Sloop absentmindedly scratched at the part of his calf where the scar from his poisoned injury formed. Then he straightened up and pushed the hand truck laden with jangling crates up the gangplank. Miss June, who for the last few days had preferred to be called Vitra June, or just June especially by Sloop, entered something onto their cargo log. When their eyes met briefly, they both turned away, their tanned faces glowing a bit more brightly.

Back on the beach, Rarity gave a long, passionate sigh at the sight of that brief exchange. She stared into space for a moment until Applejack came up and gave her a poke in the flank. After a shocked but elegant jump on her part, She followed the other mare, trotting onto the ship carrying crystal-laden baskets lashed onto some hand made saddles.

Out of the foliage came a train of bipeds. Leading the way was Crazy Jane carrying jar and pottery-laden boxes that jingled as she swayed forward. Behind her was Crazy Joe lifting a bigger crate even bigger than he was, but he breathed easily through a woven mask with several blue crystals embedded into it. At the back came a battle-formed Percival, carrying three boxes in a stack each in his six arms, all surrounding a torso elongated for extra stability.

The last of the cargo loaded into the hold, the crew went back up onto the deck to mingle and take it easy. Crazy Jane strode up to Sloop at the bow as he was crossing the last few things off of a to-do leaf with an ink-dipped stick. “You know, I happen to be acquainted with a few collectors that’d pay a fortune and then some for artifacts from a newly-discovered civilization.”

Sloop paused, then turned to his guest with a furrowed brow. “They’re going to the Canterlot historical society and various universities for the standard rate, just like the law says where historical treasures are supposed to go. It’ll be my honor to know that the real value of what I found lies in what can be learned and discovered.”

Crazy Jane made a short giggle and rolled her eyes. “Oh… What does following the rules and every law like a goody two-shoes get you in life? Self respect? Direction, purpose, and security in life? The esteem and respect of your peers and betters? Some of us just prefer doing what we love in life for money.”

Sloop scoffed and gave her a smirk. “Just don’t let me be the one to catch you ‘Doing what you love’, or I’ll be the one to send you back to Tartarus as one of the things I love to do for money!” Even after Sloop turned back to his checklist, Crazy Jane stood stunned at that. Then she smiled and gave him a smirk with some dreamy eyes, staring at him for a moment before looking at June and sighing. She strode over to the other fire tribeswoman and decided to offer her some very particular advice (whether she wanted it or not).

Finally, the time came. Sloop stretched over the gunwale to look at Gyre standing in front of the surf. Though she appeared to just be staring blankly at the boat, Sloop could somehow tell that at the moment, she was feeling extremely conflicted.

Sloop looked away, scratching the back of his head for a moment. “Um… I know you’ve spent so many years here, and have basically built a life by now. We’re both adults, and we need to chart our own lives by having faith in ourselves. I won’t beg you to come just for… My sake…”

Gyre’s eyes went all over the place. She started fidgeting heavily with her hands and her posture flexed one way and the other, practically rocking on her feet. Finally, she took a breath and looked her brother in the eyes. “Are there… Mossnuts where you all came from…?”

Sloop froze for a moment. He broke out in a big, confident smile, looking away as he casually leaned his elbow onto the top of the gunwale. “Oh, BOY Gyre…! The things they have here on the surface! Most of the simple pleasures we had in Core Metro were just pale imitations of the things our ancestors left behind! I can’t even begin to find the words for just a single bite of a donut-”

Somehow, in the blink of an eye, Gyre was on the deck of the boat. “Well! What are we waiting for then! Anyone want to help me with my luggage?”

Rarity could have sworn there where there was nothing but warm tropical air a second before, there was a small pile of crates and baskets right behind her. She looked back and forth at the two anomalies mouth agape, weakly gesturing with a raised hoof. Applejack trotted over wearing a cocky smile. She bumped against Rarity’s side with her shoulder and just laughed until her expression eased.

Percival walked to Sloop in a wiggly, cartoonish gait. He turned to him, bracing himself on the gunwale, deciding not to let on how his legs felt like they were about to melt. “So… Now that our voyage is pretty much finished, have you decided on an awesome name for the awesome ship we worked so hard to rescue?”

Sloop took a moment to stare at his sister, Percival recognizing a tremendous sentiment and just a bit of true love. “Now that you mention it, how does… The Homebound Courier sound to you?”

Percival paused for a moment, his eye holes wide. Then he started laughing. His whole body jiggled until he’d turned into a puddle of goo from the knees down. “That… Is WAY too geeky!” Then, with a deep inhalation of unknown origin, he reformed enough to lay a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “But… There isn’t another name I’d rather have.”

With everything in the hold loaded and accounted for, Sloop gave the boat a final once-over from atop his external helm. Seeing that all of the hatches were battened down, he twisted one of the spokes and gave the whole thing a push as the boat shoved off, turning to port and accelerating back to Silver Shoals. Once the island was farther into the distance, Sloop held up his hand to the sun and stared carefully. However, his expression turned to one of displeasure. He scratched at his chin after turning back to the waters ahead.

