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

Next Chapter: Markers and Signalers Estimated time remaining: 37 Minutes