Here’s the thing not everypony understands about getting knocked unconscious:
Consciousness is not a pretty little butterfly that floats back in your direction once it’s done wandering off away from you. It’s a big, feisty timberwolf that won’t go anywhere you say unless you drag it there kicking and screaming and pin it to the ground where you want it to be. And even then, you have to work to keep it there.
Which is exactly why it took me a solid half-hour of work to wake up after that spell.
“Ugh…” Huh. I’d been trying to ask where I was, but that came out. Was something going on with my mouth? Was I hit with a re-literation spell?
“Ohayagh! Jargh uffayke!”
Ooooookay……re-literation spell it is.
The voice sounded male, but nothing else about it was familiar or even comprehensible. And as the world around me came more and more into focus, things only got stranger. For starters, the floor under me was wooden rather than metal, and the throbbing heartbeat of the various Constructs was all wrong. I counted two ide--no, two different-sized Constructs all humming and buzzing perfectly in tune. It was nice to feel it, but it all felt…wrong…
“Chyeh jargh uffayke, arghnnchyeh?”
“Urrrgh…okay…whoever you are? I can’t—“ I felt my everything clench up as a wave of headache swept through my system. “I can’t understand a word you’re saying.”
“Aww, chyehffeyne!” Suddenly, he started hollering (thankfully not in my direction). “Ey, Buhlitsh! Th’may’re’s uffayke!”
With a little effort, I managed to uncurl myself from my little ball and roll over to get a good look at him. Unicorn stallion, on the older end of the spectrum. I put him somewhere between fifty and sixty. His teal coat looked just a little less shiny than should be healthy, and his dark-blue-and-red mane/tail was almost three hoof-lengths long and yet somehow still practical. He was perched on top of one of the many large cargo boxes stacked throughout the room, cards shuffling in his fiery-red magic. If I scooted sideways a bit, I could make out his cutie mark.
A red six-pointed star surrounded by three gears? Definitely an engineer, if not an all-out magic talent.
As his cards dealt out in what looked from here like a game of solitaire, I took in the rest of the room. It was filled most of the way with boxes of food, tanks of water, and crates of shells. That pulley system from the deck above us stopped down here, confirming my suspicion that this was the lowest deck. My cell sat at one end, with the ramp leading up at the other. And behind that was a cluster of three powerful-looking Crystalline Constructs. Even with their featureless steel exteriors, it wasn’t hard to tell that the biggest one was an Engine. The two smaller ones flanking it were probably a Single-core Reactor and a Construct that facilitated breathing (given the massive number of holes in the ship’s hull, it seemed pretty essential). All three fed into a single intake pipe that went through the floor, with an extra branch shooting up through the ceiling to the Accelerator. A fourth and final cylinder not connected to the intake looked like an amplifier, powered by a unicorn horn casting into a receptacle rather than the usual air intake.
Simple. Elegant. And purring like an oversized kitten. The basic layout to get a ship flying, powered, ponied, and moving, with a few tricks to spare.
But most entertaining to my eyes was the hastily-patched hole on either side of the Engine. It looked like our shell went straight through the wooden hull and ripped a chunk out of their Engine. And while kind of awful, it brought a little smile to my ace.
“Well, she lives after all. I was afraid we’d have to hang her off the ship.” Walking down the ramp from the gun deck was the soft-spoken, battle-scarred pegasus buck. Still wearing that half-molten battlesaddle. Celestia’s mercy, did he shower in that thing, too? I also noted he was wearing slightly-crusted bandages on the shoulder where I’d shot him.
I may have snickered at that.
“Aww, shtighirr in threyacghtar. Fwayker right’p.”
The pegasus just raised an eyebrow. “As well as kill her.”
The unicorn shrugged and returned to his cards, smirking.
“Okay, I have to ask,” I muttered, immediately attracting the attention of both, “How do you understand him?”
“Practice,” came the flat reply and equally flat stare.
“Seriously?”
