Rainbow and the Herald trotted east... more like trudged.
Although ditching the wagon was a necessary practicality, it meant that the group had to labor all the more with the weight of the items that they were carrying eastward. This was made all the more taxing by the multiple pockets of water they had to wade through—some of which lapped up to their necks.
Remna, naturally, was unaffected. As the trek wore on, she found herself involuntarily bearing more and more of the collective weight of the provisions. It almost became a game—with the Herald stacking more and more items atop her violet flank to see if she'd topple over. She never did. Flynn and Logan had a good snicker, much to the "bounty hunter's" mute chagrin.
The winds died down—mostly because they were being blockaded by the limestone formations above. From where Rainbow Dash hovered, she could spot bigger and bigger bodies of water opening up to a grand, undulating ocean. The thunder in the starry heavens grew louder and louder, even though Rainbow still couldn't spot a single flicker of lightning as the source.
This—apparently—was a good enough excuse for Ariel and Wildcard to take wing. The two performed some risky reconnaissance. Eventually, they flew back, reporting that they had caught sight of a remarkably tall chunk of limestone that was forked at its peak. At first, Rainbow didn't understand the significance of this, but it nevertheless brought a loud cheer of joy from Flynn. Pretty soon, the balding unicorn was galloping ahead of the group, splashing salt-water puddles in every direction as he approached the peculiar formation off in the distance.
"I give up," Echo droned, trotting alongside Nicole and Bard. "Is there a special 'End of the World' sale on pocket protectors?"
"Hey! Nerd turd!" Logan hollered. The stallion carried half as much weight as Remna, requiring him to avoid the deepest of puddles. "Where you running off to?!"
"What do you think?!" Flynn jubilantly proclaimed, scampering towards the limestone formation and a noticeably deep estuary residing next to it.
Fwooosh! Ariel flew down next to Rainbow Dash. "This can't be it, can it?" Rainbow merely shrugged.
"We cerrtainly have jourrneyed farr enough," Kepler said. "This is the spot on the map as well!"
Wildcard hand-signed.
"Uhhhhh..." Bard cleared his throat and translated. "Dubya's reminding us that it has been an awful long set of years since you left the dayum dinghy here, Flynn!" The cowcolt tilted his hat back, revealing a nervous squint. "Ya reckon moisture and weatherin' haven't led us to the wrong rock?"
"No! This is it, alright! I'm sensing the leylines of the old crystalline marker I left here!" Flynn paused only once to glare back at the group. "And it's not a dinghy!"
"Is it even anything?!" Ariel shrugged, gesturing at the narrow strip of barren rock stretched out between them and the bodies of water. "I don't see any boat!"
"Because you're not supposed to!" Flynn hollered back. "Behold!" Licking his lips, the one-eyed stallion aimed his horn at the rock. Not long after, a beam of mana flickered between his cranium and the limestone. Within seconds...
Fwooooomp! A length of burlap camouflage magically deflated. In the next breath, Flynn telekinetically tugged the material away—tossing it aside like a waiter might yank a stretch of brown table-cloth. Doing so revealed the slate-gray metal hull of a modest vessel moored in the shadow of the limestone structure. The boat stretched no less than forty feet from bow to stern, and already Rainbow Dash could spot a two-deck cabin situated at the vessel's rear. Dull crystalline pylons loomed along the stern—which Rainbow could only guess was some means of mana-driven propulsion.
Grinning wide, Flynn spun to face the Desperados and Job Squadders in turn. "Ta-daaaaa!"
"Wow..." Remna droned.
Logan flashed her a look. "You're actually impressed?"
"No."
"Hmmmff..." Logan. "Dammit. Don't make yourself likeable."
"This is it?" Ariel's voice cracked. "Can it even fit all of us?"
"Uh... it'll be a bit tight, but you b-bet!" Flynn cleared his throat, glancing at Echo and Nicole. "I wasn't... exactly expecting extra company, but we'll do!"
"Hrmmmf... that's right." Nicole blew some bangs out from before her fanged muzzle. "Blame the bat ponies."
Echo winked at her. "Now you're learning."
Wildcard gestured with a smirk.
