Snow was falling slowly and quietly outside the Brighthouse, as snow naturally did. Or at least Sunny was pretty sure it was supposed to be like that, as she watched it from the window. She wasn't completely sure, though, having never properly seen snow and all. "Izzy," she said, turning, "is snow supposed to..." Her words trailed off as she noticed Izzy wasn't in the room with her. It was just the two of them in the Brighthouse. Pipp and Zipp were off shopping with Queen Haven, and Hitch, though not a regular resident of the Brighthouse, having his own house and paid off mortgage and all, was regardless busy trying to regulate snowball fights in town. Maretime didn't have any laws regarding those, they'd never been needed without snow. Sunny thought they weren't needed with snow either, but Hitch would do as he would.
She stepped away from the window and began to head downstairs, wondering what Izzy was getting up to. She started to get an idea of what it could be midway through the staircase. The first thing she noticed was the sound. It sounded like nothing was ever supposed to sound, and like how Izzy's crafting sprees always sounded. Her suspicions were confirmed when she got to the bottom and turned towards the table, or towards where the table should have been.
It was probably still there. Somewhere. Buried under a pile of what she could only manage to describe as stuff. It looked like a mess of everything and nothing, tall enough to hide the unicorn behind it whose presence was only made evident by the way chunks of the miniature mountain of things occasionally levitated away in her magic. Sunny would have once wondered how Izzy had gotten so much stuff in there so fast, or where she'd even found it in the first place. She'd quickly learned, living together with Izzy, that it was best not to question the former, and not to know the latter. The unicorn usually cleaned after herself at least, so they could overlook her more eccentric outbursts of creativity.
"Izzy?" Sunny called out, mostly to ensure her friend hadn't accidentally buried herself under the weight of her own creative process. "Are you okay in there?"
Izzy's head poked out from behind the pile, near the top, and Sunny wasn't sure she wanted to know what the unicorn was standing on to get there. The edges of her mane were just frazzled enough to tell Sunny she was at least a bit nervous. "Oh, hey Sunny. I didn't see you come down."
Sunny looked down at the stuff on and off the table, then back at Izzy. "Yeah. I wonder why."
Izzy sheepishly smiled, and retreated behind her crafting materials once again. She did not stop speaking though. "Sorry about the mess. I just got so tangled up between Wishiehoof celebrations and building the Marestream I completely forgot about the traditional post-Wishiehoof boat-making." As she spoke, parts of the pile in front of her wobbled in different places, hinting at the speed with which she was moving behind them. "So, huh, I'm doing that now. I'll be quick, I promise."
"Post-Wishiehoof... boat-making?" Sunny raised an eyebrow in confusion, even if Izzy couldn't see her. "Is that really a thing?"
Izzy poked out near the top of the pile once again. "It's tradition." She slid back, and came out on the same side, much lower, to add, "It's going to be jinxies if I don't finish it in time!" She disappeared again. Next she was at Sunny's side. "You never know when the Great Green Goo Wave might come back. We must be ready." She was behind the table again, once more rummaging through her things. Hopefully her things. Hopefully her legally acquired things.
Of all her friend's oddities, Sunny wasn't yet completely used to the occasional disregard for the ways space was supposed to work, so it took her a moment to calm down after Izzy's sudden appearance at her side had startled her. "The Great Green Goo Wave?" she asked, halfway between curiosity and scepticism. Not everything of what Izzy said was always to be taken at face value, and not everything of what was true to her was always accurate to unicorn culture as a whole. Still, it was always interesting to hear what she had to say. "What is that?" She walked closer, still keeping a safe distance from the teetering tower of Izzy's creativity fodder as she circled around it.
A few sounds like something mechanical and powered by an engine came from where Izzy was, which left Sunny all the more perplexed when she actually got to see her and nothing of the sort was visible. "It's a unicorn legend," Izzy explained, without looking up from the vaguely round and maybe boat-like assemblage of parts in front of her. "The story goes that one Wishiehoof, a magical incident summoned a great wave of monstrous goo that devastated the castle of a unicorn princess, and she and her friends had to sail over it to survive. So we make boats every year after Wishiehoof, in case it ever comes back."
