Sea Show and Sell (Open)

[SteelEagle]

Maretime Bay had many awesome features. A bustling downtown district, well-tilled farmlands, several technological institutes that Sunny would be proud of had they not primarily focused on developing gear to combat the other species. But the thing that made it most unique in comparison to the other cities is that it was the only one with direct access to the sea. And so, with the dust having been settled and all the bigger plans for ponies from the three cities mingling in the works, there was a lull. A brief one perhaps, but one she wanted to use anyway. She had not really been able to learn about her new friends all that much. The adventure was quick and demanding and she hadn't really been given any time to honestly sit down and learn. She loved to sit down and learn! And so she was going to learn, and become better friends, and everything was going to be great.

 

So she had hired out a little touring boat that would make the rounds of the bay. It wasn't the largest boat in the world but it would work for those who wanted to come along. And as for hiring? Well, the owner had been one of those giving her the hardest time about pony unification. To say he felt foalish would be, well, foalish. This free trip came with smoothies she had made and he had paid for them. Cookies! She had cookies. Did Pegasi like cookies? Hmm. She'd have to find out. The boat was ready and the day was beautiful. The sun shimmered off of the waters and the various caves and coves around the Bay. White foam washed up across the rocks and the shoals sang beautifully. It was a perfect Maretime Bay day for perfect Maretime Bay excursion with some new perfect friends. It was open to anypony who wanted to come and Sunny was excited to embark on a new adventure, and had made sure to invite her newfound friends specifically. Well, maybe not so adventurous as before but she had plans!

[Dusty]

To say the past few days were interesting puts things very, very mildly. Pipp was having a hard time making head or tail of just what in the heck she got roped along in. Sleeping on dirt? Yep. Not sleeping as you got too cold and spent most of the time by a small fire trying to stay warm? Yep. Being so hungry she had to eat random plants? Ya. Ran out of home and you don’t know if you will be back? She did not want to think about that can of worms. Hopefully mom was going to smooth that disaster over and they can all get home and she can sleep in her bed again. But for now Maretime Bay has been ok and the hotel they all got put in had… liveable rooms. Mostly. The phone reception was terrible out here and it made even texting a pain in her flank. 

 

Yet the most odd thing was just… Walking about. No pony got that but Zipp and her mother. They never, ever just walked around. Everything was a show when outside, planned and plotted out in detail so no pony had the time to ask too many things. And for her it helped keep her safe. Much as she loved her fans they can be somewhat too keen on touching her at times. Not here, she only got two looks. Fearful but trying to hide it, or openly interested in just seeing a pegasus. She felt a mix of both honestly. But she was still trying to come to terms with a lot of things. To many in truth and she knew it was going to put her in a tailspin if her mind was left alone for too long. Lucky for her Sunny offered up a perfect getaway from all this stress. A boat! She’s never been on a boat!

 

---

 

She ended up walking to the docks. Flying was fun and uh, scary. After the joy of flying got out of her sistem she found landing to be hard… Along with just not crashing. She’d put in more training when she had less buildings to crash into. Walking was something she was just more used to and knew how to look good at. Hard to look good when you land face first. Trotting down the wooden planks she stopped just short of the boat after spotting Sunny. Without her honor guards to do it for her… She pulled out her phone and played the ‘Royal trumpets’ sound clip. With that done she walked the rest of the distance to the boat and eyed it up along with Sunny, did she really make it here first? “Sunny~!” She spoke her voice not betraying a hint of the… vast sea of worries still plaguing her mind. With luck this trip will put them down. She needed the R and R. “Thanks for having me, normally I’d bring along plenty of gifts but we are somewhat stripped of cash at the moment… hehe. Oh, hold up.” Before Sunny can speak she turns about to get the boat and Sunny behind her and pulls out the phone. “Smile!” Click… No, too much glare. Click! That one will do. She needed to gather as many pictures and videos as possible for the PR stunts she was working on. She and mom had a lot, and she did mean a lot, of PR to do. 

[PyroBlaze]

Well, this was a new experience for her. Moonage had been nearby the city/town before, but never in it. Her father had told her about the dangers of being in an earth pony or pegasus city, even if she hid her horn, so she had avoided going into them once she was on her own. Now though, that wasn’t an issue anymore, so here she was wandering the streets openly, exploring the city. 
 

Eventually, she came upon the docks, stopping at the sight of two mares at a boat. They seemed to be friends already, despite being an earth pony and a pegasus. Perhaps she should go introduce herself. After a bit of deliberation, she headed over to the pair, giving them a friendly smile. 
 

“Hello there, you two. Nice day today, huh?” She said, stopping nearby them. “My name is Moonage Daydream, a pleasure to meet you both.”

