calling in several nearby white clouds but that only allied with his fears, those poufy white clouds looked like nothing compared to the menacing and intimidating black clouds that made up the storm.
“Hey uh sir may I take a 15 minute break?” North Star asked, Warrant Officer Ziggy looked up from his magazine.
“Sure”
“Thanks” North Star called, he then picked up his headphones “Hey Spade going to take a 15 minute break”
“Okay whatever” Spade responded
North Star dropped the headphones and headed outside. He instantly felt a sense of fear trickle down his spine. The storm looked bigger than ever; and closer than ever. Two sailors were idly standing by the guard rails; gazing at the storm.
“That is one hell of a storm” One said
“You can say that again” The second one replied, flicking a match for a smoke
Looking at the giant mass of weather even made North Star cringe, the massive storm seemed to never end. Behind the first wave of clouds as it seems was a 2nd wave of clouds; just as brutal. North Star spent a lot of time and energy just thinking out how the ship would manage against the storm. North Star even began to fear a storm of that capacity would rain icebergs instead of hail and lakes instead of rain! Although that seemed pretty far fetch considering this was a simple storm it didn’t seem impossible. North Star almost went blind when a lone bolt of lightning came down and struck down onto the open sea, a second later a powerful burst of thunder almost popped North Star’s ear drums.
“Hey siggy colt you know anything about this?” The one sailor asked
“Nope” North Star said; playing dumb
North Star walked back to the bunker and opened the door; only to find the nest in a frenzy.
“What happened?” North Star asked
“The store sucked up Lyra’s drone!” Twilight said
“How was I supposed to know it would suck up the drone?” Lyra protested, her voice seemed more aggravated then afraid.
“Hey, hey I think that thing is getting closer to the ship!” Fleece said in his common frightened voice.
North Star instantly ran towards Fleece’s screen, he had been exploring the drone himself when he noticed the storm. Fleece always was more of a drone himself, Fleece never really had a social life on the boat and preferred to work overtime instead of relax with the other ponies on the boat. The storm looked more like a behemoth train then a storm; it was moving alarmingly quickly towards the ship. North Star cursed his luck; it was almost like the storm was waiting for them to be farther away from harbor to strike.
“Celestia it is coming right at us!” Twilight explained
North Star ran outside and looked over towards the storm; it was like a charging bull. The storm was heading right towards them without stop. North Star ran back inside, Ziggy was frantically calling some pony on the phone.
“Yes hello? This is Warrant Officer Ziggy, get all stations on high alert, we have found the storm of the century.”
North Star dropped his jaw almost to the ground; the moment he had been waiting for was upon him. North Star jumped onto his desk and rammed the headphones onto his head.
“Spade we got a problem” North Star said quickly in an unnaturally high voice
“What is it!?”
“The storm is here”
The Storm
Don't forget to tell your friends!
-Vespi
North Star saw the sun as a clock almost; every second it went down was a second closer to the storm. It was one of the most scary and aggravating sun set experiences he had ever seen. Ziggy spread the word to the admiral and everypony on the chain of command on the ship; the entire ship was on full alert. All 4 signal teams were on duty (Although the other two teams went to the bunker on the opposite end of the ship) and anxiously awaiting the onslaught of grim gray clouds. North Star couldn’t stop pacing, every five minutes or so North Star would give in to curiosity and look outside to see how close the storm was, every time North Star would end up cursing his luck and notice the storm was 5 minutes closer. Everypony around him had the same awful look of fear in their eyes. No pony could stand still and everypony ended up pacing around in circles; all their faces masked in worry and fear.
North Star finally gave up and idly sat down on his chair and talked to Spade to calm himself; things didn’t go as planned. North Star just became even more scared when Spade told him “This is the first time the weather ponies don’t want to go outside” and other things. North Star tried every trick in the book to calm himself; he tried to find his happy place, he tried reading, he tried eating, and he tried taking a nap; only the last one had an effect; and not a pretty one.
North Star was finally dozing into light sleep thinking about Fleur De Lis when he felt the ship jump. The ship tilted a good 20 degrees; causing North Star to bang his head against the wall; waking him instantly. North Star now noticed the tranquil nighty sky was transformed into the wicked storm. The purplish black sky now was a melancholy grey; dozens of grey menacing clouds had popped up out of nowhere. The few sailors who had been on deck to observe the spectacle were now running for cover; most of them running towards their battle stations.
Time to get to work
The ship rocked again; this time slamming some of the signalers against the other wall and sending most of the wheelie chairs following. North Star grabbed his mic and narrowly saved his equipment from being smashed on the ground. He smashed the red button and aimed the marker gun at the closest cloud; hitting the cloud with remarkable marksmen ship.
