Chapter 1

All Aboard That's Coming Ashore!

The tragedy of life is in what dies inside a man while he lives - the death of genuine feeling, the death of inspired response, the awareness that makes it possible to feel the pain or the glory of other men in yourself. ~Norman Cousins

"Twilight Sparkle" Shouted an announcer over a mic, as shouts of praise and shock of envy filled the room.

Twilight, who had entered a raffle just by joining in the party as part of the admission benefit. Was shocked, the raffle had been going on for the last few hours and many prizes were awarded to fortunate ponies. Then it came time to draw the final prize, or the grand prize.

Twilight had been thinking just to leave at this point but due to some persuading from Pinkie Pie, she stayed and watched as pony after pony were called to the stage to collect their prize. There were a verity of items to be earned, some were but not limited to: Toys of a large verity, VIP passes to assorted locations, like a free treat from the Cakes at Sugar Cube Corner a day for a month, and a all expense suit at Vacation at Canterlot Castle. The grand prize however, the one that Twilight just won, Was a All paid Cruse aboard the E.Q.S. Titanic, a Brand new ship that was going to launch in three weeks for it first voyage.

"Twilight dear, what are you waiting for? Go up and get your cruse commendations!" Said Rarity, who was standing next to twilight, in a hushed tone.

"gulp" gurgled Twilight as she made her way up to the stage, while on her way she could hear other ponies remarks as the whispered among themselves and some who vocalized their thoughts.

"Why does she always win? Doesn't she have enough already?" said a voice that she could not identify.

"Way to go Twilight! You deserve it! Woo hoo!" shouted a voice that was all too familiar to her.

"Thank you spike" she thought

After a few more steps she finally made it to the stage. She climbed up the stage ramp and approached the Green coated and yellow maned Mare, who had hosted the raffle event. When she arrived at the side of the host she was awarded a certificate of trade for when she arrived at the dock to board her cruse, as well as a few papers that needed to be read and filled before the certificate was valid.

After what seemed to be hours of praise and contempt, she eventually made it back to her home. Looking up at the huge tree that stood before her she trotted up to the door that was located and the base of the tree. She quickly opened it and walked inside.

In a few minutes, all the doors were locked and she was ready to retire for the night. After all it was a long day where she was celebrating the 75 years of Ponyville's established days. The celebration was of course was organized by none other than Pinkie Pie, was in charge of using the funds given to the city by royal decree to have a Celebration. Pinkie being Pinkie even found a way to have a raffle with prizes that had a combined value that would make Mr. Rich seem middle class.

Twilight sat on her bed listening to spike snore. Smiling at her Assistant she went and tucked his blanket over him, the very blanket that the princess made for him. The purple unicorn the turned her attention to the certificate. One of the reasons why it took her so long to get home as because of all the harassment from ponies trying to get on her good side. It was like reliving the day when she got the grand galloping gala tickets. Shuddering at the thought, she read the inscription on the plaque.

"To the Entailed name above is given the right of passage aboard the E.Q.S. Titanic with 10 guests of her choice, and a discounted price of 250 bits per an additional pony"

She already know where the first 5 extra tickets were going to, but she could figure that out as time went by, then an idea struck her. "What if the Cutie Mark Crusaders wanted to go?" So with that she had 8 ponies chosen and 2 more to go.

With that thought she fell into a slumber that lasted the rest of the night.

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK

Twilight Sparkle woke up to somepony knocking on the door, sitting up from her bed Twilight looked out the window seeing Celestia's sun rising up from the horizon. Then looking at her clock she and seeing that it is time to get up any way shouted out. "Spike could you get the door please!"

"Sure thing Twilight!" She heard the dragon say, as she heard footsteps head to the front door.

Twilight then got up and started to head down stairs. Starting to overhear the conversation that was at the door she could hear Spikes voice leak through the halls.

"Yep Twilight is hear I'll get her for you Time Turner." Said the dragon.

Twilight then turned the corner coming into sight of the purple dragon and the brown pony with the hour glass cutie mark. "It's alright Spike, I'm here." she said to the dragon, then turning her head she put her focus on the visiting stallion. "How may I help you Time Turner?" When she said those she saw the look on his face drop slightly, as if he was not sure if he should do what he was about to do.

"Well miss sparkle, I'm here to ask you a favor and to see if it is convenient for us to work something out." Started Time Turner.

Twilight raised her eyebrow and responded. "Well, what is it that you need, and I'll do my best to help in what I can."

The brown stallion smiled. "I'm glad to hear you say that Ms. Sparkle."

"Please just call me twilight." Reprimanded the unicorn.

The earth pony continued his purposeful. "Alright Twilight, so as I was saying. I usually don't go around asking for favors like this, yet this is a special occasion. You see this is mine and Ditzy's first anniversary coming up. We have been saving for a vacation to spend as a family, and what we decided to do was go on a cruise. Now we have enough money for two tickets, which would seem ideal. The only problem is that we want our daughter Dinky to come with us as well. My point is Twilight is to ask if you would be willing to offer one of your tickets to Dinky so she could join us on this special occasion.

Twilight thought for a moment after He was done explaining his proposition, if you could call it that. Mainly wondering what her friend Rarity would do, she thought on what she could do to help him out the most. After a few moments of thinking she finally came to a decision which would put her mind at ease. "Time Turner, I'll do more than just give you one ticket. I have two extra tickets and I'll give you both, and on top of that I'll give you the Discount included and instead of paying 375 bits, for one ticket you will only have to pay 250 bits. Sound good to you?"

When she looked up at the Stallion she saw him crying. Not crying because he was hurt, but because he was over joyed at her generous response. "Thank you Twilight, I'll head home to let Ditzy know. Is there anything I can do to help you out?"

The only thing that Twilight could say is. "Just has fun, which is what it's meant to be anyways." with that she showed him to the front door and sent him off to his family.

Closing the door Twilight smiled, the stress lifting off her shoulders. She had given all her tickets away, and now she no longer felt like a ticket master.