The pegasus didn’t respond, instead choosing to simply stare at me through the bars. He studied me for almost a minute, before gesturing to himself. “Vengeful Blitz. Blitz for short.” With a gesture up to the unicorn, he added, “That’s Luminary.”
Luminary gave me a wave and a smile, which I nervously returned. Blitz just continued to stare at me evenly.
Withering under his constant gaze, I finally murmured, “Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”
Blitz gave a tiny snort as his only response, before finally asking, “Your name?”
“Oh, uh…” I rose to my hooves, stumbling awkwardly when I remembered that one of them was in a cast, so I didn’t feel like a total bum. Plus, splinters were getting into my coat. “Star Chaser, Petty Officer 3rd class with an Engineering specialization.”
“Offay! Nushair ensheenair!” Luminary’s magenta eyes seemed to light up like lightbulbs at the word ‘engineer’.
“Uhh…right. That.”
Several long seconds passed by where nothing happened, besides Luminary watching Blitz for a few seconds, scoffing and rolling his eyes, and then returning to his cards.
Finally, Blitz spoke up again. “Why were you trying to steal Rain Shadow’s Mini?”
“Beeeecause I was trying to fly back home, all our Minis were probably gone, and I don’t exactly have wings.” After another second or two of silence, I decided that interrogation goes both ways. “Who’s Rain Shadow, anyhow?”
Blitz simply glared at me instead of stared.
A few seconds passed with nothing happening save for Luminary obviously getting bored with Blitz. Finally, he piped up, “Nsher th’dayum fesshon, Buhlitsh. N’ood’t chall chyeh t’racgh a dayum shmayul onsertwishe?”
Blitz closed his eyes and growled slightly. “Luminary, this is an interrogation. Smiling won’t get me information any faster. Besides, she’s a security risk.”
“Ishnt laykuh sheesh goineefhwayr. Shaydes, chap’n fwaype mamrayshn’whoo.”
“But we don’t want her to do that any more than she has to.” Ooookay…this was officially the craziest conversation I’d ever been privy to.
Finally, some realization hit Blitz, and he let out a long sigh. “Rain Shadow is one of our Mini pilots. Best fighter pilot anypony here’s ever met.”
Waaait a minute… “Earth pony? Blue with a white mane and tail? Cutie mark of a dance shoe? Wields a gun that deserves its own turret?”
Luminary snorted into chuckles, while Blitz kept his own laughter internal. Sweet Celestia, did this buck ever smile? “It’s silver, technically. But yes.”
“What’s silver? The gun?”
“Her mane and tail. You said white. It’s silver.”
“Oh, forgive me for my atrocious mistake, oh wise and knowledgeable stallion,” my look seemed to say. He wanted a staring contest? Well, here’s one for the ages for him.
After what felt like a minute of unblinking stares, he muttered, “I need to talk to Luminary. Privately.”
“Go ahead. ‘S not like I’m going anywhere.”
As Blitz walked off to chat with Luminary, I closed my eyes and focused on the metal framing the horribly overpowered vessel. The ship may be made of wood, but that metal frame might be enough for me to try and use some magic. Enough to break out of here, if I was really lucky. And sure enough, I could feel…
I tried my hardest to keep the surprise off my face as I felt the pulse of magic coming from the ship around me. Sweet Harmony, that’s powerful! What was this stuff? The arcane energies coming off the ship's frame did not feel like steel. At least, not any steel I knew. This had even more potency to it than granite!
Lemons out of lemonade: that was more than enough magic for me to buck these cell bars in half. I may not have been a magically-talented mare, but that was well within my purview now.
All that left me with a hint of a grin on my face as I reopened my eyes. Blitz and Luminary were still talking in hushed tones. Well, Blitz was talking in hushed tones. Seeing as I couldn’t understand a word he said, it didn’t matter what volume Luminary used. From what I could see, Blitz looked pretty unhappy about something or other. Were they talking execution? And for that matter, where was the captain? I’d figured she’d be the kind of mare to have a chat with her prisoners.