“Spade sees the marker?” North Star asked; practically screaming. The wind was now howling and could be heard even from inside the bunker.
“Got it” Spade said; screaming himself. North Star waited a minute for the weather pony to come out. North Star wasn’t even sure now if weather ponies could fly in such brutal and hostile weather. The entire sky had vanished and was replaced with torrents of rain; dousing the entire ship. Every single black and grey cloud began to drop its payload of water. North Star observed one sailor running for cover who had slipped. While in full sprint he slipped on the deck and went head first into several crates near the deck, he instantly got up and hobbled off; holding his bleeding head.
A blue pegasus bolted from the sky and headed towards the red cloud; and began to jump up and down on it; utterly destroying the cloud. A split second later the sky practically exploded; North Star watched in horror as a gale of wind came by and blindsided the pegasus. The pony was smashed into the nearby mast and even through the glass a sickly cracking noise could be heard after the pegasus went neck first into the metal lined mast, from such a high altitude, the pony plunged to the ship and smashing into the deck; leaving a sickly bloody mess.
“Holy Celestia!” North Star screamed; no pony even bothered to acknowledge North Star’s frightened scream, all North Star could hear was his fellow signalers screaming into their headphones. Before long the sky was filled with colorful clouds and then the weather ponies. North Star was relieved to say no pony plummeted to their death like the first weather pony had; for the moment at leastly.
The storm didn’t stop, for 3 whole hours the storm continued and continued without end. As the third hour toiled by there were only 5 operational marker guns. Lyra’s marker gun was torn from its position from atop the bunker after a 2nd gale of wind sent it flying onto the desk. Fortunately no pony was under it, unfortunately there were also 2 more weather ponies that were in the area at the time. One was sent into the mast like his predecessor; the other was just launched into the sea and never seen again.
North Star realized most of the clouds looming right overhead were quickly being shot down by his fellow signalers, North Star grabbed his drone and set off to get clouds farther away; and if the opportunity presented itself explore. The second the drone came into position it flew against the mast and cracked in half! North Star stood there for a moment; not sure if he should be angry or afraid. How fast was the wind out there? How fast was a wind that could turn drones into cannonballs and ponies into carcasses?
North Star and the crew of the Solstice were fighting a losing battle. Every minute the ship was getting beaten and beaten worse. The metal was becoming mired and maimed by the brutal wind; the masts were beginning to creak intensely and loose debris caused havoc and mayhem; but during those first hours the most devastating blow to the crew’s moral was the radio antenna.
The radio antenna was positioned at the highest point of the ship; the bridge. The wind was howling so brutally it yanked the radio antenna from its position and tossed it like a stick into the ocean. For a split second every phone went down; but luckily a quick witted pony at the bridge got everything on an auxiliary line before havoc could ensue. It was a massive blow to moral considering that the wind was so devastating it could rip metal electronics from their placing; but also because that was their only line of communication to the mainland. Ponies couldn’t use magic in the heat of such a storm to get help; the antenna was their only hope; and the antenna was now drifting in the sea.
“Spade target now!” North Star screamed; a gale of wind flew by and cracked the glass.
“I’m on it!” Spade replied
A weather pony flew by; struggling to fight the powerful wind when another surge of wind power occurred. This was the strongest of them all and proved it’s brutality with a powerful display of strength. The wind smashed against the mast; causing a small creak; that was just the metal cracking and splitting (North Star hadn’t even known metal could do that during wind). The entire mast then was put through a Domino effect, little by little the wind continued to push against the
mighty mast until it began to topple; slamming into another mast before crashing on the deck.
“Dammit I guess we are going on coal power!” Ziggy shouted; his voice fighting to stay audible in the storm.
North Star was just about to open his mouth to reply when he heard the most horrific sound in his life. It was an eerie, strange noise coming from below. North Star quickly realized it was metal torqueing and bending. Water was coming inside the ship.
“Looks like some ponies are going to be bailing” Lyra joked
“Celestia dammit what do we do?” Fleece asked; stuttering the entire question. He was sweating all over and was pitch white.
“I got an idea…” Ziggy said; he grabbed the phone and dialed several quick digits into the phone.
“Gold Miner is that you? Is their water in the main furnace yet?” Ziggy asked; North Star heard a panicked response from an unknown pony; Ziggy gave a quick off smile.
“You got to blow the furnace” Ziggy said
The pony just began screaming and cursing at Ziggy; whatever this idea was it didn’t seem smart.
