Chapter Seven
Father of Dragons
In which appearance and appellation are reconciled
to a surprising degree,
several risky and unsatisfactory plans are debated,
and there is an unwelcome mention of stairs.
May 4th, 1014, Early Evening
Onboard Nebula, holding station above
the Dragon's Teeth range
Somehow, I was aware of my throbbing headache before I regained consciousness.
I was in my bunk with heavy blankets covering me up to my chin. It felt like there was something wrapped around my horn as well. The shutters had been closed and the only light came from a lantern on my desk, leaving the cabin dim. Rainbow Dash sat beside the bed reading. Her breath puffed out in little white clouds, which was odd.
She glanced up and saw that my eyes were open. "Twi? Hey, how're you feeling?"
"Head hurts," I said. My breath made clouds, too. I took in a deep breath and winced, but my question was answered; the cabin was extremely cold.
"Don't try to get up," Rainbow said, marking her place with a scrap of sailcloth and closing the book. "I'll go get the doctor."
"It's okay," I mumbled. I pushed a hoof out from beneath the covers and shifted onto my side. "Why is it so cold in here?"
Rainbow Dash crossed to my bedside and pushed my hoof back under the blanket. "It's not okay, Twi! Just stay there." She went to the door and stuck her head out. "Somebody get the doc down here. Twilight's awake!" I winced at both the volume of her voice and the sudden light that flooded into the cabin.
She came back and put a fore leg across my chest. "You need to rest."
"What I need is to be brought up to date... and some aspirin." I considered casting a pain relief spell, but decided to wait until I got the okay from the doctor before using my horn. Magic burnout can be a serious matter. "Where's Ket? I need a status report."
"She's wrapped in, like, a gazillion blankets next to the galley stove. I guess bugs don't handle the cold very well."
"Rainbow! Don't use that word!"
"Why? Does it bug you?" She grinned down at me.
"You know very well... wait... you're stalling me! You need to tell me what's going on right now!"
She stopped smiling and shoved me back down. "As beat-up as you are, I don't think you can out-muscle me, Twi. You'd better not try to use your magic, either. Your horn is kinda cracked and all singed-like." She grimaced. "Look, just relax and I'll tell you what I know. Mr. Fairlead can fill in all the details later, but he's pretty busy right now."
I relaxed and sank back on the bunk. "Fine. Are we in danger?"
"Not right now, but we're still in a bad spot."
It was then that Doctor Woundwort came in and began fussing over me. I told Dash to keep on with her report, and grudgingly let the doctor poke and prod.
"We scraped bottom dodging the mountain but didn't wreck anything too important. Thing is, we dumped every last drop of our ballast and went up like a rocket. Mr. Fairlead thinks we must have set some kind of altitude record." She smiled at that. Of course she did. She'd probably envy a pony who won a "Most Spectacular Non-Fatal Crash" award.
"Anyway, we had to vent a whole bunch of lifting gas to keep the cells from popping, and to keep us from, like, bashing into the moon. So that means if we try to go back down to cruising altitude, we won't be able to stay there for very long. Fluttershy says she can land us soft, but we'll need to get more gas and ballast before we can really go anywhere."
I craned my neck to see past the doctor's shoulder. "How far can we get by using the engines to stay aloft?"
Dash shrugged. "I dunno. There's some deal with the engines not working so good up here, and the power crystals are, like, way low on energy, but that's not the big problem."
I groaned.
"Did that hurt?" the doctor asked, lifting his hooves away from my temples.
"No... well... yes, doctor, but I just need some painkillers to get me on my hooves. I have to formulate a plan."
"You need to stay in your bunk and get some rest, captain," the doctor insisted.
"Ya ain't gonna win that fight, doc," came Applejack's voice from the companionway. "Twi thinks I'm stubborn, but I could take lessons from her." She came into the cabin accompanied by an absolutely divine smell. "Help her sit up, doc. Pinkie Pie sent some medicine."
The doctor grumbled but did as he was told. Applejack held the steaming mug up to my mouth so that I could sip from it. Most medical professionals wouldn't classify a cinnamon and nutmeg cafè latte as a proper pharmacological treatment. More fools, they. The coffee and a hooffull of aspirin had me feeling much better pretty quickly.