Finally, Blitz let out a huff of annoyance as Luminary started rummaging around in the various boxes. He quickly ended up with his front half completely inside one of the larger crates, pulling out a suit of really-high-quality armor piece by piece and tossing it over his shoulder like so much junk. A point against them being smugglers…seriously, what the actual hay was going on with this ship?
“Ahah!” He jumped back out of the box, two items floating before him in his red magic. One looked like a necklace, crudely made of a steel frame with wires and gems decorating its surface. The other was a little bracelet inlaid with only a single gem. Despite their almost haphazard appearance, the gems and wires were arranged as precisely as equinely possible. Holding up the two items and beaming, he added, “’Err ishis!”
“What was it doing in there?”
Luminary shifted his gaze over to the scattered bits of armor, quickly throwing them into the box a little more carefully than before. “Nosshare, raleigh.”
“Well, just re-stock it properly later.” Luminary nodded in a way that made me think it wasn’t gonna happen, before clasping the necklace around Blitz’ neck. Instantly, the gemstones lit up, along with the corresponding gemstone on the leg-strap. Blitz closed his eyes, concentrated for a second, then nodded. And with that unspoken signal, Luminary trotted over to the bars of my little cell. Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t too hard to tell what’s up with the gemstone in question.
“Let me guess; that’s some kind of tracking talisman, so he,” I gestured to Blitz, “can keep an eye on where I go. Looks like it has a tone-generating rune inlaid into it, so it’ll probably make a noise if I go somewhere I shouldn’t. Right?”
Luminary smiled in response, probably knowing that it’s the only response I could understand, as he maneuvered the talisman through the bars and towards my upper-foreleg. Blitz simply quirked a single eyebrow. “I’m surprised. I thought earth ponies didn’t learn about magic and enchanting.”
“Well, it’s all theoretical knowledge –Okay, that’s too tight– since there aren’t enough gems in the Republics for experimentation. But I didn’t get an Engineering specialization for my skill at dancing.” Or lack thereof, in all honesty.
“Well, you were correct on all accounts. Since we can’t keep an eye on you directly until the rest of the crew gets back, we figured this is the best option.”
“Gets back? From where?”
“Hush up and listen. This is important.” He waited a few seconds, and when I didn’t interject again, he continued. “Okay, off-limits areas right now are the Hangar and the Helm. I think you know where those are. Captain’s Quarters is always off limits, so don’t enter unless you’re invited by the captain. And if you hear two beeps from that gem, find Luminary or me so we can lock you back in here. Don’t follow those instructions, and you get shot or pitched overboard. Maybe both. Got it?” Whooakay, he just went from friendly-if-emotionless to outright scary in zero seconds flat there. Whiplash much?
“Yeah, got it. Two beeps, find you guys. Don’t go near the helm or the Minis, or else bullets happen.”
Blitz nodded at that, then started walking back up the ramp. Luminary simply unlocked the cell door and gestured that I was free to go.
Wait…”Seriously? You’re just gonna let your prisoner walk around the ship? Just like that?”
“Ahuah! Fwecayn—“ He must’ve seen the look on my face, because he immediately stopped talking and just gestured with his hoof.
As I walked out of the cell and into the cargo bay/engine room, I start re-evaluating my little escape plan. Originally, it was just to buck through the bars, hide in a crate until there was a clear path, then run for the hangar and the sexy, sexy Mini. Thankfully, they’d already solved step one for me…except they didn’t, did they? They had this friggin’ tracer on me.
I gave the gem-studded foreleg-bracer a tug when I figured Luminary wasn’t looking. Metal-over-leather held in place by cleverly-locked straps. It wasn’t coming off unless I had both a clear picture of its inner workings and a horn on my head. Of which I had neither. Oh, those clever little devils. May Luna blast them all straight to Tartarus.