[IceStorm]

~~~Sugar Moonlight~~~

 

This was it! Today was finally found to be her chance. It was going to be Sugar's chance to formally apologise for well, everything. She couldn't apologise for everypony in Maretime for how they treated her, but she could at least take ownership of her own actions. Besides, also having a chance to get to know the ones that Sunny had gone on an adventure with would be a plus, and with Sunny there, she felt surprisingly safe even if she didn't have the wings and horns she had a while ago. She still couldn't believe that and wondered if at someone she had just dreamt everything, but that would mean that she's been asleep for a long time now. She quickly presumed that wasn't the case. 

 

She made her way out of her home towards the docks. Sunny had rented a boat for today, and was going to take them around the bay. She has said that anypony was allowed to come, she just hopped that actually meant anypony. The could see the boat now and both Sunny and one of the pegasi she was with was already on board, as well as a unicorn that she didn't recognize. That's wasn't hard though. She doesn't recognize any Unicorns so there was that. She could only recognize the one that was here before because somepony pointed her out. Otherwise, she probably wouldn't recognize her either.

 

Sugar started making her way towards the boat. She watched the pegasi and Sunny take a few pictures with her phone, and just happened to be in earshot then the unicorn introduced herself. "Good morning ladies... My name is Sugar Moonlight. I was hoping to join the lot of you on the boat trip? Try to come out of my shell a bit," she started. "I also wanted to apologise to you Sunny... For how I treated you before... I should have just been true to myself and not worried about what everypony else might think. I hope you can forgive me," she said to Sunny. 

[StrongCopper]

Normally, finding out what route a ship or a boat was planning to take out of Maretime Bay required waiting until nightfall and a minor degree of stealth; Despite the general paranoia that seemed to be a cornerstone of Maretime's very culture, when it actually came to matters of practical security docking authority had always proved somewhat... lax when left to its own devices in terms of making sure all the windows and doors were locked when everyone went home or that the locks in question actually worked in the first place. While it had been a number of years since he had last seen his father, distant memories of dinner time conversations with his parents suggested that heads would have been butted with until they started doing their jobs to his standards. Alas, without the constant threat of being called out for lax standards the dock authority had fallen back into pre-North Star complacency.

 

For Allegro, this complacency proved rather beneficial. While he could spend all night patrolling the Bay in order to keep an eye out for incoming ships he did actually enjoy sleeping every now and then... and even if he did forgo sleep, the Bay itself was a rather large area to patrol and the chance to miss something was always there. So logically, slipping into the offices of the dock authority in order to have a look at travel plans, plotted courses and time tables that were generally required to be submitted so that if the worst should happen, somepony on land would know something had happened and had a general idea of where to start looking to find out what exactly that something was tended to make Allegro's self appointed task a lot easier.

 

However, for the first time in his life he wasn't sneaking into the building in the dead of night to have a snoop around. He had walked through the front doors, rather shyly and nervously said hello to a few ponies and had asked nicely if there were any ships heading out or planning to come back into harbor today, secretly frightened that the shimmering light that allowed him to interact with random strangers in relative safety would wink out and the lie it projected into the world vanish at the worst possible time. The worst hadn't happened through; Far from it. The pony at the desk proved friendly and more then happy to share the timetable for the day, as empty as it was. Only one ship was heading out and it was scheduled as nothing more then a day trip around the Bay. Allegro would have left the matter there but... when he had looked at the documentation he had failed to see a ship captain be registered for the trip.  

 

While it was properly nothing, he had left the office and traveled along the docks until he had at last found the dock number that he was looking for... alongside a ship in which several ponies, at least one of them with wings of all things while another had a horn, gathering. The sight of non-earth ponies was honestly shocking to Allegro. For a moment he didn't know how to process their presence since everything he had heard or seen of the earth ponies of Maretime Bay had suggested that they would actively try and drive out anything that was different from themselves (...or at least run away screaming at the sight of it). Rather then standing there like a fish out of water and drawing rather attention to himself, he took a deep breath and crossed the distance needed to get into talking range of the ship and its passengers.

 

"E-Excuse me, is this the..." He paused for a moment as he recalled the name of that the boat had been rented under "'S-Sunny Starscout' party?"

 

 

[SteelEagle]

The first pony to arrive was Pipp. It was hard to imagine that she didn't know just one Princess, but two and a Queen! And that was even before recognizing their worth as a pop star, which seemed considerable. Sunny liked her pop music as much as the next mare and she was too distracted trying to pull of a heist to appreciate the song but Pipp seemed pretty good. She hadn't come around as easily as Zipp and truth be told she wasn't sure what it was that did win Pipp over, but Sunny was excited to see her all the same. She wanted to get to know her better. She had so many questions to ask and so much information to gleam from this glimmering figure.
"Just having you here-" she began before she was ruthlessly pulled in for a selfie, unprepared eyes going wide as the flash blinded her for a moment. She needed to get a phone like that at some point. "I need to get one of those...anyway...welcome aboard the SS Sunny Starscout! Ever been on a sailing ship before?" She asked of the Pop Princess, making sure she found her sealegs- or wings, she wanted to see Pipp fly more- as easily as possible.

 

The next pony was a unicorn. Sunny was good at figuring out who it would be based on horn designs, not that the rest of the mare wouln't have come easily undone as being Izzy. She didn't know this one and that was greatly exciting. As much as she wanted to spend time with the friends she had made already, she was also very excited at the prospect of meeting all sorts of new ponies who were finally trotting over to Maretime Bay to experience friendship and affection like the ponies of old. "Welcome to Maretime Bay and welcome to the party! It's nice to meet you, Moonage. I'm Sunny!" She offered in the friendliest manner possible. Well, maybe not possible. She was still wondering what the limits were but she would be saddened if she had exhausted the lengths already.

 

The next pony up was one who Sunny knew well. Sugar Moonlight was one of the city's most well known models and the biggest name in CanterLogic's roster of models for its line of 'protective products'. Like most ponies she had either bought into the lies that had been fed to her, or at least helped maintain it, and like too many she had taken Sunny to task for speaking truth to power. For all of that and then some however, Sugar was no enemy. She was a good, friendly mare who was no more an enemy to Sunny than anypony else. If the system you are born in is corrupt, then those that adhered to the standards of that system and are incentivized to uphold it are not enemies. They are victims of a different breed, and the system itself is the enemy. "Come on board, Sugar," she offered quickly, offering Sugar a friendly hoof. "And thank you, that means a lot. I forgive you and more importantly I never blamed you. We were all raised to believe a bunch of bunk, just like our parents and theirs before them. Now though, we have friends who can fly and float things and that is pretty cool," she offered at first with some manner of formality before breaking down into giddy excitement....because it was all true!

 

The final member of today's friendship cruise came into being, though there was something strange about him. Not how he looked- looked like an earth pony and that was so normal to her that the fact he was new to her was lost- but how he acted. Then it struck her: He had never seen a unicorn before. Or a pegasus for that matter! And judging by how she had never seen him before, he was clearly a shut-in. Sugar Moonlight may have wanted to come out of her shell but this was a whole other level of it! Still, the more the merrier and new friends came from all stripes. "It sure is, buddy! Come on in! I'm Sunny and these are my friends, or soon to be friends. What's your name?" She asked, beaming with excitement. As she did so, the captain of the ship knocked on the window to his cabin. Sunny turned and saw him tap a watch on his wrist. Oh. It was time to leave. Truth be told she was hoping to see one more unicorn show up, but alas. She couldn't expect Izzy to spend her whole life in Maretime Bay now, right?

She nodded and in a few moments the ship was off, unmoored by some helpful colts on the dock and powered by sail and a small engine. They were starting to slow, essentially a nice and controlled drift out into the waters.
"And we're off! Thank you, those that showed up, for joining me today. I am so happy to see ponies come together and I thought I would show off something that makes Maretime Bay unique among the cities. I know both Bridlewood and Zephyr Heights are positioned far away from the waters, so I wanted to take all of us out for a day on the waves," she started before opening a door near the front to showcase a small internal 'ballroom' with food and drink. "Also, refreshments!"

[StrongCopper]

Allegro had not been intending to actually get on the boat; While a lot of that had to do with his own natural shyness, his concerns that he didn't exactly how long his appearance would remain that of an ordinary earth pony haunted the back of his mind like a grim, grinning ghost just waiting for the moment to strike. However, before he  could murmur out his actual intentions in his shy and timid manner, things were sped up for him when a pony who could have only been the captain of the boat (the very pony he had come here to double check for the existence of) had made it clear that it was time to cast off. 

 

Common sense and his reasonable fears should have been enough to convince him to stay off the boat and let those already on board go about their merry business and have fun... but he didn't walk away. Instead, he found himself walking up the gang plank and coming aboard to join what was apparently an actual party rather then just a gathering like he himself had used the word moments before. Maybe it was just all the years of not having anyone to talk to or spend time with outside of his parents finally catching up with him and demanding he take this chance... maybe it was the fact that a very pretty mare by the name of Sunny was not only talking to him, but from the moment she had laid eyes on him had been so overwhelmingly happy to see him and for him to be there that she asked him to come and join her and her friends on the spot without a second thought. He didn't fully know himself but... as timid as he might have been, he was on the boat.

 

"It...It's Allegro." He answered back softly, looking at Sunny as he gulped. "Th-Thank you for inviting me. I just wanted to check up on you guys because your paperwork down at the Harbor Master didn't have a captain listed for your day trip. I mean, since it was just planned as a simple day trip around the bay that's not a bad thing, ponies have to learn how to do things first hoof after all... I just... wanted to make sure you guys knew that with the Lighthouse not working, it can be dangerous to sail around the bay at night if you were new to it but... clearly you're not actually sailing and..." He trailed off, getting softer and softer as he finally brought his rambling to a stop. Anyone with even in slightest bit of social intelligence would have recognized this stallion as being so far out of his depth that they could have looked around for the wreckage of whatever vessel he had been sailing out here on.

[Dusty]

“You don’t have one?” Pipp asked as her mind pulled back something she was thinking about a day or so ago. She has yet to see one phone… Ok, she has seen phones but old landline phones. Nothing like hers… Or seen TV’s like what she was used to. The few she saw in a shop looked like something her mother grew up with. She hated to say something but were earth ponies just… that far behind? They were not dumb, nothing like she was told growing up. That was easy to see. But clearly they were lagging behind? She’d love to learn more but felt such a topic was not yet safe to touch on. “Well, if I can I will set you up with one later… If my title still matters. we will have to see. As for boats on water? No, I've only ever been on my sky-yacht and I don’t think that’s the same as being on water. But it's cool you have a boat!” She says looking over at the sailing ship and eyeing it up and down, on the small side compared to her airship but it did seem pretty big overall. She was about to ask more about it when some unicorn showed up. Not one she knew. Odd. What was… oh…

 

Sunny was not playing around with she posted the letter as ‘open’ was she? This was not just open too friends but every pony willing to join. Oh no. She was not ready to talk with the peasants! Her hooves needed too be gilded again! Her mane and tail were only washed in some shower with whatever soap the hotel had on hoof. She was a mess! At least by her standards. What will she say? She had no script! No plans! And more of them were coming! She did not know a single one of them, all outsiders and she was the first pegasus they may have seen. She was going to be the face of her kingdom and grand city. What did she get herself in too? Maybe she can do a rain check and come back la- Oh they were departing. She can’t bail now can she? That’d look bad. Well she had to step up didn't she? So be it… But Sunny was going to get an earful later. 

 

“Hello hello, all of you! Thank you all for coming! It's so heartwarming to see so many new faces and tribes here so soon. It’s honestly amazing.” She says with a beaming smile and wave of her wings before she leaps onboard. The earth pony… Sugar was it? She was rather dazzling. She’d never think earth ponies can be so… Well, pretty. Not that Sunny was ugly! Oh by the stars this was going to be a lot of walking around on the tips of her hooves. What if she says something bad? Sunny you are a mad mare, utterly mad. But that seemed to be wh- Oh look at that. Food! She wasted no time trotting past the rest of them and down in to the lower deck for some free food. Just what the doctor ordered, stress eating! “Not bad, sunny, not bad.” She says with a wave of a wing before partaking in whatever grabbed her eyes… mostly the sweets.

[IceStorm]