The doctor finally admitted that I was physically well enough to go about my business as long as I didn't try to fly or put any strain on my left wing. My magic was another matter. "Don't use spells at all until you get checked out by a specialist," he warned me. "You could risk permanent impairment."[1]
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[1] Yes, the doctor, who (like most of the crew) believed I was a unicorn mare twice my apparent age, could examine my wings and horn in quick succession without realizing there was anything odd about the situation. The Just Don't Think About It component of my disguise spell worked so well because ponies seemed to have that particular mental quirk as part of their basic psychological nature.
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Short of killing me outright, there wasn't any damage that I couldn't eventually recover from. But I needed to be healthy in the short-term and if that meant not using my magic for a while, I'd have to accept the limitation. I had to get my crew out of this mess and safely home.
"Mr. Fairlead," I called out as I came on deck. "Can you apprise me of the situation?"
He had been standing in the waist, peering over the starboard rail. He jumped a bit at my words and turned, giving me a crisp salute. "Yes, captain!"
"Capt'n on deck!" somepony called out from the quarterdeck. That made me jump a bit. I had gotten used to that sort of thing long ago, but the yell went through my aching head like a knife. I glanced around as I walked over to my First Mate and saw that everypony on deck was watching me with hopeful expressions. We were in a tight spot, no doubt about it, and they were all looking to me to get them out of it.
"Rainbow Dash gave me the gist of our altitude problem," I said to Fairlead as I joined him at the starboard rail. "I take it we don't have any reserve gas?"
"No ma'am. We hadn't loaded any of the gas cylinders we'd bought or recharged the power crystals when we saw your distress flare and didn't think we should waste any time."
I didn't nod for fear of feeling my brain bang around the inside of my skull. "Absolutely correct, Mr. Fairlead. I take it there's some reason we can't ground and make repairs while I figure out some way to get us some lift?"
He opened his mouth, paused, and then closed it again. He lifted a big spyglass in his magic and pointed it at a steep angle over the starboard rail, inviting me to take a look with a motion of one hoof.
It took me a moment to realize what I was seeing. The airships below were so tiny that it was only when I used the spyglass that I could make out that they were battleships. It appeared that the entire airfleet of Marezambique was pursuing us.
"Have any of them tried to reach us?" I asked.
"No ma'am. I doubt that any of the Sultan's craft could make anywhere near this altitude anyway, but I'm pretty sure they don't know we're up here. They wouldn't think a craft that looks as old as Nebula could manage to fly so high, and we've slung sails below her keel as camouflage, in case any of the zebs think to look up. Ms. Fluttershy offered to try to scrape up some cirrocumulus, but as there aren't any other clouds in the sky, I figured it might backfire on us."
"Good thinking, Mr. Fairlead. Any reason why we can't run at this altitude until we get into neutral territory?"
"We can try, but a lot of the non-pegasus crew are altitude sick already, and we don't know what the winds are like up here. Nopony's charted the high currents in this region, so we may hit some heavy contrary flow that'll exhaust what little energy the crystals have left or take us where we don't want to be. It'll be a couple of days before the hull is repaired, so a water landing would be a very bad thing."
"Any good news?" That was awful of me. He had done an excellent job keeping things together while I napped, and didn't deserved my snippy comeback. I could blame my aching head, but I should be able to be gracious even when out of sorts.
"Well, there's other news. Something I'm sure you will be interested in, captain." He led me to the larboard rail and gestured to the desert below.
From our height, nearly the whole of Marezambique was visible below us, and I could see that the Dragon's Teeth mountains had been only partially well-named. As I had suspected, we had flown through the jawbone. The skull was off to one side, in a position that suggested it had fallen off the jaw in the direction of the Sea of Sand, to become partially buried there. The vertebrae ran in a line out toward the horizon to gradually disappear beneath the waters of the Eastern Sea, and I could make out rocky ridges along the coast that looked like a gigantic outstretched claw emerging from the water. It was so mind-bogglingly enormous that, without our high-altitude perspective, I didn't see how anypony could have recognized the whole for what it was.