I was all set to formulate an equally-devilish escape plan when my stomach rumbled. And since I couldn’t exactly plot on an empty stomach, I turned to the card-gathering Luminary and asked, “Ah…where’s the Galley?”
“Fwerksheyl.”
Ugh…why couldn’t I be a smarter pony? Or a Comms Specialist? I bet Spots could have this stallion deciphered in ten seconds flat…
Hang on…what he said sounded almost like ‘Fork Shell’. Nonsensical, but get rid of the ‘h’ and add an ‘a’ between the words, and you get…
“Forecastle. It’s in the forecastle?” I was rewarded by a bright grin and a nod. “Okay. Thanks.”
I took my leave, moving up the ramp as he casted me the occasional glance. Within a minute, I was on the top deck. And…oh boy…
“Stars above, we’re low.”
The deck was more or less how I remember it, lit only by moonlight and a single lantern. Blitz was standing at the Helm (a wheel on a tilting stand, currently locked in place, and flanked on either side by an array of dials and levers), muttering something about obvious statements. But all of that paled in comparison to the ships’ altitude.
I like to think I’ve lived for a while. Okay, maybe compared to somepony like Blazing Stone, 16 years isn’t really that long. At the very least, though, it’s long enough to get a cutie mark and some solid hooves-on training. Maybe even a house to call your own, if you’re quick about things. However, it seems like quite some time to me, which is why it’s pertinent when I say that in the entirety of my arguably-long life, I have never been as close to the Cloudbase as I was that day.
It was seriously right there! Close enough to easily not need any breathing help from Air-pressurizing enchantments. I felt like if I was acrobatic enough to hang off the railing from my tail, I could stick a hoof into that gaseous layer. I’d die if I tried, of course, but still! Being that close to the broiling layer of thick, greenish-grey clouds was just…wow. Words cannot express the mix of emotions I had then and there.
Almost in a trance, I walked up to the rail and peered over the edge. The Cloudbase sat ominously below, curling up against the hull of the ship like it was reaching up and after me.
Somewhere below that thing was solid ground.
A classic Old Mare’s Tale. The infamous story of the world below the Cloudbase, filled with the remnants of ponykind and concealed forever from view by the evil monster now covering it. Most ponies now considered that story as complete and utter hogwash. That the Cloudbase just went down forever and mountains were like ice cubes bobbing along its surface. I was one of those ponies. But standing here, looking at this almost-alive gaseous layer up close…
…even I had to admit there might’ve been something to those stories.
Clunk! Fwish.
I turned around to the source of the noise, quickly spotting the black-and-green unicorn from the Philomena. She’s the same as before, rifle slung across her back this time, and with absurd amounts of mud staining her boots.
She took a few deep breaths, then growled and started stalking toward the ramp belowdecks.
“Find it?” Blitz asked.
“Not even close,” she growled back.
Judging by Blitz’s expression, ‘it’ was pretty important. So, naturally, curiosity got the better of me. “Find what?”
“You damn well kn—“ she stared at me, unblinking, for several seconds, then flew into a furious rage, rifle swinging down and shoving itself into my face. “What are you—what is she doing out of the brig!?!”
“Lumi and I had work to do, so we put a Tracking Bracer on her in case she tried something. And once we had that, we didn’t see much point in leaving her there.” The way Blitz said it was so blasé, I was starting to wonder if he had any emotions period.
The unicorn silently fumed for a second as the rest of the crew gently floated up from over the far side of the hull, steering onto the ship via the brown pegasus I saw before. They all wore some kind of harness adorned with a brightly-glowing cylinder on each side, and all connected via cable to Captain…North Star? I think that was it…
Oh yeah, and mud. Mud was all over their legs.
Finally, the unicorn let out a harsh sigh. “Why do you even have a Tracking Bracer?”
“It’s Luminary’s.”
“Why does he have one?”
“The reason eludes me.”
She let out another sigh, then started stalking closer to me.
