The citizens of Shadington went to bed really late that night. There was a lot of explaining, handled mostly by Memento and the siblings, as both Crystal and Blackwing weren't considered trustworthy by most of the locals. For them it was already hard to believe, that their trusted mayor could had had any ill intentions. The fact that he'd turned out to be not only an imposter who had been deceiving the whole town for years, but two, was something unimaginable. However, the citizens couldn't deny what they'd seen; the explosion, the airship, and the Steamhorns' escape. Though, apart from the deep shock that had quaked the town's community, nopony had gotten hurt and just the houses closest to the town hall had been damaged by the explosion and its fallout. As the new day began, volunteers began to clean up the town square of debris to keep the town hall and town square market functioning.
Blackwing, who had spent a lot of time the previous night writing a report on the recent events for Princess Luna, finally crawled out of his temporary room in the loft. He had fallen asleep right after signing the letter and Luna's response was what woke him up. After a short visit to the bathroom, he slowly made his way downstairs. In the dining room, Coldie and Memento were sitting at the table with full teacups and some biscuits. They were discussing the impact of the previous night's events would have on the town's future.
"...I mean he wasn't just doing the mayor's duty. Think of all those machines in town," Coldie was in the middle of explaining her point to Memento when she noticed Blackwing. "Oh, you're up. Mem just dropped by. There's some oatmeal in the kitchen, 'nless Tank ate it all."
"Hey," Memento greeted him with just the slightest hint of sympathy in her voice.
"Yeah, hello. Where's Tank by the way?" Blackwing asked as he couldn't spot the big stallion anywhere.
"Crystal Vial came here earlier and announced the she was going to search the mayor's house. Tank offered to join her," Coldie explained. "He's also gonna pick up Sprocket from his friend's house on the way back."
Blackwing chuckled slightly as he remembered his chat with Tank in the laboratory. "I hope they find something interesting," he said as he walked to the kitchen. The oatmeal was still warm, so he placed the bowl on a small tray and returned to the dining room.
"Speaking of the kid, I heard he did some awesome magic yesterday. You know, when I was unconscious. Maybe he should go off to some academy for magic instead of the Shadington elementary school," Memento suggested. She mentioned the school with more disdain in her voice, than usual.
Blackwing lifted his muzzle from his bowl. "That's probably gonna be his dad's decision," he pointed out, "but I believe that I have some rather important news that will have something to do with that."
"News?" Coldie said as she raised an eyebrow. "What news could you get while being asleep? You got some kind of special dream again or something?"
Blackwing chuckled slightly. “Luna's letter woke me up." He looked around cautiously, as if somepony could be eavesdropping. "And I want to share what she wrote me with all of you," he added and looked down at his bowl, breaking the eye contact with Coldie. In fact, he wasn't very eager to share the contents of the letter with the others.
"You'll get the chance," Memento stated. "I think I hear the kid's voice outside. They're back."
The windows in the dining room were all open as the day was sunny and warm, so they could all hear the voices outside. It was Sprocket, talking excitedly about his newly acquired cutie mark, and Crystal mentioning something about various kinds of magical special talents.
Moments later, Tank and Crystal walked into the dining room while Sprocket literally bounced around them, his eyes glowing with happiness. He was still talking excitedly about the previous night's adventures.
"...Fireball and Sweetroll both said it's so awesome! They already got their cutie marks and they know their special talents and..."
"Easy now," Tank cut in as he stopped the bouncing Sprocket mid-sentence. "We've got some important stuff to discuss. You can go and play in the backyard, or somethin'."
"Important stuff?" Sprocket asked as he cocked his head, apparently interested.
"I think he meant boring stuff," Memento explained to Sprocket. He winced at the thought and eagerly trotted outside. "That's how you get rid of kids. Always works with Fireball." she added.
"We've got news," Crystal started.
Blackwing has news too. He got a letter from the princess," Coldie said.
"But please, go first," Blackwing addressed Crystal with a fake smile.
"Alright. We searched Steamhorn’s house, top to bottom. We didn’t find anything very useful, apart from this." She levitated a small brown book from under her cape.
Blackwing recognized it immediately. "That's the notebook!"
"Exactly," Crystal nodded. "The Steamhorn you were chasing must have left the notebook when he fled to the town hall. I browsed through it and it seems that unfortunately it's only one of many tomes of notes. There're only about a dozen entries in this one, most of them about the search for the laboratory and some curious ponies snooping around."
"Guess that's us. You didn't find any more?" Blackwing asked with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
"We flipped the whole house upside down. Nothin'," Tank replied.
