Plain Old Chaos

The next few weeks went by slowly for Twilight, after her outburst at Lyra, she admitted to herself that she may have been slightly out of line, but the changeling had spent the majority of the voyage sleeping and Twilight had found it much easier to simply avoid her by spending most of her time wandering through the ship.

Now, Twilight stood upon the deck, with Spike beside her, she saw that they were slowly approaching land. The little dragon had become rather animated during the voyage and had taken to talking to Lesra on the few occasions that Twilight had let him stray from her, this was mostly when she was sleeping but she had seen him skulking around the lower levels of the ship when she didn't insist on having him with her. Twilight didn't really know what to make of this odd friendship but figured that it was harmless for Spike to have a friend to talk to when she was busy, it would be difficult for anypony to steal him on the ship anyway.

Twilight felt anxious about what was going to happen next, she didn't really have any idea about where to go, her plan was really just relying on Lyra to pull through for her and do everything, but she was a bit afraid that the changeling might just abandon her and run off back to Ponyville, but didn't have much else to rely on.

"Look out there, Spike, do you see it? A whole land that's almost completely unexplored, and we get to be the ones to explore it! Sounds exciting, doesn't it?

Spike looked up at Twilight with an expression of frustration. "That's not true, the griffin's already know all about this place. Ponies just say that it's unexplored as propaganda!"

Twilight was surprised that in such a short time, the dragon's head had been filled with misinformation, it was important that she helped him see the light and not be led astray. She was beginning to think that letting him wander about on his own was a bad idea. She gave him a comforting pat on the head to soften the blow as she revealed his friend's deception.

"Spike, I'm not happy about telling you this, but your friend lied to you." A mix of emotions showed on Spike's face before he settled on an angry expression. Seeing this, Twilight pressed on. "I know, this is a lot for you to deal with, but he's just trying to trick you into believing his lies. I'm not really sure why he would tell you that, but I'm certain he was planning something bad!

"But—" Spike began to say, but Twilight cut him off with a glare and began to talk over him.

"Now, Spike, behavior like that is totally unacceptable, go back to our cabin." Twilight gave a reassuring smile to the dragon. "Don't worry Spike, a little bit of training will help you remember to avoid unsavory characters like that." Twilight watched as the dragon scurried away, turning her mind to more important matters. Soon, she would have to talk to Lyra about what to do when they reached land. After avoiding her for so long, it was not something she was looking forward to.

"So, you're saying that I shouldn't train Spike now?" Twilight gazed at Lyra, trying to look for an answer to why she seemed to be against her disciplining Spike, unfortunately, her tired face revealed no answers. "But... why?"

Twilight didn't really understand why Lyra was getting so worked up about such a minor issue. She couldn't comprehend why Lyra seemed so bothered about Spike learning not to blindly trust strangers, but after Twilight got back to the cabin, when she was about to train Spike, Lyra, who she had assumed was still sleeping, suddenly wakes up and starts telling her to put it off.

"It's simple, he's learned his lesson, just look at him." Lyra gestured to the corner of this room that Spike had curled up in, the dragon having quickly moved there after Lyra started complaining. "He's clearly gotten the idea, no more talking to strangers for him. Anything else is really just a waste of time."

Lyra did have a point, Twilight didn't really have time to properly discipline Spike anyway, and the Princess always told her that doing half the job would just do more harm in the long run. While she may not have been able to discipline Spike, the dragon had managed to help her get reacquainted with Lyra, she doubted that she would have been able to fit disciplining Spike and finding out what to do next anyway.

"I suppose you have a point, and there's not really much time for it anyway. So, anyway..." Twilight paused, unsure of how exactly to address what they were going to do next, she decided to go for a blunt approach. "Do you have any ideas for what to do next?"

It looked as if Lyra was trying to hold back laughter. "Did you plan any of this out at all? Luckily, I, at the very least, have the wisdom to plan ahead and have already found someone willing to guide us to our destination."

Twilight was eager to find out who it was that Lyra had convinced to guide them through the untamed wilds of this place. She admitted to herself that a few small fantasies of attractive and rugged-looking stallions that had gone through her mind while she idled away her free time on the ship may have had something to do with her eagerness, although she didn't expect reality to play out in quite the same way.

She didn't let her interest affect her response though, and she took on an uninterested expression as she asked. "Good, so, do you mind sharing who it is? I can imagine some of those stallions—" Twilight shook herself, ending her rambling prematurely, she felt a slight blush coming on from her flight of fancy. "Never mind that, so, who is it?"

A grin consumed Lyra's face. "It's someone on this ship. That griffin, Lesra, agreed to take us to a temple that might have the dagger that we're looking for."

Twilight didn't want to have to expose Spike to any more of the false whispers of the griffin, but didn't have any other option. She still wanted to try and see if Lyra had any other options though.  "Are you sure we can trust him? You've seen him, he looks shifty, with that beak and all those feathers, and he's a griffin. You can't trust a griffin."

"That's... fairly racist. Still, you're not really in a position to complain. You don't have a better idea, so we're going to do this my way." Lyra stared at her, the same grin still upon her face, making Twilight feel as if the changeling was having some joke at her expense.

