Chapter 55: Business Pit-Stop
"Calm Down, we didn't have sex," Hearing those words did nothing to calm Starlight Glimmer, who was pacing around the bedroom in a panic.
"So why was I in your bed?" She asked quickly, her legs quick movements shifting the carpet.
"I don't know, I went to sleep before you did," Blueblood answered, already picking up an empty bottle from the nearby table to check how much she drank without him.
"So why would I enter into YOUR BED?!" Starlight almost yelled at her boss, who merely rolled his eyes at how she was acting.
"I'm guessing you were drunk and you didn't want to walk in the corridors of the ship in the middle of the night, drunk out of your mind," Blueblood took a sniff of the bottle before placing it in his mouth and drinking the drops leftover at the bottom of the bottle.
"So nothing happened?" Starlight's breath was slowing down.
"Nothing happened, I wouldn't take advantage of someone like that," Blueblood said as he levitated the empty bottles into a plastic bag.
"Good, good." Starlight nodded to herself, before freezing when she heard a knock on the door.
"Boss- er, Your Highness, I mean eh... There's an island up ahead!" Starlight blinked at that before turning to look at Blueblood who was in the process of dressing himself, causing her to quickly look away.
"So soon?" She heard Blueblood whisper to himself, "This ship is much faster than I thought."
"What's going on?" She asked.
"The Island of Glaros, It's where we're supposed to have a quick stop to refuel and restock, but since we're already coming up on it, that just means that this ship is sailing much faster than expected," Blueblood explained as he walked passed her and opened the door, nodding his head to Trixie who stood on the other side.
"We were supposed to come up on the island at the start of our fourth day, but we're only on our second day right now, Which means that either the specks on this ship that I was given were false, or that the map of the ocean was wrong, and I'm not sure which one of those options is worse," He said as he made his way up to the bridge of the small ship.
"Wouldn't having a faster ship be a good outcome?" Trixie asked as she joined the Duo of Unicorns.
"It is, we are shortening our trip by a large amount, and if I'm correct we'll be able to reach Caninia tomorrow evening, instead of five day from now," He explained, "But that also means that I was lied to in regards to the boat. Some might think it's harmless, that it's just a faster ship, but what about everything else that was lied about?"
"I don't get it?" Trixie said as she tilted her head.
"Think of it this way, You buy a new house, and the seller tells you that this house you bought is built out of a specific type of wood and that the flooring is made of a specific type of stone. Still following me?" He asked, receiving a nod from the two mares.
"Okay, now you buy this house and everything is going fine, Until you find out that there's a hot spring built underneath your house, You think you hit the jackpot, right? But then you stop and think, why did the seller not say anything about this spring? And will this spring weaken the stone foundation of the house? Will the steam coming from the underground spring weaken the wood that builds your walls? Now this amazing Hot Spring that you thought was a blessing to have seems more like a curse." Blueblood nodded to himself.
"What I'm getting at, is that now that the ship is much faster than I planned for, I don't know how much fuel it is taking, or where else I was lied to. So we will be docking at Glaros for the day in order to get everything checked, while still restocking on food and fuel," Blueblood pressed a few buttons, "I'll try and get the local government permission for you people to leave the ship for the duration of the checks, so you won't bore yourself," Blueblood smiled at that.
"Maybe start a local forest fire instead of using an oven like a normal person," He smiled at that, "Now both of you, get out, I need to concentrate," He told the two Unicorns, and with a blue glow to his horn, buttons and levers all around the bridge started to twist and press.
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Glaros Island is an Independent Island Nation sitting far off the coast of Minotopia, or as I'd love to describe it, Magic Greece.
Being closer to Minotopia than to Equestria, but still far into the ocean to be independent of any form of outside government, gave the small Island Nation a reputation for being a perfect place for Ships to dock and resupply on long trips.
"Listen up!" I yelled into the speakers of the ship, making sure that anybody still asleep would be able to hear.
"We are making a stop on Glaros Island, and I managed to get the Chief of the island to let you all stretch your feet and walk around. We are estimated to return to our voyage in the afternoon, so find something to do for yourselves. Don't be late to return, Now get off the boat so the workers can start their jobs!" That should get the message across.
"Oh! Time Turner and Zephyr Breeze, stay on board, the workers might need to ask some questions," There, that should do it.
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Reading over a piece of paper, Hughbert Jellius slowly hid the paper inside one of his suitcases before he walked off the ship and onto the Island of Glaros.
This was the first time the Changeling was on an Island, but he didn't have the time to look around.
He had someone he needed to meet.
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"A Pit stop on a beautiful Island? Let's go Girls!" A K Yearling yelled excitedly, soon joined by Gilda and Cozy as the trio flew off the ship and onto the Island of Glaros, ready to explore.
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Zephyr Breeze was bored out of his mind, While the rest of the crew were on the Island doing whatever, He was stuck on the ship helping Time Turner explain to some engineers how the Engine works so they could get proper measurements or something.
