The Sky Above

“But this is a vacation, isn’t it?” The market-cavern was dim, only just barely illuminated by the coming dawn. Twilight would’ve liked to have gotten up even earlier than this, but Squirrel had assured her that none of the ships would’ve left this early – either they’d’ve finished loading up and left for some place to heave-to for the night, or were planning on getting a proper night’s rest before leaving.

“We came here for business, though,” Rainbow insisted as they started up the long steps back to the port entrance. “So even though we’re vacationing now, that doesn’t mean it counts.”

“She’s right again, Twilight,” Squirrel agreed. “Just because you’re on vacation right now doesn’t mean you’re actually on vacation right now.”

“Exactly!”

Twilight didn’t know what was more upsetting – their ridiculous logic, or the fact that some small part of her could actually follow it. “Fine, then – fine. We’ll go on an even-more-proper vacation when we get back. Happy?”

“Yep!”

Soon, they found themselves walking once more past the terraced fountains and sculptures, the rustle and chatter of water far more audible this time over the thinner crowds; ripples of light danced across the stone, shining up from shards tucked out of sight.

“Pity the view’s kind of rough,” Twilight said as they passed it all by. “Have to keep craning my neck up just to see it.”

Rainbow pointed a wing to somewhere hidden in the darkness on the far side. “Couple balconies up there – probably meant to look at it from them.”

Twilight looked, but couldn’t make out anything in the gloom. “Something for next time,” she said, thinking back to what Squirrel had said.

“That’s the spirit,” Squirrel said distractedly as the passage opened back up abruptly, spilling them back out onto the docks. Even now, there was a great deal of movement as shadowed figures lurched and trotted about in the lamplight.

Twilight frowned as she looked up at the nearest of the berthed ships, still little more than a dark smudge in the sky. “Not looking forward to walking up and down those all morning.”

“All the more reason to sweet-talk the first captain we find,” Squirrel said, surging forwards as she took point, heading back the way they’d come the day before. “Let’s go.”

Not for the first time Twilight found herself little able to imagine being able to do this back in Equus – the mere idea of simply waltzing onto someone else’s ship (and a business one at that!) and asking for a lift would’ve seemed utterly ridiculous, and not least because she’d be too embarassed to even try. Here, though, it was near enough the norm that it little bothered her.

It helped, too, that she wasn’t the one leading.

They were midway up a startlingly-rickety stretch of scaffolding when they stopped at the base of a gangway; on the other side was a small trisail, barely fifty feet long. “This would be a ketch, right?” Twilight wondered aloud as she glanced down at the ship’s name – the Windrock. “With the two masts set like that?” She was already fairly certain she was correct, but didn’t want to flub her terms in front of the crew.

“Mmhmm. Don’t worry about the terms, though – anyone can read a book and know ‘em; just show that you’re willing to work and learn.”

“That, I can do.”

They crossed onto the ship and stepped off into the cockpit set just fore of the mizzen. The deck shifted slightly as the craft adjusted to their weight, as faint sounds emanated from the open companionway.

“Well,” Squirrel said, taking a deep breath. “Here goes nothing.”

They’d gotten lucky – the pair that owned the ship were leaving that morning, and were heading off past Weld to boot; unfortunately, this meant they’d need to find yet another craft to carry them on from there. “Are many ships passing between the two cities, then?” Twilight asked.

Riga – a lithe hen with curiously dark plumage – shrugged. “Always are; even if there’s not, we’re not taking you a mile further.”

“Yeeeah,” Rainbow agreed, nodding slowly. “This old bucket would probably fall and crash if you pushed it too hard.”

Twilight tried her best not to roll her eyes as Rainbow and the hen fell to arguing; as much as she knew that this was the norm for gryphons, it still seemed so... needlessly abrasive.

The hen’s partner – a small earth colt – poked his head up out of the companionway; seeing what was going on, he sighed before climbing out and sitting down next to Twilight. “Are you three in any kind of hurry,” he asked, ignoring the other two. “If it’s an emergency, we might be able to help.”

“Oh no, it’s nothing like that,” Twilight assured him. “If we’re stuck waiting in Weld for a little while, it’s no harm done.” It would be dreadfully dull, certainly – Weld was just a tiny lakeside town whose only claim to fame was being a pit stop on one of the main trade routes – but a small delay wouldn’t really affect anything.

“Well that’s good, then,” the colt – Cloudy Fen – said, leaning back comfortably. “Saves us the fuss.”

Twilight was going to keep talking – the more she did, the more at ease she’d be around them – but found herself thoroughly distracted by the bickering. “I’ve always been lousy at that,” she said, her voice barely audible over Rainbow’s insistence that she could tow the Windrock blindfolded if she wanted to.