~~~Sugar Moonlight~~~

 

 

 

The apprehension was killing Sugar as she awaited Sunny's response. It had only been a couple seconds, but that could seconds felt like eternity as what felt like the weight of the world roll off of her. It would be a long while before she'd felt that she'd made up to Sunny, but hearing Sunny say that she never blamed her helped a lot. Sunny added that they were all raised to believe the lies that Canterlogic was spreading. That statement hit just a little closer to home than she woudl have liked, considering that she herself had played a role in propagating what they later found out as lies. That actually raised a major red flag for her too, almost as if she had just thought of something very important. what was Canterlogic going to do now that they didn't have to make questionable devices that may or may not actually do what they said they would do. If she was being honest, some of the items that might not be a bad thing. After all, the boots that were demonstrated in the event that Sunny crashed seemed like they were fastened to the ground. So yes, a pegasus could snatch you away, but you also couldn't move. She shook her head though. Today wasn't a day for such thoughts. These were important things that would need to be addressed, but today was about making new friends. She wasn't going to sully that by thinking about work at a time like this.

 

When Sunny mentioned the friends that could fly around and float things, Sugar smiled. "I have to be honest here, I am still a teensy bit worried about that. Not from the ponies that you've brought here. I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't expecting to find a pegasus with wings as amazing as hers," she said pointing to Pipp's wings. "But those slight fears of the bad ones that could do the things that we are scared about, are lessened by the hope that the ponies that are generous, kind, and friendly will help protect us from the mean ones, should they ever arise," Sugar said before turning to one of the other newcomers.