Sunny was frowning slightly as she stepped closer, and only partly because she worried Izzy's stuff would fall on them. "You don't really believe that, do you?" she asked. "I mean, if it was a magic accident it can't just reappear out of nowhere like that."
"Oh, well, I don't actually think it's going to come back soon, no," Izzy said, and Sunny couldn't tell if she was fully convinced of what she was saying or not. "It's not like this thing would he much help if it did." She tapped on the duct-taped collage of objects before her with a somewhat sad frown. One of the pieces fell off. Izzy was silent for a second, but then she cheered back up. "It's mostly just the act itself, you know. To ward off the jinxies." Then she looked at Sunny. "Besides, it really happened. Grandaunt Stellar told me so!"
"Grandaunt Stellar?" Sunny was curious again. Insights into Izzy's family were rare and typically much smaller in size than what the unicorn usually shared when talking, and though Sunny had her guesses as to why and chose not to pry that didn't stop her from seizing any chance she got to hear more.
"Well, she's not really properly my grandaunt." Izzy leaned with a leg against her would be boat. More pieces fell off, though she didn't seem to mind. "She my, uh..." She stuck out her tongue as she looked up, frowning in thought and muttering something to herself. "...great-great-great... Something between fifty-four and sixty-three times great-grandaunt. And she was there, she saw it. Or, er, she heard about it from my sixty-three to fifty-four times great grandfather, who heard it from his friend who was close enough to the castle and asked the princess about it afterwards. Or something like that." She looked up still, but in a different way. "Something like that, right?" she asked to seemingly no one, a little louder.
Sunny did as she always did when Izzy brought up the possibility of her communing with her deceased unicorn ancestors. She reminded herself of her own pastimes during her more lonely days, and kept her mouth shut. It wasn't that she didn't want to trust her friend, it was that trusting her implied either admitting she was a little more crazy than Sunny was comfortable with, or that the dead could speak through her. So Sunny just stayed quiet on it, and chose to take the conversation elsewhere. "So you build a boat and then what? Do you leave them somewhere? Use them? Does Bridlewood have a place where you put all of them?" The image of a clearing full of unused boats in the middle of a forest was an amusing one if nothing else.
"Oh, it's more of a family thing, actually," Izzy explained. "Most unicorns in Bridlewood don't actually partake, and a few of those who do just make paper boats or similar. Which is fine, you know, it's the thought that counts. I just like doing something extra with mine." She gave the result of her previous efforts a smack for emphasis. The whole structure broke in half. Izzy's eyelid ever so slightly twitched. "Do you want to lend a hoof?"
Seeing her friend's half-desperate call for help for what it was, Sunny eagerly stepped forward. "Of course, I'd love to."
"Great. Because I could really use the help." Izzy looked at the remains of her work. "Do you have any idea how to make a boat out of trash?"
Sunny paused. "No, actually. But I thought you had experience with them."
Izzy took a deep breath. "Well, okay, yeah, I do. But back in Bridlewood I used to make them with wood. Mostly branches and stuff. I have a room full of all the ones I've made, I should show them to you. I guess they're more like canoes. Anyway, I don't really have any wood ready and I can't go to Bridlewood in this weather, not without the Marestream and Zipp to pilot it. So I'm stuck here, and I don't suppose you have any wood just lying around we could use, right? Spare wood you wouldn't use for the fireplace, lighter stuff."
Sunny paused for a bit, thinking about it. "Uh, well... Not that I can think of?" Then she lit up. "But I could always just grow a tree, could that work?"
Izzy smiled at first, then frowned. "I'm not sure. It would be a lot of work to chop down and break apart a whole tree, and I don't think we have enough time for that. Do you think you could grow just a bunch of short branches we can break off? I would like this to be done by sundown." She leaned in closer to Sunny, eyes darting from side to side to make sure they were alone, as if there was a need to check and ensure secrecy, and whispered in her ear, "It's bad luck if we don't finish it by sundown."
Sunny swallowed. Her cheeks had gone a little red, and it wasn't particularly to do with what Izzy had said. Surely it was the cold, she thought as she found herself staring out the open door to the snowy outside. "I can try, sure," she said, and she stepped out. Then she walked back in and went up to actually grab something to cover herself before being out in the snow. Izzy chuckled at her.
"Thanks, Sunny."