And what, exactly, was it? Had the mountain range once been the skeleton of a living dragon? I could hardly credit the idea, and the part we had gotten an all-too-close view of had certainly been granite rock. But then, so had I at one time.[2]
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[2] I'm truly thankful for my wonderful friends. Having my last words be, "Oh, so that's what a cockatrice looks like!" would be awfully embarrassing.
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Mr. Fairlead floated the spyglass over to me again, and I took hold of it between my hooves. The rock showed a great deal of weathering, but there were convincing details that remained as worn-down lumps. If it was some sort of crazy ancient sculpture, it was a ridiculously detailed one. The frontal process of the left zygomatic bone had collapsed at some point in the past, sending tons of rock cascading into the eye socket. There seemed to be several sizable sand dunes at the bottom of the socket as well, though the shadows cast by the lowering sun made it hard to be sure. If there had once been an eye in that socket, it would have been big enough to enclose all of Canterlot Castle.
The apparent age of the range, based on the evident erosion would place it well before….
Dragon. Ancient, gigantic dragon. Information from several sources suddenly clicked together in my brain. I reflexively tried to teleport my private logbook from my cabin, and gasped as a lance of pain shot through my horn. I dropped the spell before the vortex had even started to form.
"Captain?"
"I'm fine, Mr. Fairlead," I said, "A thought just struck me, and it was a heavy one."
He didn't laugh at my joke.
I passed the spyglass back to him. "How long before full dark?"
He glanced up at the sun. "Three hours or a bit more."
"I've been out for nearly a day?"
"Yes, ma'am."
I ran a few more calculations through my head. I glanced up at the quarterdeck. "At the turn of the glass, bring the girls to my cabin. I'll want to discuss our options."
Mr. Fairlead allowed himself a slight smile. I could see that he assumed I was working on some clever plan to get us all out of the predicament I had put us into. I wasn't looking forward to the moment he learned that I intended to drop us right into the middle of our enemy.
= = =
"You should go back to bed, dear," Rarity told me in a patient voice that one usually uses on truculent foals. "You're not thinking clearly."
"Pffft! You mean she's gone completely nutso!" Rainbow Dash put in helpfully.
Mr. Fairlead just sat there, stony-faced. He wasn't the sort to go against his captain, but I could see he was mentally making out his last will and testament.
Fluttershy chewed on her lower lip and tried to hide behind her hair.
"Look," I said, as calmly as possible, "we just don't have many viable options. We can try to run north for Neighrobi, but it's a long ways, and we don't have nearly enough energy to get there, even if we don't have to buck headwinds. Or we can try and find a jetstream and let it take us… somewhere,and hope our lift gas holds out. But those are very risky gambles."
"And your crazy plan isn't?" Dash growled.
"Yes, it is, but there's another consideration that you didn't let me get to." I hesitated. I had sent us haring off after this particular goal several times now, and none of my efforts had gotten us anything but trouble and empty hooves.
"Yes?" Rarity asked. She accompanied her mild prompt with a graceful lift of one eyebrow that clearly said, "You'd better make this good, darling."
I reached over to the little table beside my bunk and grabbed my big notebook. I opened it and awkwardly flipped through the pages with my hooves until I came to the passage I had remembered while on deck.
I cleared my throat and began to read a particular part of the ancient poem I had copied down. "'The twisting steps lie beneath the gaze of the Father of Dragons. He guards the way…'"
"Oh come on!" Rainbow Dash interrupted me with a shout. "The Labyrinthine Stairs, again? How many moons have we wasted chasing that fairy tale?"
Rarity frowned. "Perhaps now is not the time for treasure-hunting, Twilight. We are in an unfortunate situation and survival should be our first priority."
I closed the book. "I've always thought that passage was a metaphor, but right beneath us is a gigantic dragon skeleton that's a near match for the literal meaning, and we know the Stairs are somewhere along this coast. The Old Equuish word that was translated as 'gaze' could just as well be 'eye.' This is the closest we've ever gotten!"