 

This pony was an Earth Pony, but at the same time Sugar never remembered seeing him before. She heard him introduce himself to Sunny as Allegro. She vaguely recognized the name. Not because she thought that she might have known the pony, but she knew that she had heard that term somewhere before, but couldn't picture where right off the top of her head. He thanked Sunny for inviting him and went on to say that he wanted to check up on everypony cause the manifest at the harbor didn't say anything about a captain about the vessel, so he wanted to make sure everything was okay.

 

Sugar was going to say something in response, before the mention of the lighthouse stopped her dead in her tracks. She shuddered instantly as she remembered the entirety of what had happened just a few days before and how absolutely terrified that Maretime Bay had lost probably the most caring pony in the city. It was Sunny after all, that extended the first hoof of friendship to the other races, and brought them back together. That alone is a testament to how much she cared about everypony. Of course, if Sugar felt this bad from just having watched the lighthouse fall, she knew it had to be a million times worse for Sunny. Not only was that her home, but she was inside of it when it fell. That did bring up something though that Sugar did want to bring up at some point. "The... Lighthouse probably isn't a good thing to bring up right now... Though, while we're on the... touchy subject..." Sugar Started. "If you need a place to stay while the lighthouse is being rebuilt, I have an extra room. It's the least that I can do to help," she said to Sunny, still shuddering a bit from the memories of the other day.

 

It was at that point the Pegasus spoke up and she became fixated on her. She wasn't sure what it was, but there was definitely an alluring appeal to her. Okay, she was lying, she knew exactly what it was. Those wings were so fluffy! She couldn't help but imagine what one of them might feel like wrapped around her. She quickly shook her head though at the though. She thanked them all for coming, and at the risk of saying something that would be completely off or inappropriate, Sugar kept her mouth shut. One thing that she knew though, she was very much hoping to get to know the pegasus mare more. She watched her descend below deck. She wanted to follow her down but wasn't sure if she should yet. She decided to let the mare have a bit of space for now. This was going to be a long boat ride after all, so they'd have plenty of time to talk. She was also interested in the other unicorn that was with them that had been rather silent up to this point. That wasn't a bad thing though. After all, she wasn't exactly super talkative at the moment either, so she couldn't fault her for it. It did kinda feel like everypony was walking on Eggshells though, she started trying to think of a way that she could lighten the mood. Hopefully though somepony else would beat her to that.

[PyroBlaze]

Moonage looked around the boat as they set off into the bay. Sunny was the main one to respond to her introduction, though at least Sugar also introduced herself without Sunny's prodding like Allegro. Ah well, no big deal really. Now she was on a boat surrounded by strange ponies floating around in the water... Hmm, what to do now?

 

"A pleasure to meet you too, Sunny." She said before the pegasus seemed to address the group as a whole and head below-decks. Taking a peak down the stairs, she spotted the food and floated one of the items over to her, as well as the pretty earth mare that was next to her. Sugar, was it? Probably.

 

"Apple?" She asked, offering the fruit to Sugar. "Do you live around here? I've been near the city before, but this is my first time actually in it. This is a nice coastal town, it looks like a good place to live."

[SteelEagle]

Sunny shook her head. "No, I mean, I could get one but ours don't look like that. They're really blocky and cost a ton," she said, vaguely remembering her befuddlement the first time she had seen a mobile phone without all the wires that other phones had. They had come a long way...well, okay, not that long. Truth was that the materials needed for really advanced electronics were rare in Maretime Bay. Consumer computers and mobile phones did exist but the pace of their progress had been glacial and the cost still really high for the average pony. CanterLogic took much of the supply- to their credit, while created for poor intent, some of their creations were indeed quite advanced. "Oh, and it's not my boat, just a rental! The boat owner just changes the name to whoever rented it. Though I do think I like the idea of a boat being named after me. My mom almost had one named after her!" She thought about it, "unless it's a trawler. Those stink. Like sardines...maybe that's..." she shook her head.

 

Luckily, before she could square the fact that her mother had indeed come home smelling of sardines as a filly and how repugnant a smell that was now to her and defaulting at the connection, Sugar Moonlight distracted her. She was happy to have these new friends but still had some worries. It would be expected of Sunny to dismiss the concerns entirely, but she wouldn't. Her fantasies had not come to pass entirely, after all. The Unicorns and Pegasi had, at first, treated her poorly as an Earth pony. They were victims of their own systems of disharmony, but there were a lot of ponies out there. The overwhelming majority would be good. All of them? Not even she was so naïve. "There's good and bad ponies across the three species. No doubt we'll encounter somepony who wants to cause trouble, and so will Bridlewood and Zephyr Heights. We'll just have to trust that a few bad experiences won't drive us to abandon the truth that we now know clearly," She said confidently. There would be challenges ahead but she was confident that they, as Equestrians united, would be their equal.

 

As she pondered the future of their unity and the struggles inherent, a not-so-confident voice spoke up. He gave his name and then started trailing off when he spoke about the ride itself. Maybe he knew a lot about sailing vessels or the sea? Ponies had all sorts of interests and fixations and she could understand loving the sea. She never did quite follow her mother, a boon as fate would have it, but she certainly loved the salty air as much as the next earth pony. "I think that's because this trip is registered under a company's heading. I think. Huh," she looked down and then up, through the window and into the bridge. Hard to see the stallion and his crew up there, but that was by design. They kept out of the way for their guests. "Why is that?" She shrugged. She'd ask him later. "Guess I shouldn't distract him. Anyway...Allegro, right? That's a nice name. You seem to know a lot about the sea. Sailor?" She asked hopefully. It was always nice to learn about new friends, and she counted him as one. It also allowed her to....oh, wait. The lighthouse came up.

 

The lighthouse. Her home. She didn't know the full history behind it, but she did know her parents had loved it dearly. Her mother looked to the lighthouse as a beacon guiding her home in more ways than one. Her father enjoyed the space it gave him to expand his research, and the fact it was set apart from the town allowed him to work without interruption. Now it had been partially destroyed. The top was gone. The second floor was ruined. Her room and a lot of her mementos, including the personalized Guardians figures her father had chiseled for her, were destroyed. Her father's room was still around but unsafe. The first floor- she was shocked how well that had turned out, all things considered. The back of the lighthouse that contained most of her father's research was intact. Glass and stone scattered around the area, but it was fine. The front was still standing, but ruined. The building itself was unsound. She had salvaged what she could of her father's work and her own remaining belongings while the building was repaired and rebuilt in equal measure.