Eventually, Sloop got back down and went into the cabin right to the internal helm to consult his charts, compasses and timepieces. Eventually, he turned back to the cabin proper, sparing enough of a look to see Roux and the fillies playing a game where he’d perform a series of tricks with his yo-yo and they’d try to repeat with hoofmade ones, laughing when they’d accidentally nail one-another in the eye.

Sloop abruptly remembered what he’d come to do in the first place and coughed to get everyone and everypony’s attention. “Gyre, dear sister, can you tell me… How did you come to reside on that island in the first place?”

Gyre paused, her blank expression not easily betraying the complex, abstract thoughts rapid-firing behind the face. Eventually, she stood up from her seat and began gesturing with a hand, the other held to her chin. “Well, I was in a bit of a funk after the guilds were abolished when I’d believed I’d found my place after so long. In fact, ‘funk’ doesn’t even begin to describe what I was feeling at the time. I suppose in the midst of deepest despair, I wanted to try some new things.

“Didn’t really think of a lot of things I hadn’t done, I’d even considered taking a bath fully clothed if you’d believe it. So I decided to fly as high as I could and see if I could touch the roof of the cavern, maybe even plant a flag. When I got there, I heard what sounded like someone moaning. I guess I forgot some of the adventurer’s rules and went over to look, but what I’d found was a big, deep crevice and the next thing I knew, I’d been sucked in by the wind. I passed out in the darkness and the next thing I knew, I was blinded by the sunlight lying on grass I’d only ever heard about in my lessons.”

Everyone seemed bewildered by that tale. Percival, relaxing at last in someone else's form, spoke in Applejack’s voice. “I guess it makes sense. There were tall tales all through Core Metro’s history of mysterious things found in the caverns that could have only come from the surface, which definitely kept the memory of the surface alive. It just makes sense for the process to work in reverse.”

Sloop looked away, scratching at his chin. A moment later, he seemed to have come to a kind of resolution and turned back to the controls. He fiddled with a specific order of levers and buttons before speaking into a pipe that sent his voice throughout the cabin. “Brace yourselves, everyone! We’re about to DIVE, DIVE, DIVE!” Everyone scrambled to occupy the seats next to the bolted support rods as a low, mechanical horn rang a series of long tones with a red light flashing in the center of the roof.

Sloop took a steady footing as his view of the bow began to sink into the water, first with the waves overtaking the deck, then the waterline quickly rising over the multi-layered, reinforced glass. The boat continued like this, plunging at an angle into the deep, dark blue as the fathometer on the control panel just kept rising. Aware of the rapid, intense, but silent debate among his passengers and crew, he heard someone climbing the ladder as the most likely to reason with what seemed like their mad captain.

Rarity carefully trotted up to Sloop in the upraised helm, attempting to maintain sea legs normally accustomed to platforms on top of water. “Pardonne-moi, Capitaine, but we all feel like we’ve had enough excitement for a lifetime or two between us, and we’d like to retire to more familiar beds for a good, long while. So on behalf of your crew, might I ask, what in Celestia’s name do you think you’re doing?”

Sloop paused, but held up a finger to indicate that he’d heard the prompt from his friend. Then, he pointed it forward. “Don’t you notice something odd about this sight, Miss Rarity? Something important that should be there, but isn’t?”

Rarity, already exhausted beyond her limit despite appearances, couldn’t muster much of a retort and just trotted up next to Sloop to take a look for herself. She narrowed her eyes painted with natural, organic makeup made out of necessity. “I can’t pretend I know what you mean. It’s just the ocean, the deep open sea and the rocky, flat… sea… floor…?”

Sloop let out a hearty laugh and snapped a finger, pointing straight ahead. “Exactly! We’re not all that far from the island, yet we’ve already passed the dropoff into the open ocean! For an island that big, we should be seeing some shallows or a shoal for at least a league! But there’s nothing like that out here!”

Sloop took hold of the helm and a lever. He turned to the speaking pipe. “Hold on, all! We’re gonna make a hard about-face turn!” The crew scrambled to hang onto anything they could grip as Sloop gave the wheel a spin, laughing maniacally all the way as the interior of the ship pitched hard.

Finally, they came back up to the island. Or rather, to Rarity’s amazement, they came up to the bottom of the island. Sloop let out a cry and pointed. “I knew it, I KNEW IT! That is definitely NOT an ordinary island, but that’s obvious! THIS is the reason for all of that wonderful lunacy!”

Finally at their limit with Sloop’s sudden bout of madness, the whole crew climbed up to the helm, prepared to stage a mutiny. However, they all froze at what they saw beyond the glass. Sloop spared a moment to look smug, wiggling his eyebrows before turning back and pointing at the sight before them.