“Uh…what’re you doing? Please d—“
“If you make one wrong move…” she hissed, her rifle floating until I was staring into the barrel, her muzzle practically pressed against mine. In the moonlight, she shimmered almost unnaturally, her eyes glowing like they’re lit by some inner pyre.
“You hear me, Navy mare? One. Wrong. Move.”
Ka-Chak! I jumped frantically as she pumped the action on her rifle. Then, quick as she came, she scooped the ejected bullet out of the air and stalked down the ramp belowdecks.
“Aww, don’t mind her. She’s just being cautious.” The tan pegasus, having landed on the bridge with the rest of the crew and unhooked himself from the cables, trotted over to me with a smirk on his face.
“Right,” I mutter back. “Cautious. That’s the vibe I’m getting from her.”
He chuckled, and I got a view of the rest of the crew as they did…whatever. North Star’s stalking up towards Blitz and the Helm, eyeing me suspiciously. Rain Shadow had since lowered her enormous rifle onto the deck and was lovingly cleaning it. And the pegasus whose name I can’t remember was throwing his hoof over my shoulders and laughing.
“It’s C-H’s job to be cautious. She’s the First Mate, after all.”
“C-H?”
“Crooked Horn! You were just talkin’ to her!”
Waaaait a minute… “Her name is…literally…Crooked Horn?”
“Eeyup.”
I couldn’t help myself. I just started giggling. Then chuckling. Then the two of us were all-out laughing, struggling to stand and trying so hard to stop, only to remember the utterly perfect irony and start right back up again.
“Seriously!? Who names their foal ‘Crooked Horn!?’ It’d be like naming me ‘Stripey Mane’!”
“Pffff…Stripey Mane!? If there is some zebra out there named that...”
Ohhhhh……Luna strike me down now, before I tell him about the ancient Zebrican word Zecora…
When our giggles finally died out, he just smiles and blurts, “Damn you’re a hoot! Finally, somepony on this ship with a sense’ah humor!”
I held out my hoof, stifling one last chuckle. “Star Chaser.”
“Contrail.” Whoa. Strooooong hoofshake. Note to self: never hoof-wrestle him. “Where’re you headed to?”
“In general, or immediately?”
“Immediately for now.”
“Just to grab some food.”
“Sweet! I’ll join yah, and you can cover the ‘in general’ bit over some g—“
“MAKE READY TO SAIL! BLITZ, RAIN, HOIST THE SAILS! LUMINARY, POWER UP THE COMPRESSION FIELD!”
He perks up at that, but doesn’t do anything else. “Already? Huh. Guess she’s in a hurry today.”
The humming from below got louder and louder, another note added to its harmonious humming. Then there’s the chinking of pulleys and cables, that drew my gaze over the side of the ship.
The Cloudbase was quickly sliding away beneath us, reaching up like it wanted to grab us and pull us down. And out from either side of the hull were swinging a set of four long masts that stick out awkwardly to either side. From this angle, it almost looks like the ship was trying to become a biplane.
“Oh, yeah, you haven’t met our ride yet, have yah?”
Then the masts unfurled, one portion of each swinging upwards/downwards and pulling the sails open with them. Wind I didn’t even register before caught them, and with a powerful lurch, we’re suddenly slicing through the air at easily a few knots. It shouldn’t have been anything special, really. I’d been in Minis before, and they go crazy fast. But this is so much different. On this ship, you could feel the wind tussling your mane and whipping around your coat. It’s a whole different sensation, one that the airtight seals in the Republics didn’t really allow for.
The sails completely unfurl, and I was left once again re-evaluating my impressions of this ship. The sails together made an almost-perfect circle, and not in a haphazard or ugly way either. My comparison to a predator bird suddenly seemed much more apt as it gracefully ascended and rode the wind towards the bigger clouds far above.
Contrail threw a wing over my back and chuckled, “Miss Chaser, I formally welcome you to the Moonbeam Chariot.”