 

He response started strong before trailing lower and lower until it was barely audible. "No, no. It's fine, Sugar. Really, it is. I mean it isn't fine, it really sucked, but..." she sighed deeply before perking back up. "But, it's fine. My home will be fixed, and if it took a little structural damage here, there, and everywhere to help fix Equestria, then that is a very worthy trade," she said with a head nod that was more assertive than convincing. "I'm good when it comes to housing Sugar, at least for a little while. Hotels are *competing* to make it up for me, but I'll keep that offer in mind!" She said, honestly excited about the prospect of future sleepovers. She rarely got the chance to experience good old-fashioned fun friend things. She liked the good old-fashioned fun things.

 

Fun, like food and drink. Cookies and cupcakes, cold sandwiches, smoothies of her own making everywhere, punch, water, chips, soda, salsa, hay bacon strips and veggie rolls of all stripes, and even a couple of pizzas! Okay, she had gone overboard. She had expected a few more ponies to show up, but there was so much to see and do now that she understood locals not being all that interested in a boat trip. She got herself a smoothie and sandwich and took time to gather herself, just as some food floated its way by her and out to the top. Sunny followed it- yes of course it was Daydream but still, that was so cool! Moonage seemed a little occupied with Sugar and who could blame anypony for that. For now Sunny took a big bite and looked out over the crowd of her new friends.  This was going to be so exciting!
"So, Pipp," she said loudly enough to attract her attention, "would you like to tell everypony here a bit about yourself and Zephyr Heights?"

[Dusty]

Pipp rather suddenly found herself at the center of attention. Now normally that is where she loved to be! How can she not? But at the moment she was rather on the back hoof. No plans, no script and a rather messy past couple of days she was still pulling together in her head. It didn't  help that she had half a cupcake shoved down her muzzle. She really was not ready for this. But well, here it was. Firing off a glare at Sunny she swallowed the cupcake down and wiped her muzzle clean with a napkin. “I'll be more than happy too!” She says with a warm smile. It was a lie, she was not happy at all but such was life. This was far from the first time she had to take stage in such a short order. Trotting away from the food table she took her place in the heart of the room.

 

“Oh how wonderful, majestic and powerful Zephyr Heights.” She began, holding a golden hoof to her chest to add impact to the phrase. “I hardly know where to begin on such a thing. Never in my life did I think I'd be put in a spot to speak about my home to outsiders. Something you all must feel about your own homes I’d think. But I shall try my best.” She did wonder where to even start. Maybe some history? They knew nothing of her home, only one here that saw it was Sunny after all. “Long ago a champion led us after the skyfall. A hero of ages past he was brave, just and fearless and blessed with fl-” She stopped herself and blinked. She knew the story she was about to tell. It was the founding of the kingdom and with it how her family alone can fly. Thing is… that was a lie. A pointless lie now. She felt a rush of fear creeping down her spine as she was faced with the growing worry that came with such a fact. 

 

“Ah…” Her mind was racing to piece together something. A story. An act. She wished her mother was here. She’d know what to do. What to say. “His name was Zephyr. He was a beacon of hope in a time when none was to be found. We were in a sorry state after the skyfall. The sky was ripped away from our wings from the treachery of the uni…” Once again she found herself slamming head first in to a stone wall of context. Oh this was bad. She was making a huge mess of this. She felt… Terrified. Never has she felt fear about being in the spotlight until a few days ago… And she was feeling the same fear welling up inside of her. “I'llberightbacksorry!” She darted away from the onlookers and up the stairs to reach the ship's top deck. 

 

She was tempted to take wing and fly away. Run even more. This was a disaster and it's her fault. She needed help. Pulling her phone out she looked at the screen for a moment and the one tiny bar of reception. She didn't know if the call would even contect out here. But what more can she do? She felt far too alone. All it took was a few swipes of her hoof too have the speed dial underway. “Please pick up…” She whispered to herself, glancing back at the door leading down. She hoped none of them followed her. Ring… Ring…  And blessed be it, mom did pick up. Pipp did her best to explain what was happening as fast as she could, it took a few moments for Haven to have a moment's break too speak up in Pipps rant. 

 

H- "Stay away from history.  They're not interested in that, they're interested in you, your life.  What is a typical day like?"

P- “Busy? I'm busy I guess? Sorry. I just feel off my game. Everything is going so fast I still haven't had time to come to terms with things. Slept horrible and now my head is… Just lost in this fog. I wish you were here. I feel like every step I take is walking me into another wall. What if it happens again? What if they drag me away…” 

H- "Oh, Honey, they won't.  Believe me, I know how to spot loyalty, it's an essential skill for royals.  Your new friends will be loyal to you."

P- “But only Sunny is here! She… She’s a good mare, that much is easy to tell. Foolish to a fault but… no, you're right. She’d toss herself in to danger for me without thinking about it. She has that air about her. I’m not worried about her, I'm worried about the rest. I’m their first contact with our kingdom and I feel like I'm making a mess of that. How can I trot back down and act like nothing happened? Just pick up talking about myself and brush off that mess I ran from?” 

H- "... I hate to say it, but a simple apology, that you don't quite know how things work now in this new world, will have to be made.  I don't think anypony else knows either, so they will understand.  I hope."

P- “An apology? That’s… Not much more we can do is it? I feel so powerless. I wish you were here. I… I need a hug. All of this is so new and scary. I’m scared of being in the spotlight! Me of all ponies! That… I hate all of this. I just wish it can all go back but it can’t.”

H- “I know honey, if I were there, I would.  You can ask Sunny for one."

P- “I’d make a joke about such a thing but I honestly think she’d do it if I asked… Thanks mom. I better get going before they come up looking for me… Oh! Can we have the evening together? I think… I think Ice-cream and TV with mom is in order.”

H- "Sure thing Honey, love you.”

P- “Love you to mom. Byebye.” 

((A thanks to Blue! All of Havens lines were of his makeing, thanks again for makeing Canterlot history with me for the first ever phone call in a rp post.))