"They must have packed their other notes beforehand. Either that, or they're very well hidden," Crystal assumed. "But check the last entry," she said, her voice betrayed her excitement as she levitated the notebook towards Blackwing.
He picked it from the air and set it on the table. Coldie and Memento were peeking over his shoulders as he read. "It says that one of the Steamhorns discovered the laboratory and the map just yesterday."
"There's more," Crystal added. "Read the last paragraph."
Her eyes were gleaming with exhilaration. Blackwing could only guess how bored and annoyed she must have been the last few years in Shadington. He read the text aloud.
The key to the City was not in the hidden chamber underground as we hoped. Instead there was an old GPS map with places for enchanted markers. We can only guess that the map leads to the key or perhaps to the gate. It looks like all three markers represent places from his past we read about. In order to collect the markers we will have to backtrack our way through those locations. It will be like looking for needles in a haystack. We must take off as soon as possible.
"Guess we really are lucky," Blackwing admitted. "Great piece of intel, you two."
"Wonderful. Now tell us how you’re going to chase those guys, because if it's gonna be on hoof, you can count me out right away," Memento said.
"Yes, about that," Blackwing said, lowering his voice a little. "I've received a letter with some intel and instructions. Princess Luna believes that the impostors are Flim and Flam, a pair of traveling crooks that used to be widely known in the central parts of Equestria. They disappeared, though, about ten years ago."
"That's when Steamhorn came to Shadington," Crystal pointed out.
"Exactly. The real Steamhorn was their grandfather and the descendant of Steamwand," Blackwing explained.
"Wait, what's that sound?" Memento cut in. Till that moment the others hadn’t paid attention to the quiet, buzzing noise outside that was gradually growing louder.
"That's our transport I’d guess," Blackwing said, relieved to get the attention off of him. "Somepony get Sprocket. He should see this."
A moment later, the six ponies were outside, watching as an object rapidly approached the town from the western sky. It was an airship, one much bigger than the one Flim and Flam had used to escape. The buzzing of its propellers lured other ponies outside as well. Soon, there was a large group standing in the streets, watching in awe as the big machine neared.
"Woooaaah." Sprocket stared at the ship with his mouth agape. The others seemed impressed as well.
"I'm surprised they're already here. Strange," Blackwing mumbled. "It's a long way from Canterlot, it's impossible in one night..."
"Guess they'll throw the anchor somewhere in the fields, on the other side of the river," Tank stated.
They trotted to the bridge and towards the agricultural parts of Shadington that lay across it. When they finally got there, two heavy anchors already rested on a wheat field, keeping the large vessel from drifting away. The six ponies could fully admire its beauty as the hull lowered and came to a stop no more than three meters above the surrounding wheatears. The airship's body, well over thirty meters in length, was suspended under a midnight blue-colored balloon which appeared enormous to the ponies standing below it. The slender wooden hull had been reinforced with strong steel fittings and adorned with beautiful ebony carvings and floral ornaments that resembled creeping vines of moon flower. The lower part of the prow was glazed, rendering it a perfect vantage point for the crew. The upper front was adorned with a large ebony figurehead depicting an alicorn mare with her wings outstretched. Silver letters on the hull's side revealed the name of the vessel: E.A.S. Mare in the Moon.
A hatch on the lower part of the hull opened and somepony threw out a rope ladder. Then, an earth pony descended the ladder, showing some exceptional dexterity. Right after him another stallion, an older pegasus, flew out of the hatch and landed next to him on the ground. Blackwing hadn’t met them before, but the earth stallion's pinto coat and compass cutie mark hinted at his identity. He had also heard the name of the ship before.
"Hello. If I'm not mistaken, you're—"
"Pipsqueak, the Captain of this ship. At your service," the stallion presented himself. "And this is my second in command, Lieutenant Mistral," he introduced the pegasus standing next to him.
"Sir, he matches the description," Mistral addressed to Pipsqueak in a whisper.
"Yeah, I know," he whispered back to him. "You must be Blackwing, right? And these are probably the brave ponies who helped you on your mission."
Blackwing and Crystal nodded, Tank repealed his cap and Coldie curtsied, smiling politely. Sprocket and Memento were still busy staring at the Mare in the Moon.
Blackwing had heard a lot about Pipsqueak from Luna. After her return, air sailing had been something completely new to her but as far as Blackwing could remember, Luna had always been keen on stories about brave air-sailors and Pipsqueak was her favorite one in the whole air force. "It's good to finally meet you in person, Captain. The Princess always speaks very highly of you," he greeted. "I must ask you one thing though: how in the wide world of Equestria did you make it here from Canterlot in just one night?"