“Dammit Gold Miner if you blow the furnace we can go 10 times faster and get away from this shit storm!” Ziggy yelled; now getting aggressive himself “If you don’t do it I will”
There was a short terse response that North Star didn’t catch; then a silence.
Ziggy let out a long sigh
“What was that about sir?” Twilight Sparkle asked
“I need to go do something to save this ship” Ziggy said “But I can’t do it alone; I need some pony that Is strong and has balls”
Everypony looked at North Star with expecting eyes
“Wait what” North Star said plainly
“Are you with me North Star?” Ziggy asked; his tone as a strange combination of begging and ordering.
“Well what are we even doing?” North Star asked
“We just set the furnaces powering the thrusters up and we can get out of this storm like that” Ziggy said with a snap of the hoof.
“But... but… isn’t that at the bottom of the ship somewhere?” North Star asked, North Star was no coward but he didn’t want to die in some scheme invented on the fly by Ziggy; or had he thought about it when he first heard about the storm?
“No pony is forcing you to do this North Star” Ziggy said “But if you do you will be saving lives.”
North Star now had a choice; save lives or save his own life. Considering he was most likely die in this storm; or in Ziggy’s mysterious plan he chose the more noble choice.
“I’ll do it” North Star said
“Then follow me” Ziggy said waving him outside. Ziggy ran into the door and headed outside; North Star followed and gave one look back at his old siggy friends.
“Follow me follow me dammit!” Ziggy said “We’ll never last out here!” North Star could see that. It was hard to even keep your eyes open in the storm; let alone stand or run. North Star tried to follow Ziggy at a comfortable gallop before slipping and ramming into the railway. Ziggy came back and picked him up before continuing his pace. North Star could not even understand how he knew North Star had fallen into the guard rail. The noise was so deafening it was even hard for North Star to hear his own thoughts.
Through the rain, sleet, hail, and wind North Star managed to follow Ziggy through the deck; only slipping three times do to his carelessness and eagerness to keep pace with the warrant officer. The once calm weather of the sky now had turned into a living hell almost. The sky was almost pitch black and clouds were crowding the airspace at an alarming rate. North Star was relieved to see clouds turning the assorted colors of the markers and then the flying weather ponies that normally ensued.
The two finally found an alcove to have a moments rest; they were finally across the desk and saw the bunker from below. In the window were Twilight Sparkle, Lyra, and all of the other signalers eagerly watching the fate of their two comrades.
“Dammit come on North Star we don’t have a lot of time!” Ziggy said; grabbing him by his hair. North Star was up in a second as Ziggy pushed open the generic heavy metal door of the ship; practically falling down the stairs as the door slammed open. North Star hurried down and followed Ziggy who was running like a mad colt.
The two ran through a good portion of the ship before they realized they were under the sea level; and they found out the hard way. North Star and Ziggy were galloping down a hallway when, like a well-planned booby trap, pressure ousted the walls and water flowed in from all directions. North Star barely knew what had happened before a small portion of the wall came undone and a fist of water pushed into his chest. North Star had never felt water like that, the water had so much pressure and velocity it felt like he was getting hit with a baseball bat; not water.
North Star followed instinct and sprawled his hooves out and landed face first on the floor; which was now becoming flooded with ice cold water. His commanding officer however knew the right of way and grabbed him by the hair again and almost dragged him onto his hooves. The two took off down a flight of stairs before a water proof door appeared and proved to be their rescuer.
“That was close…” North Star said, he could feel the pressure of the water against the door. How long would that door last? How long would the ship last? How many were already dead?
“We are getting close come on!” Ziggy said with a distinct sense of urgency in his voice. North Star felt his adrenaline kick in, his mane stick up, his energy levels booming, of any moment in the day he felt like h could do this right now; and he would have to.
Ziggy and North Star left the door to its fate and continued down the hall; which had served as a barracks. But upon further inspection only half the bunks were empty, the rest of the bunks were filled with frantic scared ponies; running and packing like their lives depended on it.
North Star realized that most of the ponies were escaping to the upper areas of the ship and leaving what left of the lower portions to their fate. North Star and Ziggy continued their run down to wherever Ziggy had planned and encountered few pony made oppositions.
“Jesus the water is coming in!” A sailor screamed; running up a flight of stairs that North Star and Ziggy had just went down. The water was breaking through again and ponies were all running in the two signalers way to escape it.
“Wait till they realize their trapped” Ziggy said with a wry chuckle
“So we are trapped too?” North Star said, his adrenaline for a moment shut itself off and fear swept through his body.
“Not if we can blow the furnace; it will cause one hell of a thrust and the water will be sucked clean out” Ziggy said “Now come on we are getting really close.”