"Dubya's got a point." Bard shuffled up through the shallow waters flanking the dunes. "We can't just call it 'the boat.' It's mite bit unlucky to go off cruisin' without namin' the thang."
"Ha!" Flynn pointed with a bright grin. "Way ahead of you!" He summoned a light spell through his horn and pointed at a stretch of words along the ship's hull. "Check it!"
Ariel flew up close, squinting. "... ... ...'Stardust?'"
"Whoops! Uhm..." Flynn reached out and brushed off some dark smudges towards the left. "There we go!"
"'Princess Stardust?'" Logan droned, eyebrow raised.
"Well... y-yeah!" Flynn fidgeted in the waters. "I... uh... I was a lot younger at the time. Eheh."
"You were high is what you mean," Echo said. Logan reached out to fist-bump the sarosian.
"Hey!" Flynn folded his forelimbs, his mechanical eye re-focusing above a pout. "It's my ship! I get to name it!"
"Don't worry, dude." Rainbow smirked. "If there's anything I learned from my travels, it's the ponies that you put inside a ship that make it awesome." She turned towards Remna. "Alright. Let's go."
Remna nodded. "You heard the Austraeoh!" she shouted in a loud, draconian voice, matching the thunder. "Load it up! Shove it off!"
Kickass. More boat.
To be fair, though, I too was expecting something a little cooler, but eh...All aboard the Princess Stardust, everyone!
It's hilarious how easily I can picture this happening.
I refuse to rename ourselves the Princesses of Stardust.
Princess Stardust? Is this a reference to something?
Don't care. Best ship. All aboard!
Nancy Jane 2: Electric Boogaloo.
Nice
OK I liked the part with Remna, that was amusing. The name of the boat isn't that lame I can get used to it. Glad to see a bit of levity before we continue on.
... something tells me this boat isn't gonna have the Noble Jury's lifespan.
7416532 But is it a nice boat?
---------------------
Trying to recapture your drakeness, Axan?
...okay new theory, the 6th seed is going to be able to restore something to somecreature in the group.
Wildcard's missing arm, Dash's health, Flynn's eye or Axan's dragon body.
And Dash will have to choose who to gift the boon to, if she doesn't take it herself.
-Companions are abound, frozen spectres hound. Utaan.
Where can I get some of this stardust?
7416533 how about Stardust Crusaders?
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I'll accept Dashiel as a temporary filler, because it's adorable.
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I give it anywhere from 5 to 8 chapters before it sinks.
7416613 I wholeheartedly approve.
...You didn't.
...
7416553
http://www.fimfiction.net/group/1477/austraeoh/thread/255908/just-in-case-a-second-farewell-and-a-request-for-ic
Even if it only has a short ways to convey you, a good ship's a good ship, so treat the Princess Stardust well.
Princess Stardust it is!
Perhaps not so stalwart or elegant as Nancy, but a proud vessel she is, I'd wager.
*Insert generic shipping joke here*
7416613
Funnily enough, I was half expecting the vessel to be a sub.
7416705
...
Hah
7416613 That's the first thing I thought of when I read that.
And I couldn't find the version without sound effects somehow, oh well.
Well here we are, finally at sea! Let's get used to kill a lot of time of being stuck huddled up with the rest of the bunch!
A tiny boat in a sea in the land of eternal twilight. One of the few things that could make this better would be some pirates of the Sarosian variety.
They finally arrived at the boat, and it turns out its actually large enough to not only fit everyone on board, but not sink as soon as the water gets deep enough to go over the top due to the weight.
Given the description so far about the thing, Im wondering if hidden on board somewhere is a super intelligent mousebeaver.
Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat Boat
Does it have a hammock?
40 foot boat is not a bad boat at all. They should be able to fit quite easily, there is only nine of them and they have two decks. Provisions might be a problem but they probably have that covered. Look forward to seeing what the Princess Stardust is capable of.
I wonder if the Princess Stardust will have a hammock?
Neat! A boat!
So how soon till this one dies a horrible death? It's gotta be soon, named ships always seem to end up exploded by the time we're done with them. I can only think of maybe two that haven't. The percent-chance of survival has gotta be in the single digits.