None of the faces around me wore sympathetic expressions. "Alright. Suppose the Stairs aren't there. My plan is still the best chance we have. Getting us down into the eye socket where we'll be mostly hidden and protected will be a tricky bit of flying, especially at night, but Fluttershy can do it." I looked at her, and she nodded immediately. "Once we're down and get the top of the envelope covered in sand, it'll be almost impossible to spot us from the air. We will have the days we need to repair the hull and let me recuperate enough to use my magic again. That soft sand will work almost as well as water for ballast and there's a good chance I'll find the right sort of minerals to generate at least a little bit of lifting gas. The unicorn crew can trickle charge the power crystals even if I don't recover the use of my horn."
"And if they spot us, captain?" Mr. Fairlead asked.
"If the Stairs are there, they'll give us a way to retreat. If they're not… there should still be a cave where the optic canal enters the skull. We've still got the Eye of Rushwa to bargain with, and if they're completely unreasonable, I've still got the Talisman of Night as a last resort."
Fairlead shuddered. I didn't blame him.
"I think it's a good plan," Fluttershy said quietly. All heads turned toward her and she ducked her muzzle, letting more of her mane fall across her face, but she kept speaking. "I don't know how the cold is affecting Nebula in general, but it can't be good for her, and we've lost some altitude since this morning. I think we'll only be able to stay in the air for a couple more days at most. If we have to land in the open desert, the Sultan's airfleet will be able to see us from leagues away. We'll be helpless."
I nodded my thanks to her and said to the others, "If anypony has a better idea, I'd like to hear it."
None of them said anything.
"Alright then," I said, getting to my hooves. "We fill in the rest of the crew, wait for darkness, and then make a run for it."
= = =
=
Dun dun dunnnnn!
You know, iisaw, until I read your series, never in my life had I wanted to own an airship, but now I do.
I continue to find this a highly enjoyable story. :)
*finishes rereading chappies*
love the intro thingies, makes it so much easier to keep track
and the summaries are a hoot
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If you think the Father of Dragons is scary, you should see the Mother of Dragons.
And no, not the George R. Martin version.
I like this plan.
tribzap2it.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/david-tennant-brilliant.gif?w=500&h=290
So, uh, just for the sake of visualizing this against known landmarks, roughly how long in kilometers is the Father Of Dragons (supposed) mountain range?
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The skull itself is about fifteen kilometers long, the exposed part of the spine nearly fifty.
If it wasn't a biological impossibility, I'd wonder if Twilight Sparkle is a member of the Kirk family. She does seem to have the same crazy intuitive leaps when in command and does have the same heedlessness of her own safety when she feels that her crew is in danger.
6615258
So, that's uh...
...I'm look at a map, comparing it to the geography near my home. Eep.
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Yup. A tad large.
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James Tiberius Sparkle does have a nice ring to it.
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"A tad large" is a strange way to say "half as wide as my country"
6615258 Gulp
I cant get the image of Fluttershy, the pirate out of my head.
Already upvoted
6621818 dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15337940/Arrr.png
6624532
That is an excellent question.
6624532
I have a few ideas:
1. asphyxiation: Maybe the head was too high to get enough oxygen.
2. starvation: Such a big creature eats TONS of food. Even with Dragons eating gems, possible that it just couldn't find enough.
3. time: You know, old age. I don't remember Dragons being ageless like Celestia.
4. physics: Plain and simple, a creature that big weights a LOT. The human skeleton couldn't even support a body of 15-20m height. At some point even a magically supported spine of a gem eating, lava swimming colossus has to break under its own weight.
5. last but not least, poison: "Historically, Tyrants are killed by poison, you see." - The Major (Hellsing) A creature that big could swallow an airship without noticing. A living being inside another can find a weakspot and attack it. Celestia/Luna or their Mother or even Discord could have been inside him and use their magic to destory him from the inside.
Just my two bits on that.
I love the story.
Though there is not much left of the Celestia Code in the story itself. Not criticism, just noticing how far it has progressed, how far it's gotten from its roots. Maybe we will go full circle with Twilight having to crack a code in the future? She has come such a long, long way since she opened that back room in the Canterlot Archives.
