Ponies of Fayra — Legend of Harmony

After making their way over to the community dock closest to the exit point of the mainland, Zeph, and Argon quietly scouted the area to ensure no pony was around before grabbing a supply pack from the dock depot and picking out a trot glider to pilfer. Wanting to cause other ponies the least amount of stress, Zeph picked an older looking trot glider that clearly hadn’t been used for a while, but otherwise seemed to be working.

Zeph placed her saddlebags and the supply pack in the trot gliders lock box keeping only the compass she had gotten from Emerald.

Zeph went slow at first, using only the sail. Thankfully, the wind seemed to be going the way they needed to avoid making noise, but once she was a fair ways away from the dock she began trotting at full speed. Trot gliders, unlike wing gliders, had a mechanism that transferred a pony’s trotting movement into forward momentum, which allowed them not only to move without wind but also to move far faster. Since ancient pony ships relied on wind power alone, Zeph was hopeful that a trot glider would cut down the travel time of the voyage.

Reaching the brightly colored buoys that encircled the entirety of the Lost Isles, Zeph slowed her pace and took a deep breath.

“This is it, the point of no return … literally. Ponies who cross the buoys never come back, unless they just barely cross them, of course.”

Zeph chuckled awkwardly as she remembered a time when she had been wing gliding with Flare and had crossed the buoys in an attempt to impress her with her bravery, but had instead only gotten a lecture from her about being reckless.

“Yep, reckless may as well be in my middle name, too.”

Argon stared at her, confused.

“Sorry, just thinking about a time in my fillyhood when I was around the buoys. You probably don’t know this, but the buoys are actually a major sign of danger. No pony ever patrols past the buoys, and in fact, patrols tend to only keep the buoys in the edge of their vision. So even just being close to the buoys is considered really dangerous.”

Argon looked away from Zeph across the seemingly endless ocean, and then looked back at her with a weary smile.

“I appreciate the concern, but it’s too late to even think about turning back now. I mean, I feel a little bad leaving without telling any pony… In hindsight, I should have left a note on the docks or something… Wasn’t really thinking about that until after we shoved off. I’m sure it’ll be fine, after all, uhm, ah, Emmy knows we were planning on leaving in a week-ish-month-or-so…”

Argon rubbed his head and looked awkward as if to say, “Sorry about that, I should have said something.”

“Maybe for the better? Those three ponies seemed awful intent on making sure we didn’t leave. Speaking of, I kind of want to get going. I don’t see any ponies behind us, but I’ll feel better once we’ve made some good distance beyond the buoys.”

Zeph stretched for a moment, then stopped by the lock box, where she grabbed a month full of glow berries to chew while she trotted.

As the night drug on, Zeph felt her lack of sleep catching up to her. Barely able to keep her eyes open, let alone keep trotting at full speed, she eventually took Argon up on an offer to watch the compass while she took a nap.