Maybe Austraeoh Fact Checker can figure that one out.
If you're a ship (air or sea), and Rainbow Dash or a friend steps on-board, what is the chance you survive the encounter unexploded?
7416705 I can't believe IC gave into pier pressure.
That name, the drama is strong in this one. (yep i re checked since the princess part made me remember)
I guess i am lurking too much.
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*clicks on Utaan*
*sees a comment about 'Princess Stardust'*
*goes Waitaminute*
*reads the chapters and the comments*
*takes a deep breath*
Okay. This is going to be a long post. Please bear with me.
Back when I thought that I wasn't going to be online during the Northern Hemisphere Summer Months, I remembered that I had made a promise to someone. It wasn't the greatest promise, but it was a promise nonetheless. So I naively made an epic blunder.
Now, I'm not sure what in the blue blazes I really had expected to happen. What did happen, was that I, in my drive for completionism, made a lot of people angry, and rightly so. I asked for something which as a request had only been granted way back in Eljunbyro, and I tried to lock in way too many details, which were also unrealistic in the context of the series.
After I got feedback from some helpful, if angry, people, I vowed never to repeat this type of request (EDIT: Hyperlink here was to wrong comment, so I removed it). I proceeded to forget about the whole debacle, and simply hoped that I hadn't irrevocably damaged my reputation - what there was of it, at any rate.
And that was the end of it, or so I thought. I was happy when it turned out that I could stay on the Jury through the Northern Summer after all, but I didn't make a big hoopla about it.
Time passed. Not that much, relatively speaking, but enough for me to forget about it other than regret that I had acted in an immature manner.
And then, out of the blue, this happens.
IC has a sense of humor. I don't deserve this, but I thank you all the more for that.
Also, she's now online. She doesn't comment, but she is easting right alongside me.
As for the story right now, I wonder what the boat's made of. Maybe Apple Trees.
Reads title
Reads the whole Princess Stardust thing.
Oh IC you're just fishing for drama there, at least hold on til we get to open water
This boat is perfect for
ZEE CAPTAINthe Pristmatic Harem!7416569 If it has just the longevity of the Swan Song, it will be really good, I think... Probably not happening...
7407721 Oh that makes sense. Darn it.
Since calling ourselves the Princesses of Stardust doesn't feel right I decided to see what anagrams could be made from the name "Princess Stardust." There were hundreds so I'll just cite this one...
"Restricts sad puns" because wordplay isn't allowed on this boat.
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A hammock?
A hammock?
Singular?
Are you both mad? There must be many hammocks, for the humble hammock is the greatest of beds.
Really, though, hammocks were the standard bunking on ships of the line before silly concepts such as mattresses and a modicum of privacy ever reached naval design philosophy.
Quarters on man-of-war ships were basically a single deck filled with hammocks. They're cheap, easy to fix or replace, the canvas can double as sail patching, and the pendulum nature helps damp the motion transferred to the crew from the ship's rocking on the water.
Every time I read a chapter like this one I want to press the like button.
Too bad you can't do it more than once.
7416556 I thought that was the Scootaloo, but what do I know?
Ask and ye shall receive.
*slow clap* Heh, shpping. Props for that one IC. That's an awesome way to word it.
Love the snark; it's like a palette cleanser after all that drama..
wat
Well, it's no Nancy Jane, but it'll do.
7422899 somewhere in ponyville, Lyra's eye is itching.
inb4 hammock ecstasy
Let's just hope that this boat trip doesn't take more than 8 years, unlike a certain other series.
i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/914/946/402.png
~ Rainbow Dash's Bizarre Adventure ~ Part 8: Princess Stardust Crusaders
Hahaha, what a doofy name for a boat. Ah well, we've all been there I'm sure.
Well, it's a good thing this is later in the series, because as entertaining as it would be to call our loyal group of readers 'Princess Stardust's Entourage' or something equally cheesy, I much prefer Noble Jury.
Actually, 7429341 has a good alternative. Still sticking with Noble Jury though.
Another sea vessel to be destroyed, huh? I guess we'll have to make more room in Davy Jones' Locker.
Hehehe I love this.
Yay a boat!