"Oh, that." Pipsqueak smiled a bit smugly. "Princess Luna stated that you needed transport A.S.A.P. so we decided to take a shortcut over the Everfree forest."
To his apparent satisfaction, the last statement left both Blackwing and Tank with their jaws hanging, while Memento almost lost her balance in the air. "They... what?" she said incredulously.
"But since we're already here, you should pack your things. We have to take off before sunset or we'll never catch that other ship," he suggested, before the reigning silence became uncomfortable. "I heard you've got some idea about where they'd head?"
Blackwing regained his composure. "Yes, but first I'll need your opinion on a certain map, Captain."
"Sure. Just bring it to me; I'll take a look. "
"I really can't bring it here. It's kinda embedded in a brick wall of an underground secret laboratory," Blackwing explained.
Pipsqueak seemed a little dumbfounded. "Alright... I'll go with you then. Lead on."
- - - - -
After a brief trip to the supposed Steamwand's laboratory, where Pipsqueak and Mistral examined the mosaic map closely, Coldie invited everypony, except Sprocket, for tea. He had been left behind earlier, at Memento's house to play with her little brother and his school friend, Fireball.
When they were all seated at the table, Pipsqueak resumed his expertise. "Just as you said, has to be an incredibly old GPS map," he addressed to Crystal. "Nowadays maps have precise locations of enchanted markers noted on 'em. If you lose the markers, you can have some unicorn navigator recreate them for you. But those holes - in the map's scale they cover enormous areas instead of the pinpoint locations we need. And we don't even know the scale. Even if somepony reconstructed the markers from that map, they would only show some large, general area, instead of the location you seek."
"So we have to find those old magical stones?" Coldie asked.
"Unless the thing you're looking for is roughly the size of Manehattan, yes," Mistral answered.
"Nopony knows what the Steam Key really is or what it looks like, but I doubt it could be that big," Crystal stated.
"Great. Since we're all finished talking, how about we get moving?" Memento suggested almost merrily. Both siblings, Crystal, and Blackwing threw her surprised looks, she had started to show some hints of actual excitement in prospect of the coming journey.
"I second the motion," Pipsqueak added. "Grab your things and let's get going. We've got six comfy hammocks already prepared for you."
"Wait... six?" Coldie asked.
"You can't really expect us all to leave Shadington," Crystal stated, a confused expression crossing her face.
Blackwing, who'd been sitting quietly in a corner till that point, sighed deeply. There was no running from this any more. "Yes. Her majesty, Princess Luna, requested that you — all of you — accompany me and the crew of the Equestrian Airship Mare in the Moon on the quest for the Steam Key."
Coldie stared at him incredulously. "But Sprocket... we have to—"
"Sprocket has to go with us as well," Blackwing confirmed.
"This has to be some kind of a mistake," Crystal objected. "There's no way that the Princess—"
"The Princess has requested specifically that the unicorn colt must be taken on this mission," Blackwing interrupted. His pose stiffened as he addressed the mares in the same way his friends from the royal guard usually addressed civilians. "Since machine magic is restricted by law, he is the only unicorn, other than the Flimflam brothers, who is known to show proficiency in this area."
Coldie's face turned orange. "Now listen ta me mister, if ye think that ye can—"
"I can, and I will. These are the orders," he stated firmly. He felt mad at Luna for putting him in this situation.
"This has to be some kind of a stupid joke. You can't possibly take a little colt on a dangerous journey like this!" Crystal got angry as well.
"We're shupposed ta look after him, not put'im in danger, for Celayshtia's sake!"
Pipsqueak and Mistral finished their tea in a hurry and snuck out of the house. Coldie and Crystal were raging at Blackwing, who silently cursed Luna's ideas. Memento and Tank sat by quietly. It took more than a quarter of an hour before Blackwing could speak up.
"It's not my fault, okay!? It wasn't my idea to drag him along. I was against taking any of you on this mission!" he shouted.
The silence reigned for a moment, and Tank finally decided to intervene. "Y'know, there's really no reason ta be gettin' at each other's throats."
"What the hay do you mean?" Coldie glared daggers at him.
"Blackwing's got his orders and we have our obligations — to look after Sprocket. But we have to understand the Princess too. She rules half of Equestria. She's gotta think about the interest of all ponies."
Tank's cool and reason calmed both mares a little. Crystal frowned and sat down, deep in her thoughts. Coldie still seemed angry, but at least she'd stopped panting with rage.