It was boring.
"If the engine works on an Arcane-Flux-Conductor in order to power the ship, The Fuel will be burning up, yet somehow we can see here that only an eighth of the Tank has been drained thus far," The head Engineer in charge of the inspection, a Seagull Person, said as he tapped a small window of reinforced glass on the side of the Engine with a taloned hand, letting him see how much fuel was still in the tank.
"That shouldn't be the case at all," An aging Minotaur said as he squatted down next to the Gull, "The Distance alone between Equestria and here should have taken at least Five-Ninths of the tank."
Zephyr groaned in boredom.
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"Prince Blueblood! It Is a very good honor to meet you!" The Chief of the Island, A Seagull with a colorful Green and Blue robe said as he walked up to me.
"The pleasure is mine, Chief Galeb," I told the Seagull only to freeze as he pulled me into a hug, kissing the sides of my cheeks.
"There!" He happily said with a wide smile on his beak, "A Proper Glaros welcome!" He let go of me, and I had to stop myself from immediately wiping the spit off my face so as to not somehow offend him.
"Please! Allow me to show you a tour of our lovely Island!" The Seagull Chielf said and started walking, showing me to one of many tourist spots on the Island.
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"Vodopad Waterfall," A K Yearling whispered to herself as she and her newly made pals looked at the Waterfall of thundering white water, falling off a cliff into a lake far below them.
"Rumor has it, that General Red Bicep threw his hoard of pillaged treasure off the Waterfall before his capture by King Steel Fist," She stated, her eyes looking at the lake below the waterfall, hoping to catch a glimmer of any lost treasure.
"Why would the General throw his treasure off the waterfall?" Cozy Glow asked as she hung onto the railing.
"So the King wouldn't be able to take it, Obviously." Gilda said with a wave of her Claw, "King Steel Fist was known as a Greedy Idiot who would start wars for the pettiest reasons, nobody at that time supported him. He's the reason Minotopia has a democratically elected governor instead of a King today, he single-handedly ruined the chances of his nation being a Kingdom ever again. That's how bad he was,"
"Why do you know so much about Minotaur History?" Yearling asked the Griffon.
"Griffonstone is situated between several powerful kingdoms, So we know a bunch about their history. I don't remember shit about most of it because History is boring-" Gilda ignored the scoff from Yearling "-The only reason I even recall Steel Fist is because of how much our teachers dug him into our brain," She spit at that.
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Hughbert Jellius carefully made his way into the forest of Glaros Island, making sure that nobody was following him.
Once he was far enough away, he shed his disguise and started flying just above the tree-line, before he spotted where he was heading towards and landed in the empty clearing in the middle of the forest.
As soon as he landed, he went down to his knees and knelt, as a figure walked out of the tree line to tower over him.
"You have done adequately by informing me of the Prince's movement," The figure told him, her voice like a snake, filled with venom ready to pounce.
"Continue with your set path, the mission hasn't changed," She said, and Hughbert nodded his head repeatedly at that.
"We will once again meet in the Nation of Caninia, where all my current targets are in one spot," The figure smiled widely, her fangs glimmering in the dim light passing through the canopy of trees.
"And there, you will bring Prince Blueblood to me, And we can move on to the next step of my plan,"
Hughbert bowed deeper, "As you order, my Queen." He scowled into the dirt, his newly improved mental faculties screaming at him that he shouldn't need to bow his head like a mongrel.
But the other part of his mind was telling him to be patient, he has the recipe to improve the Love jelly while his queen does not.
"In Caninia," Hughbert repeated her order.
"In Caninia," The Queen confirmed, and with a buzz from her wings, she flew away, leaving Hughbert alone with his thoughts.
"In Caninia... I will find my freedom." He whispered to himself and flew back towards the docks, intent on drinking as much of the Love Jelly as he could before he reached Caninia.
He would need all the magic he could get.
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After having a filling meal of traditional Glaros food, And gently putting down the Chief's attempts at wedding his daughter over to me, We were set to return to sail.
"If you ever reconsider, Prince Blueblood, Know that my daughter gives Amazing back massages!" The Seagull Chief yelled happily at me as he stood on the docks to see us off, his family behind him.
"As I've said before, Chief Galeb, I will not marry a person younger than the legal age in Equestria," Even if she was legal, I would search for a different excuse, but right now this was the most noticeable.
"Don't worry Your Highness!" A young Seagull Girl, maybe twelve years of age at the most, yelled up to me, "In ten Years I'll be big and strong, Just like Papa! And then you'll have to marry me!"
I decided to simply laugh her off and wave goodbye as the Island grew farther and farther behind us.
"Starlight, right a letter," I said as I entered the bridge, "I need to tell Queen Lanternlight that we'll be arriving earlier than planned."
And with my eyes looking at a page in Clover the Clever's book, and my Horn shooting a beam of blue magic onto a map, my eyes narrow.
"Much Earlier."