Marehaven Harbor. A smaller trading port on the west coast of Equestria. It could house about 50 ships at any given time, mostly personal civilian sailing ships with the occasional trading vessel and even an Equestrian Navy frigate or schooner. From time to time they got tourist ships that desired a taste of local color, though these visits were few and far between. The town simply wasn’t big or important enough to warrant tourists.
The town itself was shaped in a horseshoe around the harbor itself, with a couple of tiers of buildings built along the somewhat steep hills that surround the bay. The place had everything one would need to live a simple yet satisfying life; a school, general store, a medical facility, parks, that kind of thing. Most ponies who come to the town, however, weren’t interested in many of those buildings though. Sure some needed to mail stuff off, or buy some things from the general store, but the biggest drive for the sailors who arrived and left daily were the pair of inns and a few taverns that dotted the edge of the pier and docks. Sure, none of them were exactly five star, but they were accommodating and they served good liquor. What more could the sailors ask for?
One of the more reputable taverns was known as “The Bubbly Seapony”. It had the good fortune of being situated right in front of the dock that the naval and trade vessels liked to frequent. It wasn’t a particularly big, nor great looking, establishment. The building was a single floor with what looked to be an attic or storage area above. The dark blue painted wood that made up the bulk of the construction was faded and chipped from the countless years of being exposed to the harsh salty ocean air.
Inside was a bit better, mostly because it was a bit better maintained. The walls were a nice warm mahogany, and the lighting kept things decently lit even in the darkest of nights. The inside was divided into two main rooms and then a bathroom. The front room had the bar and all the seating while the back room had the kitchen and ladder up to the storage area above. The front had the bar counter against the dividing wall between the front and back with five stools and had ten tables around the room: two corner booths and eight freestanding tables of various sizes. When packed, it would be a struggle for just two ponies to keep up with anything. Iron Wing, the tavern’s owner and an old sailor, and his lone barmare never seemed too stressed about it though.
Said barmare was a lovely pink pegasus with a tri-color mane of purple, rose, and creamy yellow. Her eyes were a paler pink than her coat and on each flank was a crystal heart cutie mark. This was Cadence, the nicest filly most of the patrons have seen in a long time. She was on the younger side, though still had the attitude of a mature woman, likely due to dealing with drunken stallions all the time. Currently she was pouring a couple of glasses of whiskey using her win to tip the bottle. She had grown rather good with using her wing for pouring drinks. It also made her wings strong, making her quite a good flier.
As she slid the pair of glasses over to the two sailors, her boss would walk back in, the gruff unicorn using his forest green colored magic to close the door behind him. He glanced over to the barmare giving a small nod as he opened his mouth.
“New ship coming in, Cadence, EqRN, it’s a big’un, new from the look of it, better make sure we’re fully stocked.”
“Aye Aye,” Cadence replied, only giving a small glance as he would begin to move towards the door to the back, “What’s this one’s name?”
“HMS Celestia, sounds like a flagship, ifn my eyes were correct, I think it was a 44 gunner.”
“That’s new. Well I look forward to meeting them,” She said as he finally went into the back. It was true too, she loved her job, despite the occasional drunk. She loved hearing the various stories from the sailors, both naval and merchant, though she admitted that the naval sailor stories generally were the more interesting. She loved meeting ponies from all over Equestria, even the occasional pony from another country too. She briefly wondered about who’d she meet today, what they’d be like and where they’d come from, but she’d find all that out soon enough.
“If yer the one they’re meeting fer the first time, Cadie, they’re not gonna wanna leave,” A voice brought her out of her thoughts. She looked at one of the two sailors she had just served with a small smile. They were local fishermen that frequented the tavern when they weren’t out to sea. She simply gave a small roll of her eyes as she waved a hoof at them.
“Oh shush you, get back to your whiskey.”
He gave a small laugh before doing exactly that. She would pick up a rag and would simply begin to wipe down the counter and the tables. She had an hour or so before any of the sailors of the new ship would be filing in for leave, so she might as well get things ready. Her boss came out from the back with a few different bottles of the usual drinks, restocking the bar and replacing the bottles that were too low to really be used. Soon enough, though, they would begin hearing the sounds of men chatting outside and they knew it was time for the crowd.
At least it would be if there was much of a crowd. There were only about 10 sailors: a couple of officers and some enlisted ponies. It was a bit odd to see so few of them when a ship just docked, but Cadence was sure that either more will come eventually or, at the very least, had a good reason for not coming. Perhaps she’d even be able to ask one of them. She would look to them giving a smile as she welcomed them in. A few broke off to sit in one of the booths, and a couple went over to one of the tables. The two officers, however, moved over to the counter. That’s when Cadence first met his eyes.