“Towing ships?” Cloudy asked.

It took a moment for Twilight to register the comment. “Hmm? Oh, no – snipping back, I mean.”

“Mmm,” the colt nodded, turning back to Rainbow and Riga, the latter of whom was now insulting Rainbow’s preening. “Grow up in the lowlands or something?”

There weren’t much in the way of gryphons back in Canterlot. “Something like that.”

The colt clucked his tongue. “We’ll take you as far as Weld; should be there by mid-afternoon.”

Squirrel spoke up for the first time. “Need any help?”

“No – the weather should be fair,” Cloudy said, waving her off before leaning forwards to give Riga a poke in the flank. “Oi – let’s get ready to go.”

The hen immediately dropped her banter and gave him a beaky smile. “Sure, sure – you’re with me, tie-dye,” she said, hopping off her bench and back onto the deck.

“Real clever,” Rainbow snorted as she followed close.

“I guess I’ve got the helm,” Cloudy muttered. “You two feel free to just sit cozy – we’ll be on our way in a jiffy.”

The finsail spars unfolded with nary a squeak as they drifted away from the dock. There were four of them – two on either side – to complement the main and mizzen; this gave the ship a top-heavy look to it, but Squirrel knew full well that it wasn’t in any danger of tipping. There wouldn’t actually be much in the way of anything to do along the way – with all the lines running to the cockpit, a single hand could’ve sailed the ship if the weather was good; nevertheless, she found herself casting about for something to do.

“You sure there isn’t anything that needs doing?” She was sitting on the rear lip of the cockpit, comfortably out of reach of any sudden gybe. The other three were chatting somewhere below deck – from the looks of it Riga had liked Rainbow enough to let them down – so it was just her and Cloudy up top. “Maybe some really jammed-up knot to undo?”

“You’ll live,” Cloudy grunted with a shake of his head. “What’re the three of you up to up in Snowbound, anyways? Just vacationing?”

“I guess we do have that look about us, don’t we,” Squirrel admitted, leaning back. She cast her gaze out over the sides; below them ran the very same river they’d come in over yesterday, while tall, tree-covered mountains traced them on the left. It wasn’t the quickest route, backtracking as they were, but when you’re hitching a ride it’s best not to criticize.

She gave her head a sharp shake, her mane swirled about her face in an errant cross-breeze. “I’m heading off homewards,” she said, gesturing off to port. “Over in Wanderbelle. The other two are heading home too, but elsewhere; we figured it’d be fun to play tourist for a bit on the way back.”

“Fair enough.” He seemed content to leave it at that.

Squirrel did her best to restrain herself. On the rare occasion she was on a ship small enough to sail, she always liked to do just that – it was fun in a way that simply snoozing in the sun wasn’t.

But as the two sailors hadn’t even asked for pay, she could hardly justify pestering them.

“Sooo,” she tried instead. “Where’re you and Riga from?”

“Little ways thataway,” he shrugged, gesturing vaguely westwards before falling silent again.

Squirrel sighed; hopefully the others were having more luck passing the time.

“I still don’t think it’s any good.” Rainbow sat heavily on the low tableside bench, its cushions worn and soft. “I mean, yeah – it tastes good, sure, but if you’re not grinding the beans yourself, it just doesn’t count.”

Riga stared at her over her coffee. “Are you insane?” She gave Twilight a pointed look. “Is she insane?”

“Probably,” Twilight agreed good-naturedly. “But I kind of understand – pre-ground just doesn’t have the same feel.”

“Exactly,” Rainbow nodded. “This coffee doesn’t feel right; plus, it’s all wet,” she added as an afterthought, taking a slow sip.

“It’s not wet,” Riga huffed before blinking and clicking her beak. “Or it is, I guess – whatever. The point is, my coffee’s great.”

“Mmph,” Rainbow burbled mid-sip.

Twilight was likewise busy with her drink, huddled as she was in the corner of the bench, back against the galley. Rainbow gave her a friendly nudge with her hoof, getting a smile in return – she could never understand how someone as smart as Twilight could be so awful with strangers, yet here she was.

“Any idea how you two’re getting back?” Riga asked, interrupting her reverie. “Most ships take the western route out’ve Snowbound – not many’ll cycle back to Weld.”

Rainbow shrugged easily. “We’re off to Wanderbelle after this, anyways – it’ll work out.”

“Speaking of,” Twilight said, setting down her mug as she began rooting through her panniers. “We should probably sort out the details of that.”