“A phantom island! An island that’s not rooted to the crust of the world, but floats on top of the surface of the ocean, never staying in one place for long. A real wonder of wild magic! I could tell from the constant starlight in that last zone we discovered that our position had shifted from where we should have been in the sea!”

Underneath a halo of beach sand, an enormous cluster of rock tapered to a long, extended tip in the center like some kind of upside-down mountain. However, sticking out of this were giant spires of crystal, six of them each a different color. Sloop scratched his nose as he made a knowing smile at this. “In fact, I’d wager that this one is a very particular phantom island… I’d say it’s the fabled South Star Island! Legend has it that it’s supposed to be a remnant of a time when magic reigned supreme, it was the most southern point in the world back when it was flat like a pizza pie!”

He turned to give a look at Rarity, Applejack, and the fillies. “Just like the way the sun and moon need to be raised and lowered with unicorn magic! It’s said to call out to and draw in beings with longing and ambition in subtle ways, and it rewards the worthy and brave who seek its mysteries! In spite of a lot, we probably haven’t seen anything yet!”

Sloop turned back to his passengers with a face full of pride. However, alongside the wonder and awe in each of their expressions, he also saw extreme exhaustion. He turned back and gripped the helm, looking here and there as he thought. He had a much more flat expression as he gave a nod, and he threw the throttle once again and turned back around much more gently, shocking everyone as he smoothly guided the vessel to the surface and back to its previous heading.

Applejack raised an eyebrow and tilted her head. “What…? You seemed really excited! Like you’d found the adventure of a lifetime!”

Sloop turned back and gave the mare a much more gentle smile. “Yeah… But like you all said, we’ve all probably had enough adventure for a good, long while! Even the greatest warriors and heroes ever needed their rest! Vacations and holidays are nice only because they give you enough time away from your mundane life so that you can return to it with a new, better outlook!” He turned back to the helm and steadied the course. “All that stuff will be there when I get back, but that’s a story for another time. Especially since as a compass elemental, I should be able to home in on it if I try! And by then, I’ll be smarter, tougher, and much more prepared!”

The whole crew now felt a little less guilty in breathing a sigh of relief. They all returned to their seats and got settled in for a nice, comfortable journey home.

About an hour later, Rarity started fidgeting in her seat. It was a nice upholstery, and she was tempted to ask Sloop who did it so she could have one of her void-lounges made by them. Yet, she felt like she was on pins and needles, that she should be doing something except sitting and waiting. She looked around the cabin and her gaze fell onto Gyre. She made a soft coughing and held out a hoof. “I beg your pardon, Miss Masters, but could you tell us the story of what happened with you and Sloop when you went to that one zone to rescue Master Joe?”

Gyre paused for several moments, obviously contemplating her words. She gave a bit of a smile before speaking. “Well… I made my way there first and landed okay, but since it was Sloop’s first trip though the nowhere zone between zones, he kind of did a belly-flop into it, and even when he got up he looked really, really confused!”

Everyone stood entranced, listening to Gyre’s perspective on the first part of the group’s big adventure. They shared a laugh at some of the embarrassing scenes she painted at Sloop’s expense, to which he could only laugh at himself while at the helm. Next, Percival took over to tell the story about the zone with the lava and marble ruins. He embellished by turning into the likeness of his companions, but despite contesting the accuracy of the events, they couldn’t help but join in laughing. From there, they went back and forth trading their own experiences they’d had on the trip. Despite remembering them as something terrifying, the way they shared them, they couldn’t help but feel proud at what they’d done in the midst of peril. The children were the most captivated of them all, and even the typically reserved Roux couldn’t help but interject with a question or two when a subject came up that caught his interest, wanting more details.

On the island, they’d suffered so much fear, doubt, uncertainty, and even pain, but after talking about it for hours, they’d begun to see all of that in a new, better light, along with the island itself.

Eventually, they all decided to go abovedeck straight to the stern just to see the island, as it now looked so small on the horizon. The fillies suddenly began waving at it, shouting a spirited farewell. With another moment or two to shed their inhibitions, the others joined them. Miss June rubbed her hands and spread flecks of glass like glittering confetti while the bomb elemental siblings sent out fireworks. Rarity lit up her horn and shook it above while Applejack stomped her hooves on the deck and hollered, whirling her hat around in her jaws.

However, they all suddenly went silent as what looked like an aurora appeared in the sky above the island, undulating as if it were waving a flag. Then, it all swirled downward before several small bright lights flew back upward, exploding like fireworks in recreations of all of their faces. Even Sloop was utterly flabbergasted at that, and could only tip his hat as he turned back forward on the external helm.

Author's Note

Well, there you have it. I'd like to thank anyone who stayed on to see this story out to its conclusion.
From this point, I'm going to devote my time to a book I can publish as a legitimate debut work as an author, but I'd love to return to this ongoing series someday.