He was a white unicorn stallion with a three-tone blue mane, and blue eyes. A silent connection was established between them, Cadence could feel it. See, that was part of her special talent. Spreading and maintaining love and care wherever she could. Part of that meant that she could sense the ‘emotions’ of ponies around her. It wasn’t the same as a unicorn could probably do, but something about the air around an individual would react a certain way that gave her insight. It was why she was so good at her job, she got to help out these sailors and would know when fights were going to break out so helped stop them. This stallion, walking up to her, was a bit different. The air around him seemed… unique, or maybe that was the wrong word for it, for it wasn’t unique, it was the same as the air she felt around herself. She didn’t quite know what that meant, so simply smiled at them and would greet them as they sat down.
“Hey sailors, what’s your poison?”
“Two whiskeys, please,” the interesting stallion would respond, giving her a smile. She was expecting that response, so was already pulling out the bottle and glasses for them. She wasn’t, however, expecting the next question that came from him, although she probably should have.
“So what’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?” A cheesy opening line that has been asked of here on more than a few occasions. Most of the time she’d answer simply and move on, not being interested in what the stallions really wanted. This one felt different though, she didn’t sense any ulterior motives from him, and it felt like he was genuinely curious.
“Was born and raised here, the town that is. Always loved the sea but could never get away, figured I’d work where I could meet and chat with sailors and hear their stories,” She replied with a small shrug, “What about you? What’s your rate?”
“Petty Officer Shining Armor, Quarter Gunner on board Her Majesty’s Ship Celestia, at your service, Miss…” He let the sentence drift off, hoping she’d fill in the blank with her name. She was happy to oblige.
“Cadence, though you can call me Cadie, sir. I’m a bit surprised, admittedly, you don’t sound like you're from the west coast.”
“Aye. My group and I are from Manetucket.”
“Manetucket? You’re a long way from home sir.”
“Please, Shining is fine, I sound like an old man if you keep calling me sir,” He raise a hoof dismissively.
“Be careful of that one, boy, she’s one that will make even the most diehard sea dog regret choosing the sea,” Came the voice of the fisherman from before, clearly teasing and making some small conversation. Cadence just rolled her eyes and wave a hoof at him.
“Oh hush up, you old scuttlebutt, or you can clear out,” She would say in feign anger. She received a hearty laugh from the old stallion as a response. She shook her head before turning back to Shining, “Anyway, how’d you end up out here?”
“Well, the Celestia is heading to the coast of Epona to raid Bittish convoys, they’ve been shanghaiing our merchantmen and the crown got tired of it. As for me, specifically. My colts and I are some of the best gunners in the fleet and my shields are the best in the fleet. So we got picked to be the crew for her maiden voyage.”
“Oh wow, you must be pretty important eh? Your special talent is shields then?”
“Yep! I was aboard a trade ship that got attacked by pirates, I managed to save it from, I think it was 5 volleys, before my ship was able to see them off. Must have saved most of their lives that day, and I got my mark as a reward.”
“Amazing! Five volleys? Aren’t most shieldsmen only able to stop one or two?” She would ask, genuinely engrossed in the conversation. She usually loved talking to sailors about their exploits and where they were from, but it was usually just making conversation while they drank. This was the first time she felt like she was talking just to get to know the stallion more. Her thoughts were pulled away by something else, however as she remembered something.
“Oh! By the way, what happened to the rest of the crew, I figured this place would be packed.”
“Ah, yea, my group got a bit longer leave for being first in gunnery practice yesterday. I’m sure the others will be getting here soon. Why, trying to get rid of me already?” He asked with a small chuckle, though part of her recognized the hope in his eyes that that wasn’t the case. She would respond with a warm smile as she gently shook her head.
“No no, it’s because once they do come, I won’t be able to talk to you, since I’ll be busy.”
He would give a chuckle again and the two would use their time wisely. They’d chat about themselves, where he’s been, the stories he had, things like that. On her end, she’d tell him about the town, and her life in it. It wasn’t nearly as exciting as his stories, of course, but he genuinely seemed interested in hearing about it. It was a first, as most sailors didn’t care at all about her life, besides that she worked here.