It was not an easy or quick process. Sunny took a while to figure out the right amount of magic to channel to grow twigs. The first few times she got flowers or weeds, or bushes too green to snap. Then she accidentally added a proper tree to the front of the Brighthouse, she supposed they'd just have to explain that one to the others when they got back. Eventually though she figured it out, and the two settled into a rhythm. When they were done they had a fair amount of wood to work with, though largely thinner than the naturally fallen branches Izzy was used to work with. They were also running late.
It was a relief when they found messages from the others saying they wouldn't be back for lunch, even if they saw those much later than relevant. Sunny began to prepare something for the two of them, while Izzy got to work again with renewed enthusiasm. Even with the Sun hidden by the clouds it wasn't hard to tell sundown was approaching quickly, days lasted far less in the winter after all.
Izzy ended up eating her late lunch while working at the same time, holding both tools and food in her magic. She only bit her hammer once. Sunny watched her work, barely noticing her own food as she ate. There was something mesmerising about the way the mare worked her creativity to throw stuff together and shape something out of it. Mesmerising in sort of the same way a tram carriage derailing and crashing was mesmerising, but intriguing nonetheless. Or maybe it was the inverse of a crash. Taking scraps and trash and putting it all back together into something. It was beautiful in a way. Sort of like the mare in the middle of it.
Sunny realised she'd finished eating when she went to take another bite and found her teeth digging into her hoof. It did wonders to snap her out of her stupor. She quickly got to Izzy's side, and began to listen to her friend for directions as they kept working together on their boat. "I usually make them fit just for one," the unicorn explained. "I want this one to be bigger, so we can both fit inside it."
The two kept at it, gluing pieces and tying sticks and wrapping things up in foil or other things. Sunny had her doubts whatever they were making would actually survive contact with the water, much less magical goo, but at least it definitely looked like it had the shape of a boat, and it was holding together fairly well too.
They raced the clock as the Sun outside got lower and lower. Going by what Izzy told her, the process usually took a few days, more than a week accounting for the gathering of materials and the planning stages as well. Sunny was truly curious to see the other's past endeavours, but for the time being she focused on the one they were making. When sundown finally arrived the two mares were tired, somehow dirty with motor oil, but looking with satisfaction at the product of their work.
The room was even more of a mess than it had been before and the would be boat took up a decent portion of it. The silhouette was right at least. It actually looked like a small boat if one squinted. If one didn't then the patchy structure and holes in it became fairly evident, but like Izzy had said the intent was the important part. Sunny was particularly happy with the rubber duck acting as the ship's figurehead, and by the felt and paper replicas of their cutie marks attached to the side of the vessel.
Izzy let herself slump a little, looking at the haphazardly meshed together construct of sticks and straw and rope and paper cups and foil wrappers and broken plastic utensils, a hammerhead acting as its miniature anchor and a ripped chunk of bed sheet as its sail, and swimming flippers attached to the broken-off legs of a table as its oars. It had come out a weird cross between a canoe and a small scale replica of a bigger ship, but at least they'd gotten actual pillows for the seat. She leaned to the side and threw a hoof around Sunny. "Thank you for helping."
Sunny leaned into her, mostly out of tiredness. "It was fun. We should do it again next year. Just, you know, with more planning ahead and less last minute panic."
"It's the thought that counts." Izzy tilted her head slightly. "And this is still a beautiful symbol of our friendship." She seemed unnaturally still, like she was waiting for something to happen.
"Izzy?" Sunny looked at her, suddenly worried. "Is everything okay?"
Izzy cleared her throat, and repeated, a little louder, "A beautiful symbol of our friendship."
Sunny furrowed her brow. "Izzy?"
The unicorn finally released the breath she'd been holding, and slumped down. She seemed a little sad, though more on the bothered end of sadness than on the sad sad one. "I was hoping the prisbeam would do the thing with the cutie marks and the rainbow light and everything like the Marestream and we'd get our own super cool mareboat of friendship to sail with and it would have an attached hot chocolate dispenser I could use some hot chocolate right now do you want some I'll make some."
Next thing Sunny knew, Izzy was in the kitchen heating things up. The earth pony had a small chuckle. "Come on, Izzy. It wouldn't be right if everything we tried to make just got fixed up like that. It wouldn't be fair."
