Chapter 1:

Waves lapped at the rocks of the old harbor. And old buck sat in the shade of the boardwalk with a fishing pole. A couple walked by, the mare giggling about something her colt friend had said. Little fillies ran by all holding cotton candy, the one earth pony carrying the whole thing in her mouth. I sighed and looked up at the city I was fast approaching . It was nice being around ponies again. After a two week flight through mostly wilderness it was gonna be nice to sleep in a bed even if it was only for a little while. I approached a storefront and opened the door. A bell chime went off as I entered. If the bell alerted the clerk to my presence he showed no sign of it. A newspaper obscured his face.

"Uh hello?" I said. When he didn't answer I put my hoof on the top of the paper and pulled it down. An old mare sat there apparently sleeping. Just then a young buck wearing a work apron appeared from a door behind the desk. "Oh hello." He said looking at the sleeping mare. "Dont mind granny, we dont normally get much business this time of the year." He took off the apron and hung it on a rack with magic. "Welcome to the Sunny Shores Shipping Company, My name is Stepping Stones" he said with and ernest smile.

I returned it and took off my saddlebags. "I have some things to trade but I was also wondering if you had any work."
The bucks smile dipped slightly. "Trade I can do, but like I said. Not a lot of work around here." He said looking back to his grandma. "Used to be plenty of work but the fishing hauls have been very bad this year. We barley are moving enough product to scrape by." he said a look of concern folding across his face

"That's a shame. Everywhere i've been to has been drying up."

"What exactly do you do?"

"Small favors with potions. You'de be suprised how many problems can be solved with the right brew."

"I thought you needed to be a unicorn to brew potions?"

"Not really. Sure certain things are out of my reach but most of what I now is old zebra knowledge." I explained.

"Zebra huh? Ive never met one, I heard they are spooky shamans who speak curses at you." He said with a slight smile.

"Hehe I never met one either I learned from an Earth pony back home."

"Wheres that?"

"Hmm?"

"Home? Wheres back home."

"Uh.. Friendship City."

"No way, you're a long way from home then." he said.

"I suppose, I just needed to streach my legs in the world you know?" I said.

The Stallion gave a knowing look but seemed to drop the subject. "What are you interested in trading?"

I smiled wide and dumped all the swag that had been weighing me down for several days. By the time our transaction was complete I had been informed about a local hostel with an attached bar. The Pink Prancing Pony. I found the place with a little help from the locals and went up to the grisly looking pony who was serving drinks at the bar. "New in town Traveler?" He said in a thick accent I couldn't identify.

"Yeah I'm looking for a place to cool my heals."
The thick stallion brought out a log book from behind the bar. "The rate is 40 bits a night, up front. No credit on tap." He handed it to me and I wrote my name. "Thank you miss Scarlet Rain. First drink is on the house to tennats. What ll it be?"

"Hard Cider hold the rocks." The Barpony quickly made my drink and as I was about halfway through it the door to the Inn opened. A pony wearing a full body cloak entered and said something to on of the other patrons who was dressed in full armor. He nodded and followed her to a corner of the room. One of the patrons who had a little too much already started to shout so loud that his voice filled the whole bar. "Am ahm just saying that its not our responsibility to take care of all these freeloaders coming in from the core! We got barley enough to feed ourselves and now the mayor wants to open ANOTHER refugee area?" His friend appeared more sober and tried to calm him down. "Calm down man, its not permanent. The Imperial raids is making a lot of ponies leave the big cities, when its over they will go home."

"Sure thats what they say, but how many refugee centers are opening in Canterlot or Friendship city? Zero! Thats how many! Those uptight prudes wouldnt know what to do with all the homeless we got. What about the Princesses? Do they even care that the country is breaking apart?" The stallion's attention suddenly shifted to the mare in the cloak. Who was just making her way to the door, flanked by the pony in armor. "Hey you! Why are you wearing that? You got something to hide?" He said as he struggled to hold himself up. The cloaked pony starred silently, the only thing I could see were her eyes which were a bright red. The Armored pony positioned himself in front of her and confronted the drunk stallion. "You've had too many friend, why bother the lady? Go back to your drinks." He said.

The stallion became furious. "I'll bother whoever I like What are you her white knight?"

"Something like that." He said

The stallion stumbled toward him and threw a punch that didn't connect with anything as the armored pony moved slightly to avoid it. Only to bring his forhooves down on the drunk stallions neck. He suddenly went limp from the impact and gasped for breath against the stronger stallions grip. "Don't mess with her, or me. Understand?" The drunk stallion took a second then shook his head despritly as he ran out of air. The armored pony let go and aproached the cloacked pony who despite the lack of features I could see looked shocked.

"Lets go my lady, I dont like the atmosphere here anymore."

The Two were being watched by everyone in the bar now, a fact that the cloaked pony seemed to hate. They left without incident as the drunken stallion was still sprawled on the floor. The bartender shook his head. "Thats FishFace, hes always trying to start something with the tourists. Blames them for the lack of work, but to be fair the nets wasn't catching anything even before the Revolution."

