A ferocious gale whipped in, one that unabashedly pushed the small vessel westward.
A crew of few flitted about on the deck of the relatively tiny craft as it floated aimlessly through the seascape. It waded through the crystal clear waters of the ocean, leaving tentative ripples in its wake, ones that inevitably became lost in the ocean’s frothy waves. A school of fish skipped happily in chase of the alien vessel that had invaded their home. The sails were billowing outward. The only obtrusion to the sky was the occasional cloud every now and then, but otherwise, the view was an endless expanse of differing shades of blue.
The sun’s rays shone down into the waters, penetrating only so far until the light completely dissipated. The depths of the waters here were unfathomable. The marine life viewable from under the waves were obviously prey unwilling to dive into the murky depths to discover what may have lurked there. It was apparent that they were intelligent enough to know that whatever it was, it wasn’t pretty. This was a sign. Much of the ocean was unexplored, and as far as the party on the boat was concerned, what monsters that roamed the depths of the ocean could stay there.
With this in mind, the wooden craft casually carved a path through the waves.
Twilight Sparkle, captain of the Sea Spirit, stuck her head out over the edge of the ship’s railing. The ocean chatted endlessly. It had something to say every second of every day, whether the crew of the Sea Spirit wanted it to or not. Today it spoke in something of a whisper compared to their recent conversations. The ocean was normally an argumentative scoundrel, an unpredictable fiend that acted on impulse. But today it offered the crew of the vessel a relatively peaceful conversation, and Twilight found herself enjoying the drastic change. As the water harmlessly rapped at the side of the boat, she cooed back into its choppy waves.
“Wondering if my eyes are deceiving me. What are you hiding?” She smiled as she tried to find her reflection in the current, but ultimately gave up, as it had been fragmented by the churning waters.
Twilight disengaged herself from her perch overlooking the ocean. She turned round to face the deck, where her crew lackadaisically trotted up and down the length of the boat, checking various instruments here and there to make sure they were in working condition. The polished and pristine Sea Spirit teetered on the passing waves, bobbing up and down like an underwhelming amusement park ride. Twilight descended the staircase and meandered on over to where her first mate stood, next to the ship’s single mast.
Applejack, Twilight’s first mate, held a pair of binoculars to her eyes. What exactly it was that she was looking for was unclear. Twilight stood behind her and to the right, looking out in the same direction, which was west.
“I want to see the sunset,” Twilight said to Applejack, whose face beset with freckles glowed radiantly in the afternoon sun. “Can you lead us there?”
Applejack acknowledged Twilight’s presence not by turning around, but by lowering the pair of binoculars from her eyes. “Yeah,” Applejack said, “Ah kin get us thar. Ya in any special hurry er anythin’ like that?”
“Not necessarily. I would like to make it there before it sets is all. I’d just like to watch it up close... to marvel it, I suppose.”
Applejack turned round and donned a friendly smile. “Ah hear ya. Sounds like a nice change of events what with the weather’n recent days and everythin’.”
“Is it so far, do you think?”
Applejack only smirked. “Nothin’s so far to reach. Ah reckon we kin make it thar pretty darn quick if we go ta full sail.”
Twilight’s eyes wandered up the mast of the ship. There was a pink mare with her hooves drawn carelessly over the side of platform at the top, and she had been eyeing the horizon line like everypony else for some time now. Overall, three others, not including Applejack, trotted freely about the Sea Spirit. These ponies were not only the crew, but Twilight’s best friends. Wherever Twilight went, they would follow. And they were going to see the sunset.
“Do it,” Twilight said to Applejack, wearing a warm smile.
Applejack smiled back, and as Twilight turned back round, orders were being barked for the appropriate preparations.
o----o
The Sea Spirit was floating.
It seemingly drifted over the calmed ocean waves as if it weren’t touching them at all, as if it were an apparition wandering the endless reaches of nowhere. Once again, a small school of fish that had perhaps lost their way were tailing the boat vigorously. The Sea Spirit saw to it that they would become left behind, however, and soon they were no more than minute splashes in the distance.
The sun was low on the horizon line. The sea before them had turned a brilliant golden hue, and at its edges that gold burst into gradients of orange and yellow, until those bright colors, by degrees, gradually cooled, and were replaced by royal blues and deep purples. The Sea Spirit was drifting through that pool of gold, and the darker shades of the night were far behind them. The sun had begun to set in all of its untold glory, and the only witnesses were a tandem of ponies aboard a fleeting vessel in the middle of the ocean.
Twilight Sparkle had ordered them to sit on the bough with her. And so, with the Sea Spirit continuing to slowly drift onward, the six ponies all sat in a line at the bough of the ship, watching the day as it lingered, held on to its final few breaths.
“She’s lovely,” Twilight Sparkle said wide-eyed, her eyes perhaps unused to the plethora of colors that now assaulted her vision. “Thank you, Applejack.”
“Don’t mention it, Twi,” Applejack said. “It was mah pleasure.”
A mare, a pegasus, with a rainbow colored mane, unfurled her wings and stretched them arduously. “Kinda boring if you ask me,” she rasped. “But anything’s better than Fluttershy’s butterfly migration.”