MfG NIchtraucher
6624532
first guess would have been "a very pissed of Twilight Sparkle", but since that was before her time, either:
1) a very pissed of everything
2) time itself
3) but most likely it failed a test from Alicorn Mommy Dearest
6615258 ...That is one BLOODY HUMOUNGOUS DRAGON!!! and this is after I just read both The Celestia Code and The Luna Cypher
6652866 I would go with "a change in physics". Since this fanon version of Equestria seems to operate as the emination of a deistical celestial clockworks, one could postulate a prior physical state where ancient dragons tens of miles long could exist, then by some alteration in the system mechanism - say, the bumbling thrashing about by two daughters imprisoning their demiurge mother in the gears - the rules changed enough to kill suddenly impossible creatures like our friend the Father of Dragons.
Poor dragon.
... I imagine Ket literally coccooning himself/herself to the stove with blankets.
reminds me of the dragon queen in the comic story "Bone": like the legendary Oroboro (or oroboros) she could stretch all the way around the entire circumference of the world and grab the tip of her tail in her mouth!
Okay so... WAS Twilight right just by shear dumb luck? This mountain range IS a giant dragon mouth? Maybe from the father of Dragons? Dead? Legend? Or did that last knock to the head screw her up even more?
Holy fuck... she was right!? How the fuck? Also thank you for giving that away. Why... this had better be one HELL of a story. At least the plans are just debated, also... ummmm, what?
I feel no sorrow for you, you deserve to hurt a bit after what you pulled. So physical impact pain, or dark magic hangover?
Inhibitor just in case, or did she actually, somehow, hurt her horn? If so, when she landed on her head that last time?
So all RD, or they taking shifts? Also, so your plan to hook her on another book series worked I take it?
They are that high up even PEGASI are feeling cold? that explain the layers of blankets. (Wait do pegasi get special cold resistance in this 'verse? That's one of those things that always comes and goes in stories.)
Fluttershy, or Twi figure having an actual full on doctor on staff would be a good idea given their line of work?
Holy shit, when RAINBOW DASH! Is telling you it's bad, you KNOW you done fucked yourself up.
Given the state you are likely in, skip right to the marephine.
If she can crack really bad pun based jokes, things can't be TO seriously fucked at least.
Massive magic burnout. So, seriously, how the buck are you constantly merging her with Littlepip? And do I have to say it again that, I'm having a hard time buying her getting that burnt out from what little we saw her do?
Very very cold, and with no ballast to work with, like some other issues. So once you go down, you are not going back up until you find a good spot to refill the ballast tanks. And whatever other issues come up.
Twi, come on, be fair.... we both know RD would not be envious of that pony, because she would BE that pony. And yeah figured the ballast thing would be an issue, and the height thing too from the cold, also explains how they are able to see the Mountains for what they apparently are. Likely nopony ever got this high before to get a good look.
Ohhh right, the gas pressure from being so high did not think of that one. And not likely to be many very friendly places around to do that in. And Twilight conveniently burned out her magic to prevent her from helping with that. Also "Flutts"? That just sounds wrong.
Think who you are talking to. Also, so no sudden Twilight recharging the crystals... didn't really see that coming back so soon. Time to set sail and hope? Wait, you have other unicorns, can't they do anything?
Listen to the pony Doc. She knows what she is talking about. Unless of course, you slip her some sedatives with her painkiller. But given alicorn biology, might just burn through it to fast to be worth it.
They have never had Pinkie make one. Also, get everypony in here, we need the greatest medicine in Equestria... GROUP HUGS!
Why? Again what did she do that was THAT bad compared to all the stuff she has done before? This just comes off a bit to convenient. And Twilight LISTEN TO HIM! Of all things, your ability to use magic is something you don't want to fuck with.
Wait, she's hiding this from the CREW!? How, when... so she NEVER goes back to Equestria? What the fuck Twilight.... seriously, what is going on that is my biggest remaining question. And so, none of them know whoe she is? So was the Doctor's whole concern lacking in knowing that she was an Alicorn, and so underestimating how resilient she is and able to heal? Also isn't she supposed to be like, immortal now, and wounds just fade away like her scar did?