Eventually, and unfortunately, the rest of the crew would start to pile into the various taverns including Cadence’s. That meant she had to bid Shining Armor goodbye for now as she got to work serving everypony else. It became her typical night at that point. Serving drinks, stopping fights, generally chatting with everypony. The main difference was that every few minutes she glanced over to see if Shining was still there, and would be a bit happy when she saw he was, and even more happy when she saw him looking at her. Everything must come to an end, though, and after a few hours she saw Shining get up before walking over to her. He gave her a smile as he opened his mouth, having to speak louder due to all of the patrons.
“You know, ‘goodbye’ is too permanent, so instead, I’ll just say see you later.”
She felt an intense happiness through her when he said that, though she wasn’t quite sure why. Yes, she wanted to see and talk with him again, and she was glad he agreed, but she didn’t expect it to make her so happy. Just as she didn’t expect seeing him leave to make her so disappointed. Still, she had a lot of work to do, she couldn’t keep thinking about him; as much as she wanted to.
The next day, the HMS Celestia sailed away, heading west towards its assigned mission. Cadence herself watched it sailing over the horizon from the balcony of her home. She silently wished it well on her journey, especially the stallion that plagued her dreams and thoughts.
She would have to go back to her work though and move on from the sailor, though she kept him in her thoughts. It would take her a few days to fully realize that she was in love with him. Usually she was the first one to point that kind of thing out, but when it came to herself, it seemed, she was oblivious. Now it seemed like it would be a feeling she’d never be able to act on.
Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and still no sign of the Celestia. That wasn’t particularly uncommon for naval ships. They had important jobs, and now that there was fighting going on, they probably wanted all ships to be out as long as possible. That didn’t make Cadence any less worried about Shining Armor though. For a while, she thought that she didn’t have any right to worry about him. She was just some barmare he met once, why would he care that she worried for him, he probably already forgot about her. After a while, however, she decided she didn’t care, she was actually worried about him and part of her believed he cared about her.
One day, thankfully, she’d get told by her boss that the Celestia had just pulled into dock. Her eyes widened and she rushed out of the door to go see it, surprising Iron Wing. What she saw made the color drain from her face. At least briefly. She saw the ship covered in dents and the railing and rigging were damaged in quite a few places. The windows near the back were smashed and clear cannonball holes could be seen. The hull, however, was almost completely intact, just dents. She was surprised by that, whatever they faced, it clearly was powerful, but there didn’t seem to be any major damage to the ship. She looked up to the deck, seeing all of the ponies moving around as they finished their docking. She looked for the tri-tone blue mane and the white fur of Shining. After a couple minutes, she was going to give up but then she noticed him near the aft of the ship, her happiness welling up inside of her. She galloped over towards him.
“Shining!” She called out a few times until he finally heard, curiously looking out to see who had called his name. When his eyes fell upon her, he smiled widely and waved a hoof. He did remember her! Almost as if he wanted to confirm that thought, he would soon call out her own name. She smiled widely as she came to a stop below where he was.
“It’s great to see you, Cadie! I have to help out here, but I’ll see you in about an hour?”
She nodded in agreement, giving him a small wave as she began to head back to the tavern. She was relieved to see he was ok, and he wanted to see her again. The hour couldn’t go by fast enough. She had to apologize to Iron Wing for rushing out like that, but he seemed to see the signs of love so she told her to take it easy next time. She agreed and would resign herself to waiting for Shining to come in.
Thankfully, the hour didn’t go on forever like she feared. Soon enough he would walk in. She resisted the urge to rush over to him and give him a hug and simply smiled at him, welcoming him back as he sat down.
“So, you have to tell me, what happened? The ship looks like it got eaten by woodpeckers.”
“Oh yea. We came across a Bittish Mane-of-War. If you think ours looks bad, you should see the other guy,” He replied with a soft chuckle, “it was amazing, scary of course, but the Celestia is clearly an amazing ship. It’s some sort of new design apparently. When the cannons broke through my shield, the balls just bounced off her hull. Then Twilight completely tore through them like butter. Didn’t take them long to run away.”
“Twilight?” Cadence asked, trying to keep up with the story. She enjoyed listening of course, as she always did, but something about it made her a bit disappointed, something about the look in his eye, she couldn’t quite put her hoof on it though.
“Oh, the name of one of the guns I’m in charge of. It’s named after my sister actually.”
“You’re sister?”
“Yea, it sounds weird, but even at… sweet Celestia, she must be thirteen now, she can probably throw a fireball that could have sank that Mane-of-War.”
“That’s insane! You must be exaggerating!”
“Nope! She’s slated to go to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns when she turns fifteen,” He said, pride filling his voice. She couldn’t exactly blame him. Everypony knew about that school, even all the way out here. After a moment he would remember something, his ears perking up a bit, “Oh right, I actually need to go back on watch soon. Do you think we may be able to, uh… take a walk later?”