North Star followed Warrant Officer Ziggy through one more level in the ship before they hit the coal flinger facility as it was called. This was where all of the coal furnaces were that powered the ship.
“What the hay are you two doing in here?” A familiar voice asked; North Star turned around to see his friend Braeburn standing right beside him. His face still had the soft features as it had always had; said features this time were just smudged with coal.
“We got to blow the main furnace” Ziggy said “Is that room flooded yet”
“Not the main furnace room; but soon” Braeburn said “Y’all got to get out of here and quick”
“No! We need to blow the furnace! It is the only way we will get out of this storm alive” Ziggy said; trying to convince Braeburn.
“Well if it is that important to y’all it is the last furnace on this floor. But y’all be careful alright at any moment these walls could bu-“
That sound of metal twisting came again; and very, very, very loud.
“Shit we got to move NOW!” Ziggy said; running down the level. This level of the ship was basically as it seems all furnaces. There were no comely offices or desk here; it was just giant rooms with giant coal powered furnaces. Ziggy was almost at his destination when an explosion shook the ship; the explosion wasn’t on the bottom level but it was the level right above where water seeped in and was causing mayhem.
Ziggy ran inside the room (Or what could be called a room; since it was just a giant area with a furnace in it) and his facial expression went from distressed to relieved. Inside was the largest furnace North Star had ever seen. It was the power source of all coal furnaces in the ship. It had to be 10 feet tall and sprawled through the entire room. Numerous levers and other controls were stationed on a table in the corner.
“So what do we do?” Braeburn asked
“This” Ziggy picked up a nearby crowbar and yanked the door open “We need something explosive”
There was a moment’s pause
“You know we just don’t keep dynamite down here all the time” Braeburn said with a hint of anger in his voice.
“You got a pack of matches?” Ziggy asked impatiently
“What for do y’all smoke?” Braeburn asked
“Yea I want a light, NO I AM GOING TO THROW IT IN THE FURNACE!” Ziggy screamed. Almost like on order more metal twisted and an explosion occurred on the furnace level. North Star turned around in horror to see a wave of blue and white water rushing towards them.
Braeburn handed Ziggy the matches and the officer tossed them in the furnace. For a split second nothing happened and North Star feared the worst and his impending doom; but then a spark occurred both literally and realistically. The matches exploded and a chain reaction occurred something had changed in the furnace causing several strange noises; nonetheless it meant some kind of hope.
“What do we do?” Braeburn asked
“RUN” Ziggy said; the furnace then exploded into a fireworks display and North Star was almost launched off his hooves. The fire now exploded right out of the furnace and embers came dangerously close to North Star’s hoof. Ziggy took off head first into the tidal wave; but something happened. A 2nd explosion occurred and North Star could feel himself about to fall and slam himself against the wall; whatever was happening had caused the ship to increase its speed rapidly. The law of inertia made sense; if North Star didn’t run (and fast) he’d be sucked into the wall and the tidal wave. North Star tried his best to run but made little progress; he couldn’t let himself give up though. He put one hoof after the other time after time and began to make headway. The tidal wave had transformed into more of a line then a colossal wave. The wave knocked Ziggy off his hooves and sent him screaming and falling back into the wall.
“Well shoot…” Braeburn said; grasping onto a nearby crate that had been nailed to the floor.
North Star couldn’t give up; he wouldn’t give up. He began to run as fast as possible; the water was only up to his haunches but it was so icy cold it was making him numb. The only time he had ever felt himself getting numb like this was when he fell in the lake during winter several years back. The water was so cold it felt almost like it was burning; torturing his skin. He did everything in his power to survive; Braeburn finally gave in and was swept off his hooves by the brutal force of inertia.
North Star couldn’t move anymore and, grabbed the crate that Braeburn had held onto, finally just tried to hang on for dear life for what seemed like hours. Right when he felt like he was going to die he felt the ship stop and he lost his grip. He was now flying across the furnace level. The ship had almost stopped and it seemed like the water had slowed down to only a trickle; everything seemed in North Star’s favor; except he was about to slam against a metal wall while flying through the air.
Just like his friend Braeburn said
“Well shoot…”
Note from the Author
I have to admit i'm a little dissapointed with this story. I was kind of hoping a good first serious fic. I might keep this around a little bit and leave it on hiatrus until i finish Wonderland (And perhaps the threquel).
I might just keep this up then delete then repost it for a jump start on the "New Story" page,
To whoever reads this just want to thank you all and please wait. Hate to admit it but comedy is the genre i have a flair in.
This story just has to wait
-Vespi
P.S. if you don't know what the hell i am talking about this story is on hiatrus.