Ah yes, the fabled "Somepony else's problem" field. Always works. Until you get that one sharp eyed pony/person who really isn't going to buy it and isn't fooled. Still why i she fooling her crew and, so she just said "Screw you" to Equestria and never looked back? If not how does she explain it to the crew? So confused at this.
Okay so that is still in play, just an accelerated Dresden type healing factor? She heals normally, maybe faster, but always heals completely from any damage, no lasting scars or anything?
Glad to see that blow to the head does seem to have knocked some sense into you.
Definitely thinking more dark magic hangover then physical blows.
Well fuck, that Sultan REALLY wanted to kill all those ponies. Either that, or the Prince REALLY wants to have that 'duel' with Rarity.
Okay, not tracking. So if you can get beyond their search area you should be safe. To high up for cloud cover? And how about leashing some pegasi to the craft for a two? Might be slow but, would get you moving.
Ah true, doubt she can make enough to really hide you all.
Ah was wondering about that. Still, it's not like this is really the thing that gets a lot worse... normally, just need time to adjust. But, well guessing main issue is the power crystal.
Ah, also wind issues. Well, fuck. Unless Twi can rest up enough to recharge them. But right now I think anywhere is better then here.
Be honest here Twilight, you've been snippier for less reason.
Well, saw that coming but... damn if that description isn't epic. And, holy fuck, what the hell is the story behind THAT? One of The Red Queen's tests? Maybe for herself? Just, DAMN!
On the bright side, no pony would know they were. And, I could totally buy that from Twilight. So.... petrified uber-dragon...... yeah please tell me we find out what the story behind this is!
Bad Twilight, stop screwing up your recovery! But yeah not using magic at a whim is going to be rough for her to get used to till she heals.
So guessing there IS an ancient legend about this guy then?
Okay Twilight... what stupid idea are you planning on this time?
When RD is mocking your plan as being insane, you KNOW it's time to rethink it.
Okay, so nothing about the dragon, just a mention of him, but still what was his story? And, what the buck are the Stairs?
You know where it is, get the buck out, recover, and come back after the heat dies down.
Okay, so try to sneak down under cover of night. Hopefully Luna isn't feeling very bright. Find a hiding hole... that does make some sense at least.
At least you know how stupid the idea is, and desperate, still it does seem like a solid, if risky plan.
Well best Idea you have but, Fluttershy did say you had a few more days. Maybe give your magic time to recharge?
Okay as I have said, I don't like the way the story de-magics Twilight, it feels far to convenient, far to easy a way to prevent her from making this all to easy. And, I do not buy what we've seen her do so far would be enough to come even close compared to the stuff she's done in the past. BEFORE getting her promotion to demi-goddess, or at least immortal whose touched the very fires of creation themselves. BUT, that is really my ONLY issue with the story so far that isn't a minor nitpick about wording, or purely a YMMV issue of personal taste.
Ah, the good old iisaw anti-cliffhanger. I feel like there weren't enough of those in The Luna Cypher.
I hope somehow we also see a gigantic prehistoric cockatrice. Other creatures deserve massive or godlike entities as well!
So! Awesome!
*squees*
So, no ballast, and nearly no lifting gas. That's kind of a problem both coming and going.
Oh, and nearly no power crystal energy, either. Well, at least the ship is still in one piece, for now.
Even better!
Ooo, I was wondering about that gigantic dragon skeleton.
Ooo x2.
Nightmare MoonThe Talisman of Night as a last resort, what could go wrong?NSAIDs and headinjuries go together like NaK and water; if she has any torn bloodvessels on her brain, she could end up with a full-flown cerebral hœmorrhage.
Best girl, right there.
I didn't pluck out too many specific parts to comment on, but it was overall a great chapter, coming down from all the action and excitement. Bit worried about Twi's horn though, haven't seen it cracked before, I don't think. I love all the attention to detail with the airship, and although a lot of the specific mechanisms go over my head, the problems with the ballast and power crystals really sell the scene. Quite a clever plan Twilight is hatching up, too, aiming for that dragon skeleton.
Going to grab some dinner and watch some anime soon, but I should be able to squeeze out another chapter before bedtime tonight!
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Have a nice dinner, and thanks again for the comments!