"You know, it's not that I like this idea either, but if it really would be that kid or the rest of Equestria, the Princess made the right choice," Memento said. "Besides, he's shown that he can look after himself, and after us too."
It seemed that Coldie had finally ran out of steam. She fell on a chair, her body slouched forward and her face set in resignation. "But what are we going to tell Gearbox? And I can't even image what I'd do to myself if something happened to Sprocket," she despaired as tears started to flow down her cheeks.
That made Blackwing lose his stiff, guard-like composure. He approached her and put a hoof on her shoulder. "I thought the very same thing this morning, as I read the letter. I'm still angry, even though I realize that for Equestria's sake, I have to follow my orders and there's really nopony else as naturally gifted in machine-magic as Sprocket. But what could possibly happen to him, when he has a guardian like you?" he said as he smiled gently at her. She smiled back weakly. "The fact that you have a virtual Marecules for a brother doesn't hurt either. And after all this is over, Princess Luna promised to have Sprocket study in her sister's school for gifted unicorns in Canterlot."
Coldie sighed deeply and wiped the tears from her cheeks. She battled her thoughts for a while before she finally spoke again. "You have to promise me one thing, Blackwing. All of you have to promise," she demanded in a quiet, but determined voice, "that if anything happens, you will be ready to place his safety before your own."
He answered her in a gentle, but very serious manner. "I thought it was obvious." The other three ponies nodded in agreement.
- - - - -
The sun was slowly approaching the horizon when the procession of six heavily loaded ponies approached the bridge. Sprocket was bouncing excitedly in front of the others while Tank carried his baggage. He had been bursting with joy since he heard that they were going to take him along. Coldie watched him with mixed feelings, a worried expression crossing her face. She couldn't help but think about all the unknown dangers they would have to face.
They all promised. It's gonna be fine.
Coldie had been repeating this in her head since they'd left home, but so far, she'd failed to convince herself. Eventually, she just settled on distracting herself from her worries.
"Hey Blackwing," she addressed the pegasus walking next to her, "I forgot to ask you before — what's the big deal with that airship taking a shortcut to get here in time? You guys looked like you'd seen a ghost when Captain Pipsqueak mentioned it."
"Traveling through the Everfree forest on hoof is extremely dangerous, but flying over it isn't much safer," Blackwing answered. "Usually an airship crew has meteorological charts from weather teams all over Equestria, so they know what conditions they should expect. The navigator can adjust the course to avoid storms or unfavorable winds. Everfree, however, has unpredictable weather. Not to mention the dragons, manticores, and other winged monsters that live there."
In the meantime, Memento lowered her flight and fluttered right above them, listening to the conversation. She decided to add her two bits as well. "Few captains ever try to fly over the Everfree forest. Even fewer have survived to tell about it," she said with a troubling note of satisfaction in her voice. "But Pipsqueak's already a living legend. I'd expect nothing less of him."
They were getting close to the wheat field where Mare in the Moon was anchored. Memento soared up in the sky to get a better view of the airship. It was quite evident that if there was anything other than gothic poetry that could excite her, it was the air sailing, or flying in general.
"A living legend?" Coldie asked Blackwing, as they watched Memento fly away.
"Well it's true, but I have no idea how she would know all that," he said as he rubbed a hoof against his chin.
"Her dad works at the Balefast skyport," Coldie explained. "But why is Captain Pipsqueak a legend?"
"First of all, he's an earth pony. Ninety-nine percent of the air sailors in Equestria are pegasi, as in the air, being unable to fly is even worse than being unable to swim when you're on the sea. Sometimes you can come by unicorns that were taken aboard an airship for their magical abilities, usually as navigators. Remember GPS?" he asked. When Coldie nodded, Blackwing continued his reasoning. "But an earth pony as an air sailor? That's unique. And he's not just a regular sailor."
"He's an earth pony airship captain," Coldie concluded.
"Yeah. And Pipsqueak was promoted to this rank as the youngest pony in the history of the air forces," Blackwing added. "He's got quite a reputation, especially among pegasi. Princess Luna is one his biggest fan too. If there's anypony who can catch Flim and Flam's ship despite their head start, it's him."
Coldie glanced at the big frame of Mare in the Moon as they approached. Two white-coated pegasi were already lifting the first bags to the upper deck. Pipsqueak was standing there, leaning over the railing. The rope ladder, hanging from the hatch, awaited them.
They all promised. It's gonna be fine. We're flying with Pipsqueak.