 

With that she ended the call with a tap of her hoof and a sigh. She did feel better from that. Still nervous as all get out but she has a game plan. A basic one but it was better than nothing. Looking back at the door she shakes her head. “Well, here we go. Round two.” With that she made her way over to the door and pushed it open and made her way down the steps. She can do this. “Sorry everypony! Just had to take that call. I hope it was not too much of a bother?” She says, speaking up so all of them can hear her return. “I’d like to apologize about that dead start. Like I told you I never have been put in the post to talk to others outside the city and given the recent… Upheaval I hope you can all understand the difficulty I’m faced with. But if all of you are interested I’d be very happy to talk about my life. Trust me, plenty to cover on that topic. A lot happens in the life of a princess.” She offered the apology and followed it with a new topic if they so wished. If there is one thing she can ramble on about endlessly, it's herself… Was that egotistical? Probably. But she didn't really care. 

[StrongCopper]

Having moved onto a subject that he was more comfortable with talking about since... well, he actually knew what he was talking about. Plus Sunny had said that she liked his name, which made Allegro fight down a strange but highly pleasant warmth running across his face. Still, he shook his head at her guess "My dad... was..." The slight pause in the sentence combined with the slight flash of disgust that briefly flared across his face suggested that Allegro wasn't sure he was using the right terminology and the world would be a better place if he was wrong. However, the brief pang of darkness was quickly brushed aside as the stallion continued "... And mum has told us both many times that the three primary reasons she didn't outright just live in the sea herself was her love for her family, basking in the sunlight on a warm patch of sand or a flat rock... and that sugary baked goods don't handle getting wet well. If I didn't pick up anything about the ocean or sailing from them I think they would have tried to work out what they did wrong."

 

The good cheer of having successfully managed to be completely truthful about his mother was quickly replaced by shock as Allegro's eyes grew wide at the news that Sunny and her family lived in the Lighthouse. It wasn't an unpleasant surprise by any means. In fact it further elevated Sunny in his eyes since the Lighthouse had not only been very important to his father's well being and work, but also more then once he had spent time at night just watching it do its job, captivated by the light it produced and pieced the darkness with. 

 

He wanted to talk to her about it more... and even offer her a chance to talk about her actual feelings about what happened with someone who actually understood the pain of losing a home to a bunch of idiotic earth ponies from the city proper but... this was a party and she was clearly putting on a smile in order to not drag down the mood. Even as socially isolated and naive as he was, Allegro wasn't going to ruin the party by talking about destruction and pain.

 

It was around this point that the pony with wings was called upon out of the blue in order to speak about herself and her people. Considering that she seemed to be actively trying to evolve a dislocatable jaw for the purposes of consuming a cupcake (a feat that actually reminded him of his mother actually) she had been caught off guard by the attention being put on her as anyone. The following speech, panic and flight from the room and up towards the upper deck proved it. In the awkward moment that followed where Allegro glanced at the other ponies to see if they should go after her or not, he elected to gulp as he glanced towards the rest of the party nervously in order to try and distract them from... he believed Sunny said her name was Pipp?

 

While shy due to the gathering being made up of a pony with a horn sticking out of their head and an earth pony mare who was actually really beautiful to gaze upon... through she seemed to lack the warmth that radiated from Sunny that had bewitched him to come and join the party in the first place, he managed to start "My... My parents say that I'm a really good singer. I took after mum in that regard actually, even if I'm nowhere near as good a singer as she is." Bashfully glancing down at the ground and scuffing a hoof against the floor, he pushed on despite his discomfort as he said "I've... never sung for anyone who wasn't family before but... maybe I can try here? I just... don't really know what kind of song to sing..."

 

While Pipp would return, privately Allegro hoped that by offering to sing a song he wouldn't have to talk about Maretime Bay or what living there entailed for him personally.