Izzy came back with two steaming cups of cocoa. "I know, Sunny, and you're right." She sat down at her friend's side. "Besides, working on this with you was still a ton of fun." She looked to Sunny and smiled, and raised a hoof to tap it against her nose. "You're right, we should do it again next year." She went back to looking at the boat, and sipped on her chocolate. "I just thought it would be fun if I got to take you out on a boat ride with it. That would have been nice. I don't think this thing's going to hold together if we use it."
Sunny swallowed the cocoa she'd been slowly savouring in her mouth. "Well, we do have some canoes if you want to go together." She sensed the way Izzy started to vibrate next to her, and began to add, "But first we should clean everything u-"
"What are you waiting for?" Izzy called out to her from the door, fully dressed for the weather outside, carrying out the boat they'd made together to go place it down wherever she kept all the things she kept hidden.
Sunny had a look around herself. The room was completely empty of all the stuff that had occupied it before, cleaned spotless. Even the plates and pots she'd used for lunch were washed and back in their cupboards. She smiled to herself, and had another sip of chocolate.
The two mares rowed out on their canoe, together with a lamp to light the way through the early darkness. Sunny had taken a bit to finish her chocolate and get cleaned and dressed again, and a bit longer to walk to where the canoes were kept. They were closer to the shore, thankfully far enough from the lighthouse to not be damaged when it had fallen. The water was calm, and there was little wind, so it would be safe to go out as long as they kept close enough to the shore. Sunny knew the place well enough, and even in the darkness it would be hard to lose sight of the Brighthouse.
As they moved into the sea, the two spotted a small trail of pegasi making their way back to the building. Haven, Zipp and Pipp, and two barely stable towers of bags and boxes with two guards at the bottom whose tiredness was evident even from afar. Sunny was honestly staggered they'd even found so much to buy in Maretime, especially when some shops were closed. Then again it was possible Haven had bought out entire shops' worth of stuff, from what she'd heard from her daughters that wasn't out of the realm of believability.
A little farther behind, Sunny spotted another pony approaching. Hitch, judging more by the round green flame-spewing thing on his back than anything else. He had mentioned he would drop by for dinner that day, mostly due to Haven being there too. Sunny wasn't sure if it was political reasons or something else. At that moment though he was apparently busy ducking and dashing and tossing snowballs at a group of foals chasing him around. Hints of the sound of their laughter just barely reached the boat the two mares were on.
Izzy stopped rowing and looked out into the distance, watching the calm black sea like she was mesmerised by it. It was starting to snow again. Sunny looked at Izzy, already used to seeing the sea, until a snowflake landed on top of her muzzle and her eyes focused on it. Something came to her mind. "Izzy?" she called out.
"Yeah?" Izzy asked without immediately turning back.
"Is snow supposed to fall like this?" Sunny asked.
"Like what?" Izzy looked at Sunny.
"You know." Sunny vaguely, broadly gestured with her hooves at the flakes coming down around them. "Like this. Quiet and slow."
Izzy had a look around. "Well, I've seen it fall harder too, but that's usually not too nice. I think it is. I've never asked it though." Before Sunny could reply, Izzy cupped her hooves and called out to the sea, "Snow, are you supposed to fall like this?"
No one answered that. Izzy shrugged. Sunny smiled. "Maybe it doesn't want to be bothered," she said.
"That sounds lonely," Izzy commented.
"Maybe snow is happier that way." Sunny rocked slightly from side to side, not enough to upset the canoe too much. "Maybe it just doesn't want to talk. It doesn't seem to mind coming down to us."
"I guess that's true." Izzy looked at Sunny, then at the snow, then at Sunny. Wordlessly she leaned forward and hugged the other mare.
"Izzy?"
"I'm trying to act like snow," Izzy whispered.
Sunny chuckled, then hugged the mare back. "Wanna keep being like snow inside?"
Izzy didn't answer. Sunny thought she was just staying silent, then the snoring began. Sunny smiled to herself. She looked up to the sky a little, then towards the Brighthouse, where Hitch was saying goodbye to the gaggle of foals he'd been playing with. She gave a deep, tired, satisfied sigh, gently pushed Izzy back to her side, and slowly began to row the canoe back to shore.