Twilight didn't really have any way to argue with that, and was silent as the changeling continued. "Right, we're about to dock. Obviously, we're going to have to leave fairly quickly once I get Lesra. We might as well take some supplies from the ship as well."

Leaving the cabin, Lyra beckoned for Twilight and Spike to follow. She led them further down into the bowels of the ship that Twilight had mostly avoided during her stay. The area seemed empty, Twilight guessed that the few occupants of the ship, aside from themselves, were up on the deck preparing to dock.

"Where is everypony?" Twilight asked, giving voice to her concern that they may be spotted and detained or some other horrible fate involving frontier justice. "It seems odd that this place would be empty."

"They don't really care about guarding their supplies, why would they? They don't have anything but food here anyway." Lyra said as they reached the supplies in question. The food was already placed within bags to allow for easier transportation, and Lyra wasted no time time grabbing them.

"Here you go Twilight." She said as she tossed a moderately sized bag at her. Twilight caught it with her magic and a quick look inside showed that it was stuffed with food, although she didn't really expect anything else.

Twilight saw that Lyra was giving Spike a bag to carry as well, but figured that he could hold a lot more than that, she didn't want them to starve just because the dragon got an easy load and caught Lyra's attention.

"Lyra, Spike might be young, but he can carry a lot more than that. Don't give him less just because you're afraid he might get tired. I don't mind, we are in this together after all." Twilight said, glad to be able to offer Spike up and feeling like she was contributing rather than just being a burden on her own journey.

Lyra, surprisingly, didn't look to be taking Twilight's generous offer seriously and didn't hand Spike any larger bags. "It's fine, we can't carry anymore without slowing us down anyway. The ship is about to dock, I want you and Spike to head out while I grab Lesra, just hang around on the outskirts until we find you."

Twilight was saddened that Lyra had rejected her offer, she sullenly told Lyra that she would wait outside the town before turning and heading up to the deck of the ship, not bothering to check if Spike was following. On the deck, Twilight saw that they really were about to dock, as the ship was quickly approaching the port. She didn't think that it deserved to be called a town, as far as she could see, only two other ships were docked and the area around them seemed to be far less crowded than she would have expected, she could only make out a few ponies, although, unsurprisingly, their were quite a few griffins, their larger forms easier to make out.

When the ship docked, Twilight quickly made her way off almost immediately, with Spike following behind her. She went further into the area. The port reminded her of Ponyville, at least, in its rather rustic look, it lacked the more friendly atmosphere that Ponyville had, for the most part anyway, Ponyville had proven to be a less accommodating place then she had expected. The few buildings that populated the area were all closely packed together and the unicorn could see that she wouldn't have to go very far to leave, she could easily go and wait in the cover of the trees that surrounded the area.

Fortunately, as Twilight made her way to the treeline, she was not accosted by the few ponies or griffins that were wandering the area, the ponies seemed far more interested in keeping an eye on the griffins and Twilight was quickly able to get past them, although Spike did receive a few looks from some of the more well traveled looking ponies.

When they reached the treeline, Twilight placed the bag she had been given on the ground, seeing no reason to hold the additional weight while they waited, since they had a fair amount of time until Lyra would show up, and no way to know how long she would take to find them, although Twilight hadn't gone particularly far into the trees. Twilight decided she needed to remind Spike that just because they were now traveling with the same griffin that lied to them, did not mean that he could be trusted.

"Spike, pay attention! I know that griffin is going to be helping us, but it doesn't change anything, he still can't be trusted. Assume anything he tells you is a lie." Twilight said, the little dragon nodding as she spoke, although Twilight was not sure if he was taking her warning seriously. "In fact, I'm not sure we can trust either of them Spike, you should probably pay very close attention to them, no telling when they could betray us. Although Lyra might not, but that griffin is almost certain to show his true colors eventually."

Spike didn't seem to understand the gravity of the situation, and had taken the liberty of placing the rather light bag he had been given on the ground while they waited. Seeing as now was not the time for a reprimand, Twilight chose not to comment.

"We can trust them a little though, right?" Spike said in a subdued and hushed tone. Twilight felt proud that the dragon was taking security seriously enough to speak quietly to avoid being overheard, but quickly realized he was too trusting as he continued. "It will probably be fine, Lyra is nice enough and the griffin, he has no reason to attack us anyway."

Twilight was surprised at her assistant's words, he seemed oblivious to the common knowledge that all griffins had a blood thirst and were known to be unstable. How he didn't realize this when she knew that he had heard the same stories back in Canterlot was a mystery, but Twilight took the opportunity to correct his naive ideas.

"Well, Spike, I don't know how much time we have until Lyra shows up, so I can't really go into detail. Just don't trust griffins, I have heard very bad things about them, trust me, I know what's best for you." Twilight gave the dragon a pat on the head before moving the conversation along. "Now that we have that settled. We just have to wait for them to show up. I suppose this could take a while, although I don't know what could hold them up. You should go sleep, you'll need to be rested to carry the supplies."

Twilight motioned for the dragon to sit down, and he did so with a few grumbles under his breath. Twilight paid him no mind as she waited patiently for Lyra to finish her business on the ship and secure them a guide.