[IceStorm]

~~~Sugar Moonlight~~~

 

 

 

Sugar watched and waited for the response on the lighthouse. She didn't want to say anything on it herself, and at first Sunny seemed to be focusing on the phone that Pipp had mentioned. If she was being honest herself, she was also interesting in this phone thing. They had something similar here in Maretime bay, but they weren't exactly portable and had lots of wires. She was shocked at how much more advanced Pegasi were and it made her wonder about the validity of the products at Canterlogic. IF the Pegasi were this advanced, then they could have things that would have dwarfed their own creations. However, if they pony kinds were friends again, maybe the ponies of Zephyr Heights would help share their technology. If that happened, then Canterlogic would be able to create so many new products, and hopefully ones that would help ponies get along rather than divide them like they did before. They should probably also start working on removing all of the negative propaganda off of the city streets. Having posters of unicorns and pegasi being evil, killing, and abducting ponies probably wasn't going to set well with most. It's possible that many would see them and find it hilarious that they thought that they could do those things, but still. It would be good to clean that up at some point.

 

She also had to admit that she was a bit bummed out that Sunny didn't accept her offer to stay at her place, but when she told her that the hotels were literally competing to try to help her, she understood and couldn't help but giggle. "Let me guess, they are trying to pay you to stay there. Honestly they should be. We all should be. What happened isn't acceptable, and everypony in Maretime Bay should be doing everything they can to help you," Sugar said. She was a little bit worried that Sunny didn't say much to help her fears, but what she said was right. There were going to be good and bad ponies everywhere. It was like she said, they would just have to hope that the good ponies outweighed the bad. They couldn't defend themselves like the unicorn or pegasi could. A pegasus could fly toescape the danger, and a unicorn could fight back with their magic. She just didn't try to think about it too much. 

 

She was snapped out of her thoughts when the unicorn that was with them levitated an apple over to her and asked if she was hungry. Sugar smiled and she accepted the apple. "Thank you... Moonage did you say it was? My name is Sugar Moonlight, if you didn't catch it when I got aboard the boat. AS far as living here in MAretime Bay, it has it's perks. It's usually a quiet place, and fairly simple. We have a theater, we have our markets, but the focal point of the city is the Canterlogic factory. I won't go into what they made, because it's irrelevent now with the changing times. Otherwise, it can be both a blessing and a curse. Being right next to the shore is amazing and it creates for some wonderful views. Every once in a while though, the skies above the sea grow angry and we can get some really violent storms rolling through. We've had to rebuild a few buildings more than once because of it," she said taking a bit of her apple. 

 

She listened a bit more as the other earth pony started talking once again. The pony that had brought up the lighthouse to begin with. She was still shocked as to how well Sunny handled the mention of it. In fact, she was fairly certain her own reaction to it was more intense than Sunny's was. She wasn't entirely sure how to react to the first part when she heard him talking about his mum and how she said the only reason she didn't live in the sea was because of the love of her family, which she could understan, basking on rocks. Well, sitting in the sun did feelgood, and he was also right that baked goods didn't handle wet well. She was just interested more in his word choice than anything. The lack of ability to breath underwater would be a major deciding factor in not living in the ocean as far as she was concerned.She was kind of interested in hearing his singing voice when he mentioned that. 

 

Her attention was shifted though when Pipp came back above deck, and Sunny had asked her to explain her life a bit and to explain the city of Zephyr Heights. She watched anxiously before noticing a familiar look in Pipp's face. Fear. This also showed itself when she started talking. When she first started talking she sounded stammery, and very nervous. She could tell that she was trying almost too hard to avoid what could be touchy subjects. She could understand that to an extent, but they were never going to get past anything if they were just going to try to pretend that nothing happened. She watched Pipp disappear for a few moments back below deck before coming back up and apologizing. She said that after the upheaval that there was a lit of difficulty in speaking about things and hoped that they could forgive her and said that if they had any questions about her life, she would be happy to answer them. 

 

Sugar took a deep breath, and then sighed. "Okay, I can sense the elephant in the room here, and one of the things that I've learned, more so over the last couple of days than anything, but also from a friend. The first step of healing is being honest with yourself and being honest with those around you. Right now with everypony walking on eggshells," she said pointing to Pipp. "It doesn't take much to make ponies feel uncomfortable, myself included. So I say that we clear the air here and now, and just approach the topics of what we were taught about each tribe so that we can heal. The more uncomfortable everypony is, the more tense they will be, which is going to have the opposite effect that we want here. I have worked for Canterlogic for a while now, and I'm not sure where or how the rumors started, but we were always taught that unicorns were vicious beings of magic that would fry a pony to a crisp, and that pegasi would snatch ponies away, never to be heard from again. I know now that's not true, and I would venture that most earth ponies would believe the same at this point. Still though, if can approach those subjects, and I don't know, maybe find out how ridiculous some of the old rumors and speculations were... it's something that could help the races grow back together," Sugar started. "That being said, I would love to hear how you grew up and the things that you like to do. Something tells me it's not too terribly different than how we were raised," Sugar said with a hopeful, yet sheepish smile. 

[PyroBlaze]

"Well, that sounds lovely indeed, Sugar. Travelling around has taken me to a coast a few times, living on one seems nice." Moonage smiled at the earth pony before things seemed to start up again with Pipp. The pegasus seemed to start off strong enough following Sunny's prompt, though it was pretty clear she was having trouble as she tried to avoid certain topics. By the end, after Pipp returned from a phone call, she was getting kind of tired about the whole avoiding the past thing, though apparently not as tired as Sugar had gotten. Moonage hummed a bit at Sugar's words, nodding in response before she added her own response.

 

"I agree with Sugar, ignoring the past does nothing to help us move towards a future that learns from it. Unfortunately, I cannot shed much light on what the unicorns believed, as I was raised on the road. We never went that close to earth pony or pegasus cities, of course, but we would travel close enough to attract the more adventurous ponies to our shows. Nowadays I travel alone, working as a medium for all your ghost-contacting needs." She explained, looking over at Allegro next. "I for one would love to hear you sing, Allegro." She smiled at him encouragingly.

[SteelEagle]

Sunny listened to Pipp as she started her story. Then stopped. Then stated again, panicked, and left. She moved to help her but heard voices- she needed some privacy, and so Sunny shut anything else out for a while. It would be hard for some of them to share the details of their cities without being offensive to others. That meant they each had to make a choice. In the spirit of personal friendship they could share the full scope of their national mythologies and beliefs, even when they based on a foundation of distrust. This way they could be examined and discussed not as truths, but as yet another sign of a pan-Equestrian fragmentation that spoke to a shared victimhood and a shared blame. The other was to, in the interests of the feelings of others, spare them the greater details of their city's unique malfeasances. When ponies were finally coming together, was it so bad to want to focus only on the positive? She wasn't sure herself sometimes, and she was starting to feel as though it had been unfair of her to thrust it on Pipp so readily, so easily. For that, she would need to make amends.

 

The other guests all responded in their own ways. Allegro wanted to distract them by singing. She was intrigued by that! She nodded approvingly, encouragingly at him. She was always enamored with what made others special, what made them great. Despite his blushing and a sense that was developing that something was just ever so off, she was excited to get to know him. She was also happy to see Sugar take even more of a leap forward and say some very wise words. She always knew that Sugar had it in her. Of course she thought that about most ponies; she was a very positive mare by trade. Yet there she was in equal measures being wonderful in describing the city, better at describing her role at Canterlogic and her feelings, and best at pinpointing the fact that history was best left unfiltered. Sunny beamed at her! Between that and Moonage's statement, it seemed that when Pipp was ready to go again she was able to do with a full support network beyond just Sunny behind her. It didn't shock Sunny that it was the case, not one bit. But it was still happy news. Pipp followed up, willing to field questions about the life of a Princess.

 

Oddly enough, despite a lifetime of pressing and activism, she didn't really feel the need to jump in and talk and demand things. It felt good actually having everypony just talking to one another, and she didn't even have to try very hard for everypony to go to their deeper emotions. She was content to watch it all- from the singing to the talk, she was happy to see all three pony types coming together and chatting was good enough for her. She took a big bite of a doughnut and sat with her front hooves folded under her, content for now to listen as the four ponies spoke for the first real time.

[StrongCopper]

As other ponies started to take up the task of talking, Allegro welcomed the chance to withdraw upon himself as the early signs of panic started to dig into his mind. Sure they were all talking now, but he had seen and heard the approval from all of them at the idea of hearing him sing... and now he was going to have to either back it up by doing it or leap off the ship and swim for it. The more he thought about it, the more that the latter idea seemed more and more appealing to him... and the only thing that stopped Allegro from quietly slipping away to do that was a timely glance towards Sunny.

 

Yes, she hadn't said much recently... but just gazing at her caused his heart to swell and ache at the very idea of just ditching her and running away. She was... his first friend and now that he had a friend he was loath to give it up without a fight.

 

With his anxieties and fears briefly beaten back by a desire not to look like a liar or a coward in front of Sunny, Allegro instead racked his mind for a song that he could sing when the opportunity for him to take the floor presented itself. It had been years since he had really listened to any of the songs that came out of Maretime Bay and honestly most of them had sounded so... artificial that he had disliked them even back then. The songs of his mother, while beautiful, would not be appropriate for this audience; They would likely recognize that it wasn't a pony song and that would raise all kinds of questions. 

 

One of dad's sea shanties might work through... Since they were on a boat it would at least match the theme.

 

Allegro's train of thought was briefly derailed as he decided to join in on the 'why ponies suck' conversation that seemed to be in progress as he asked without really thinking "Do Pegisi and Unicorns also occasionally band together to go out to the outskirts of their respective cities to break into and destroy the homes of the ponies living away from the herd or is that just an Earth Pony thing?" Surprisingly, despite the look of mild horror on his face of having drawn attention back to himself, Allegro didn't appear to be talking about Sunny's situation... mostly.

[IceStorm]