Cadence inwardly gasped, happy as can be that he asked that of her. She didn’t even mind that something still didn’t feel right. She was still interested in him, and he seemed interested in her, but there was something odd in the air between them. She would quickly nod in agreement to his proposal though, and told him that she couldn’t wait.
The next few hours seemed to drag on, after he left. She kept trying to comprehend what was wrong. She barely was paying attention to the other patrons due to her thinking. It got to the point where she nearly dropped a bottle after somepony bumped into her while she was miles away mentally. The bump, however, brought her back to the here and now. She looked around, seeing all the sailors talking and laughing. They shared stories and talked about their battle.
Something inside of her would click, and she finally understood. Shining may have liked her, but his true love with the ocean, sailing her and conquering her. She couldn’t say she fully understood it. She had sailed a couple of times in her life, but she wasn’t a sailor in the least. She was just a mare who enjoyed the ocean and liked hearing sailor stories. Inside, her happiness deflated significantly, but not fully. She still held out hope that perhaps she was wrong, and maybe if she’d ask him, he may decide to get serious with her, at least when his commission was up. Plus, she had to maintain a good attitude for the other patrons, lest they start asking what’s wrong. So she kept working, kept pouring, and tried to not think about the upcoming conversation too much.
Hours later found Cadence stepping outside of the now closed tavern. The town was mostly dark, a few lamps illuminating the street to allow the tavern workers to head back home. Under one of these lamps she spotted Shining, who looked to her with a smile. She trotted over to him and smiled back. She motioned in the direction for them to walk, towards her home. After a moment, his horn would illuminate and he would produce a small box. She was taken by surprise that he would have gotten her something. The magic opened the box and what she saw was a silver necklace, a small ornament of a heart inside a shield hung under the chain. Their cutie marks?
“I saw this while we were docked in Epona and thought of you. It’s silver from the north of Epona. That’s supposed to be the highest quality around.”
“W-wow… I can’t believe it… thank you. But… why?” She would ask, looking at it in disbelief before it would slowly start to levitate, moving to wrap around her neck. He was putting it on her.
“There, it looks perfect. Why I got it? Well… I don’t know. I suppose… I guess so you can remember me with it?” He would respond, clearly nervous and blushing quite a bit. There was also an air of concern in his voice, her earlier thoughts were starting to come back, and she wasn’t quite sure if she was prepared for that outcome.
“Honestly, Cadie, the truth is…”
“You’re not ready for me, are you?” She would finish his sentence for him. She couldn’t deny it. She didn’t really understand it, but she knew it was true. He wasn’t going to be able to commit to her when there was other things on his mind, especially when he still had to go out to sea.
“Listen Cadence… you’re a fine mare. I’d love you to be my marefriend, or even my wife… but for now, my life, my love, my lady.. It’s the sea.” He would give a small frown, figuring he probably sounded stupid, or at least too harsh. She would give a shake of her head, a soft smile forming on her face.
“No, I understand that… that’s about the only thing about it I understand. You’re not ready for me. I’m glad you told me this now, and not later.”
“It’s not forever… I don’t think. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to truly forget you. Maybe eventually, if you’re not taken, I’ll show up back here, and see what happens. Though, I understand that I can’t, in good conscience, tell you to wait for me.”
“Who knows what the future will bring,” Cadence would say, her smile still on her. She was sad of course, her first true love ending like this, but they both knew it wouldn’t work, even if they wanted it to. Until then, she’d at least get one thing done. She leaned in and gave him a soft kiss on the lips. It wasn’t deep, nor just a quick peck, but a nice, gentle, loving kiss.
“You can return that when you’re ready to,” She would say with a small smirk as she turned to start walking away towards her home, giving him a small smack with her tail. She swore she actually heard the gears in his brain trying to process what happened, but soon enough he let out a reply.
“I-I’ll see you later Cadence, I promise.”
She nearly stopped right there. As he said before, goodbyes are too permanent, he truly meant that he wanted to see her again. Of course, she did too. She gently turned around, giving a small nod.
“I’ll see you later Shiny.”
With that she began to walk away. Once she got a full block away from her house, she let the strong facade she was putting on fall. Tears welled up in her eyes and a few escaped down her cheeks. It wasn’t the ending she wanted for sure, but it was the ending all the same. She’d let herself cry for a while before going to bed. When she’d wake up, the Celestia was gone, and with it, Shining Armor. Perhaps though, maybe not forever.