Twilight smiled at this. Fluttershy, a bashful, butter-colored pegasus, did not, and she looked over.
“Oh, sorry, Rainbow Dash. I thought that you might like it...” she said.
Rainbow Dash huffed. Two other mares who had not yet gotten a word in edgewise simply admired the sunset with the others. Rarity, a mare with a sense for fashion and design, and Pinkie Pie, an over-affectionate mare with a bubbly personality completed the cast and crew of the Sea Spirit. All of them sat at the edge of the world watching the sunset, as was Twilight Sparkle’s wish. There was an ethereal quality to it that was unexplainable.
All of Twilight’s best friends sat on the bough of the ship. A more perfect setting she could not think of. Twilight sat next to Applejack, and with her eyes shining, perhaps reflecting some of that fading light back at that westward horizon, she nudged her playfully.
“It’s beautiful, AJ. It’s a wonderful end to the day, just before I need to start charting the stars.”
Applejack enjoyed the sunset in a quiet, dignified manner. She cocked her head to the side as she saw a couple of fish slap at the golden waters in front of the boat, and the ensuing ripples spread out in a widening circle. “It is. We don’t usually got time fer stuff like this, ya know?”
“Yes, I do. I’m just so busy, and I can’t seem to allocate a time slot where I’d become available to visit,” Twilight replied.
“Yes. Ah know.” Applejack removed the stetson hat she wore from atop her head. She cast it into the waters, where a small grouping of fish that were loitering nearby took an immediate liking to.
Twilight sighed heavily. The others looking into the sunset had become eerily quiet. They stared into the sun as if the life were being drained from them. It was as if their bodies would soon become hollow, lifeless shells. Only Applejack appeared actively engaged in the conversation.
“Applejack,” Twilight said, her voice stiff and rigid. “What happens when the sun sets?”
The corner of Applejack’s mouth twisted upwards. “Uh. We wait fer a new day ta begin,” she said.
“I know when you lie. I know you mean well, but tell me, please.”
Twilight stared into the sun. She felt as if the life were being drained from her body.
Applejack scratched at her golden blonde mane. “You wake up, Twi.”
Silence.
“I know,” Twilight Sparkle said.
Six friends sat on the bough of the Sea Spirit, watching the sunset. It was a beautiful, surreal moment, but Twilight Sparkle instead wished it was a sunrise.
To a small cast of five, lifeless mares, Twilight Sparkle uttered the words, “I love you all.”
o----o
Spike, Twilight’s personal assistant and, in a sense, brother, shook Twilight Sparkle harshly. The mare groaned as her eyes flitted open. Spike, a small purple dragon, stood over her with a bottle of water at the ready to douse her if she didn’t wake. The water never needed to be used, but Spike would definitely find it hilarious if it ever did.
“Good, you’re awake,” Spike said as the drowsy Twilight Sparkle lifted her head off of a book about the uncharted territories of the ocean. “Hey, you’ve got a couple’a ponies here that wanna ask you a question. I told ‘em you were a bit tied up at the moment, but they insisted. Would you wake up already?”
Twilight Sparkle came to and looked about the room. She had become familiarized with the place over her many visits, and she immediately recognized the grand room as part of the Royal Canterlot Library. Twilight shook her head.
Spike turned round to face Twilight’s visitors. They were three mares that Twilight had seen before, but had never thought to start up a conversation with. Twilight blinked furiously to wake herself.
“Hey, Twilight!” one of the mares proclaimed in greeting. “We were just wondering if you wanted to go with us to the raising of the sun tomorrow! As Celestia’s foremost student I’m sure you’d want to go.”
An invitation. Twilight smiled. Then, sadly, her smile turned to a deep frown.
“I’m sorry, girls,” Twilight replied. “I, um, need to stay back and research. Princess Celestia wants me to learn more about friendship, so I’ll need to hit the books.”
The three mares looked bitterly disappointed. Of course that’s what Twilight had to do. That’s what she always had to do. “That’s okay,” one of them said. “You, uh, have fun.” She turned to the others. “C’mon, let’s go, guys.”
And just like that, they left. The library door slammed behind them quite loudly.
“Geez,” one of the mares said after they had made their exit. “She never goes anywhere. What’s with her? Doesn’t she have any friends besides that dragon?”
Another one smiled an annoying smile. “Yeah, in her dreams!” she said. They giggled obnoxiously as they trotted away.
Inside the library, Spike placed his claw on Twilight’s hoof as she stared absent-mindedly into the book in front of her. Spike was all she had, and she was grateful for that. But in her mind, she saw sunsets at the edge of the world.
“You dozed off again, Twilight,” Spike admonished the unicorn, whom was normally the one dishing out the advice, and not the other way round. “You really need to get some more sleep.”
Twilight didn’t stir. She lost herself in the book, a book that she hadn’t a clue why she picked out in the first place. “I know,” she said simply.
And somewhere in the ocean, somewhere at the edge of the world, the sun set, casting a great shadow over the crew of the Sea Spirit.