~~~Sugar Moonlight~~~

 

 

Sugar would take another bite of the apple that Moonage had brought over for her while she listened to said mare explained about how she grew up on the road. That while they didn't ever come here or go to Zephyr Heights for obvious reasons, but it did beg the question... How many other settlements were out there that suffered or had been lost through this whole process of segregation? Equestria was huge, surely there wasn't just three cities left in the entirety of Equestria. She knew that other ponies had to survive elsewhere, and maybe they were already well ahead of them on the whole getting along thing. They were probably just as confused and happy as everypony else was when the Pegasi got their flight back and the unicorns got their magic back. However, the bigger problem came if there wasn't any others out there. Were they really all that was left? If that is  the case, then it makes the need to abolish the segregation even more important. She knew that the population of Maretime bay was a couple thousand at least, and she presumed that would probably be the case with the other cities as well, but in the grand scheme of things... that was nothing on a global or a natural scale of any sorts. 

 

Still though, she listened and being a traveling performer didn't sound too bad. "Huh... I wonder if there's anything like that for the modeling business. I'm going to have to keep my options open in case Canterlotgic goes under. Who knows what they are going to make now, or even if they are going to be trusted again after Sprout went completely crazy..." Sugar commented. Anti-unicorn and Anti-Pegasus devices weren't really necessary anymore, and thanks to Sprouts actions, they knew just how dangerous some of those contraptions could be. Sugar herself never wanted to hurt anypony. She was generally a pacifist by nature when it came to anything physical. Those splatapults, though mostly the tractor thing... nearly killed Sunny and that unicorn that she was with! That was definitely not what she wanted! She was very glad that they both survived cause Sugar didn't think she could live with that kind of guilt. She honestly didn't think Sprout could either once the realization of what he had done had set in. He already kind of had that look on his face when the lighthouse fell. She was a bit disappointed to hear that she couldn't shed light on what the unicorns had been taught about Earth Ponies and Pegasi, but she also understood. If she wasn't raised in the forest itself, then she wouldn't know. That just made sense.

 

Her focus shifted though when she heard Allegro ask if Unicorns and Pegasi also went to the outskirts of their town to sabotage and destroy the homes of ponies living away from the heard or if that was just an earth pony thing. "Iiiii'm pretty sure that's just an us thing.... and definitely not a moment that we are proud of by any meants. I'm actually truly very sorry that almost everypony's first experience in Maretime Bay was a misguided attack among our own. At the very least, no pony was seriously hurt in our moment of stupidity," she said turning to Pipp. "That being said Pipp, you've been rather quiet. I would love to hear about how you grew up and what everything was like for you. I would also love to hear how you keep your wings so fluffy! They are quiet honestly the prettiest thing I've ever seen!" Sugar said with a smile.

[Dusty]

And of course, somepony shifted it back on the topic of… Well, the bones in every ponies closet at this point. They all had some it seemed and that was not too shocking. Given how long it's been and how long they have at each other's necks for blame over… Event. It was no wonder every pony had some story about how other ponies were the evil ones at fault for whatever disaster befell them. Maybe they all were in some way as something did happen, the Skyfall was a very real event. So she did wonder what disasters befell the others. But in the moment, here and now, she really did not want to open the closet and pull out everypony's bones hidden away. She knew a lot of things, probably more than every pont here. Her rank gave her that. What she can and can’t talk about… Well, she needed too hash that out with mom. And soon. One cat out of the bag was a disaster, stars helped them if the rest fell out. She’d, no, all of them will be ha-

 

Pipp rustled her wings as Sugar asked something of her. “Huh? Oh, my wings?” She was thankful that is what got asked of her. That was easy to talk about. Well, with some trimming. Bones in the closet… “They are odd but I’m not the only one with this gift. A few other nobles I’m related with have wings like this. But mine are the best I think. The softest and most pretty. It's like a blanket wherever I go. And let me tell you, that is a blessing in winter. The winter's up in Zephyr are cold and long affairs. But it seems they are less good for flying. That or my sister is just far more gifted at it than I am. Still, the fact they work at all for flying is wonderful as they normally did not let me even glide. Magic, its… magic is it not?” She giggled and opened one of her short fuzzy wings out, displaying its white fuzzy plumage. “More funny to you I’d think, is my feathers are worth a lot. Whenever I preen my wings I keep the old fathers that get pulled out and resell them. One fashion designer even used a dozen or so she got her hooves on to make a fuzzy neckpiece on her outfit. I’d offer to let some of you touch them but, uh, I'd rather you…” She searched for a word better than peasants. She can’t call them citizens as they were not part of the kingdom as well. Soo… “Ponies don’t. At least for now. Maybe if you wash your hooves well I will let you touch them for a moment.” Was that fair? Most never got to lay a hoof on her, so maybe they will see this as an act of goodwill for the common folk? She can hope. “Now what else do all of you wish to ask of these princesses? Once in a lifetime moment here.”