“Uh huh,” Rainbow nodded as Twilight found the thick mapbook she was looking for. “It’s fine if we don’t; I mean, we’ll make it work out somehow or other – we always do.”

“Well, a stitch in time saves nine,” Twilight mumbled as she unfolded a trio of maps across the table.

“You three are time-travellers now?” Riga asked, giving the maps a curious look. “Shouldn’t be a problem getting back, then, I should think.”

“We’re trying not to cheat.” Twilight tapped a booted hoof on one of the maps. “Squirrel made it sound like ships regularly go from here, through here, to here.” She traced a line from Snowbound widdershins down the Myr river, then west towards Wanderbelle. “After that we should be able to get a ship to cut south to Calendar through this canyon.”

Riga grunted and nodded. “You’ll have it easy on the main routes, aye. Might take a week to find someone heading south, though.”

“Ah,” Twilight wilted. “Not a common route, I take it.”

Riga shrugged. “Plenty common by boat.”

“We can boat it, then?” Rainbow suggested. “That sounds like fun.”

“Yeees,” Twilight said, somewhat hesitantly. “There’s that.”

“Well, there we go! Route planned.”

Twilight grumbled, but didn’t contest; nevertheless, her eyes continued darting all over the map. As she was clearly deadset on over-analysing their plans, Rainbow figured she’d try to just leave her to it.

Settling further into her cushions, she took a long drink of her almost-but-not-quite too hot coffee. “So, Sharptack, eh?”

Riga looked up from the maps and blinked at her. “Hmm? Yeah – born and raised.”

“I think Sparks here said you got some neat-looking buildings up there, right?” Rainbow gave Twilight a nudge as she tried to get her involved.

“Post-khanate traditional,” Twilight mumbled, shrinking away from the poke as she fiddled around for her logbook.

Rainbow gave an exasperated sigh. “The maps can wait, can’t they? But, yeah, anyways – post-khanny buildings.”

Riga side-eyed Twilight, a small frown forming before disappearing just as quickly. “Yes. Far more colourful than a lot of what I see out here.”

“Oh yeah, totally – it’s all moss and thatch here, isn’t it.”

“And shingles.”

Rainbow snorted. “Brown and green. Hardly original.”

“I couldn’t travel for a living, no,” Riga agreed. “Me and Fen are just off on work. Something fascinating in there?” She asked this last to Twilight, who still had her muzzle buried in her logs – so much so that she didn’t even notice the question.

Rainbow leaned over to give her a sharp poke in the side.

Twilight started, shooting her a glare before noticing Riga. “Oh! Sorry,” she said, looking sheepish as she closed her book. “Did you say something?”

“Yes,” Riga said shortly, continuing to frown at her as she drummed her talons on the teak tabletop.

Twilight opened her mouth, but couldn’t seem to think of anything to say; she settled for looking embarassed instead.

“Sooo,” Rainbow tried, hoping to bail her out. “How’re the maps going?”

“Good, good,” Twilight said, still with a blush as she set her logs aside. “But it can wait.”

Twilight gave a sigh of relief as she spotted Weld on the horizon. Try as she might, she just couldn’t seem to emulate the ease the other two had with strangers; worse, she was beginning to feel distinctly unwelcome.

“It’s kinda small,” Rainbow said, her voice nearly in her ear. They were on the bow, the jib having been furled not long ago. It was windy here, but peaceful.

“Well, it is supposed to be a little stop-over place – nothing more.”

“Still, though,” Rainbow insisted, squinting out at the distant town. “It’s, what, like a few dozen buildings? And a bunch of farms?”

“You tell me.” Weld was still just a bluey blob with spots of whitish houses to Twilight. “As long as they’ve got somewhere to pick up some food and spend the night if we need to, it should be just fine.”

“Heh,” Rainbow chuckled dryly. “Remember Cherry?”

Twilight snorted. “You have to admit, the inn there was pretty good; that, and maaaybe they weren’t really all just a bunch of rubes, either, even if the place was absolutely rural.”

“Aww, look at you! Getting all cultured and stuff.” Rainbow grinned at her as though she’d just won something.

“I’m pretty sure you found them just as distasteful, Dash,” Twilight said, giving her a nudge. “You wouldn’t even let me out of eyesight.”

“Well, yeah – sure,” Rainbow admitted easily enough. “But that’s just ‘cause I didn’t want you to feel spooked.”

Twilight frowned. “I wasn’t spooked.”

“Yuh huh.”

“I was being prudent – there’s a difference,” she insisted.

“Yuh huuuh.”

“Nevertheless!” Twilight huffed. “This town looks fine; with a little luck, we’ll hardly be stuck here at all.”