"I wouldnt be suprised if a lot of ponies feel that way." I said as I starred at my empty mug. The barpony refilled it and looked at me. "Not everypony."

That Night I slept the best I had in weeks. When I awoke I shook off the fuzzy memories of a dream I was having and sat up in bed. The room I had rented was small but cozy. I grabbed my saddlebags and reached inside. A lot of things could be stored in these saddlebags, she had paid a unicorn to enchant it with a spell that would make the space inside bigger. It was not infinetly big, but it was big enough to hold her ingredients for potions and everything she needed to survive in the wild. She had never ran out of space yet, however it was still a pain in the cutie marks to find anything in it. She found it helped to be thinking of the object she looked for. Looking inside the bag was useless as you would just see the inky blackness of the enchanted space. So instead I was reduced to an old mare fiddling with her purse every time I needed something.

I finally found the bag that contained all the bits I had in the world. With what I made yesterday I could be set for awhile.. but what then? Fighting had broken out along the northern border of Equestria and the new Dark Empire, and many towns and counties were considering joining the Empire to save themselves. The roads were not safe to walk anymore and every place I go seems to be crowded with refugees. I wanted so much to settle down somewhere and open my own potion shop, but that seemed like a pipe dream when the world felt like it would be torn down at any minute. Still this Life on the road was starting to wear me down, despite it being my choice to leave.

I thought about my parents for the first time in a while. I hoped they were safe. My little brother StormCloud was just old enough to attend the friendship school. This would be his first year. I remembered mine fondly, though thinking of the friends I made their only filled me with sadness now.

After what felt like years I got out of bed and slipped out of the inn to explore Sunny Shores a little more. The town was sat atop a huge cliff that dipped into some pleasant shallow water. At the highest point on the cliff a lighthouse sat watching guard over the harbor. To the east you could just barley see the shimmering colors of the Cloudsdale's Rainbow factory. I passed by a dock where workers were busy loading up crates onto a boat. To my surprise two royal guards watched the workers with suspicious eyes while another officer directed the effort. "That's less then half of what we were promised." The officer was saying to an an old salty haired pony. "Sir, this is all we got that we can spare. More then three quarters of our catch." He said between puffs of his corncob pipe.

"I don't know if you realized Mr. but we are at war in all but name. We gotta get this food to the troops by the border."

"Strange that the Army needs to requisition food this way."

"Our supply lines are in bad shape. It's too damn dangerous on the road with all the creatures running about. The Empire doesn't even need to attack us, they're just waiting us out." the younger of the guards said. His superior gave him a disapproving look and they continued to haggle until i was out of earshot. In the center of town there was a park, but instead of the laughter of children on swings I heard only the quiet murmur of desperation. Tents were set up all over the park, some had holes in them that were patched up with old dress pieces. Everywhere sat ponies of all ages. Some talked or were silent, but none of them were smiling. I decided to avoid this area for now.

Near midday I walked over to the lighthouse. It was old, how old was any ponies guess but it appeared to still use a flame as a source of light instead of electricity. I flew up to the roof of the top of it and perched. I took a moment to look at the ocean before me. I had seen pictures before but it really didn't do justice to the real thing. The ocean was so much bigger then anything you could understand. I briefly wondered if anypony had ever set sail out into that strange blue horizon. It would be scary to travel over that much open water, I wonder if there is any wild continents out there or would we just sail around all the way back to Equestria. My thoughts were interrupted by the lighthouse door opening. It was the mare in the veil I had seen earlier. She was alone this time. The wind whipped back her veil almost violently. I was about to say something when I heard soft sobs coming from the veil. Suddenly a magic Aura lifted the veil from her face and I could see it for the first time. She was a Inky black Unicorn that looked very young. Her eyes were red from tears as she gasped between them and pulled herself up to the railing. I watched in horror as she flung herself off the lighthouse and drop like a rock towards the rocks below. I had moments to act as I flattened my wings to catch up to her. She had her eyes closed and didn't notice me until I had her firmly in my hooves. She looked at me and then the ground, then violently pushed me away. "Ow! What was that for I just saved your life!" The Unicorn wrapped herself in an aura of magic and landed gracefully. She turned to leave but not before I caught up. "Hey why would you do that? I cant let you go unless I know you're not going to go flying without wings." I said. The Unicorn rolled her eyes and pushed passed me and pulling up her veil to cover her face again. "If I wanted your help I would of asked for it! Leave me alone!"

I stared at the mare for a moment and tried to process what just happened. I had just saved her life and she was pissed at me. Maybe this town had some magnet for weird ponies based on what I had seen. I noticed that my stomach was growling and decided to head back to the inn for some lunch. I hoped the weird Unicorn with the veil wasn't going to be there in fact I hoped I would never see her again.

Author's Note

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