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// Training Cruise 
// Story: Grief is the Price We Pay 
// by Scyphi 
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	While Spike was left dwelling upon Discord’s unexpected show of support following the convention, Thorax however became immensely interested in airships, and following that day at the convention, began spending his free time learning all he could about them. Because his favorite book series Sky Trek prominently featured futuristic airships, and thus Thorax was already familiar with a smattering of the basics, it wasn’t hard for others to see where this interest came from. Nonetheless it began simply enough, with Thorax deciding to check out a reference book on airships in general to read. It apparently whetted his appetite on the subject enough that it quickly led to him eagerly working to learn more, and soon that one book turned into several more all relating details on airships and how they actually work, in as much depth as he actually could. As Spike and Fly Leaf were already used to Thorax binge-studying anything of personal interest to him, they knew what to expect and took it all in stride.

But as the days went by, it soon became apparent that this instance was different in the sense that even books on the subject weren’t quite enough for Thorax. What he really wanted was to actually fly an airship, either personally or just in one, and his greatest lament was that he had spent that whole convention inside an airship that never actually flew anywhere.

“I don’t see why that’s such a big deal though,” Spike admitted one night when the subject finally came up, after Thorax decided to forego what had become his customary nightly record of Doctor Hooves episodes so to focus on his studying on airships. “I mean sure, airships are cool and all, but you’re a changeling, and can already fly all on your own. Why would you even need an airship?”

“It’s not the same,” Thorax argued back. “I can fly only through personal effort and tiring exertion to keep my body weight up, which increases drastically if I were to carry anything with me, adding to that weight. But with an airship, I can fly with the company of friends and just relax and enjoy the cruise while sitting in a beautiful aircraft.”

Spike nodded knowingly to himself. “I’m sure the fact that it’d be the closest you get to actually living Sky Trek helps too,” he added, raising a teasing eyebrow at the changeling.

Thorax rolled his eyes and smirked, but he didn’t deny it. “Maybe a little. But whatever it is, I’d love to have the chance to not just be aboard an airship but actually fly somewhere in one. I don’t even particularly care where or even if it’s actually any place very far. I just want to actually experience it for myself. Is that really so much to ask for?”

It apparently was. Like most major metropolises in Equestria, Vanhoover had a sizeable airship yard located on the outer edges of the city, where all the major airships coming to and going from the city landed or took off from. Spike and Thorax knew this since the early days of their stay in Vanhoover, but neither of them had ever seriously considered doing anything with that option. As an escape route should they ever need to flee the area, it would’ve been too impractical. Not only was airship travel generally pricier, it was difficult to commission transport for an airship quickly on short notice, especially when most of the available airships were privately owned and subject to the individual whims of their respective owners. Airship travel was also more closely regulated and monitored for safety reasons, providing detailed logs of their travels should something go wrong mid-flight, creating more opportunity for the two outcasts to be tracked and caught through that means of travel in such a situation. So it was deemed smarter to travel by train, foot, or other means still.

Later, after it was decided that Spike and Thorax were not leaving the Vanhoover area anytime soon and no need to quickly escape having yet arisen, this offered the opportunity to view any airship travel in a new light, but still neither of them had ever seriously considered it. Not only was there still the price issue to consider, most public-access airship travel was heading off to destinations Spike and Thorax presently had no pressing interest or need heading for, and even with a return flight planned in advance—and usually it was hard to do it any other way—a round trip was expected to take some days altogether, a week at most, and neither Spike or Thorax could presently justify such a lengthy trip for anything but leisure, not when they were supposed to be lying low. And after Thorax’s recent close call with the police, Spike at least was quick to remind his friend of that end goal. And Thorax couldn’t ever really disagree with Spike on that point so he never argued it.

Nonetheless, when Thorax’s interest in airships arose, he started wandering down to the Vanhoover airship yard in his free time and watch from a neighboring small hill the airships landing and taking off within, longing for the chance to ride aboard one of them, wishing he could be given the chance to do so, if only once. He was later glad he made these visits to the airship yard then, because it was while there during one particular visit late one afternoon that he spied just the opportunity he was looking for posted to an announcement board near the yard’s entrance. Excited, he explained what it was when he, Spike, and Fly Leaf had gathered for dinner that same evening.

“An airship training day camp?” Spike repeated as Thorax elaborated.

“Yes,” Thorax confirmed with an eager nod. “A sort of class where they take interested ponies of legal age to crew an airship and spend the day training them on how to fly an airship. According to the bulletin, it’s an in-depth class too, so much so that legally speaking one can safely use it as a beginning course when working towards an airship pilot’s license.”

Spike blinked. “You want an airship pilot’s license?” he asked in surprise, the first he had heard of any such desire.

“Well…” Thorax hemmed and hawed. “…I’d be lying if I said no, but…at the same time, I see that it might not be best for me to commit to such a goal right now.” He exchanged a knowing glance with Spike. “If I was to participate in the day camp though, and I very much would like to, it would at least give me a chance to gauge how much actual interest I would have in possibly continuing one day.”
Fly Leaf had been quiet for most of Thorax’s explanation, thoughtfully munching on one of the black bean tacos she had prepared for dinner that evening, but finally she swallowed and moved to speak. “I’ve heard of this class,” she remarked. “The airship yard hosts it on a regular basis throughout the year outside of the winter season…I believe they had started it with the hopes of encouraging more interest among ponies in airships and learning to fly them, which I had taken to be oddly self-serving for the industry when you think about it.” She grinned. “Either way, I hear they always manage to get a good selection of ponies to participate every time they hold it, and a lot of other places in town have started to doing something similar themselves around the same time, so clearly, if that was their actual intent, it’s been working.”

“Clearly,” Spike agreed, glancing at Thorax, who rolled his eyes innocently.

“As I understand it though, the weather’s too unfavorable for it during the winter season,” Fly Leaf continued to explain. “And with that just around the corner now, this is probably going to be the last time they’ll hold the day camp this year.” She looked to Thorax. “So if you do decide to join in Thornton, it’ll probably be your last chance until springtime next year.”

“Right, which is largely why I’m bringing it up now,” Thorax said, sheepishly tapping his hooves together. “I was…sort of hoping for some input from both of you on this.”

Spike took another bite of his own taco, chewing thoughtfully before replying. “Well…I don’t know, Thornton,” he admitted.

“Look, I get you’ve still got my near-arrest in the back of your head, Spark,” Thorax remarked, focusing his attention on the dragon for a moment. “But I think if there was going to be any more trouble from that, we would’ve heard it by now.” He nudged his friend on the shoulder. “Besides, if you’re that worried, you’re welcome to come with. They said all interested parties welcomed, including earth ponies and unicorns, so I can’t see any reason why they’d turn down a dragon.”

“Well before either of you race into this,” Fly butted in quickly, “I feel I should alert both of you that, from what I’ve heard about this day camp, it’s also got a reputation for being less of a day camp and more of a boot camp.”

Spike blinked in surprise again. “Boot camp?” he asked.

Fly nodded. “Apparently, the instructors are usually ex-airship crew and pilots themselves, and often retirees from the royal guard, so they tend to run the class in a fairly rough and militaristic manner. Not for the weak hearted. It’s turned away a couple of participants from doing more afterwards or so I’ve heard from the occasional connected customer, which is how I know about it at all, really.”

Spike winced. “I’m not sure I’m interested in putting myself through that then,” he remarked aloud.

Thorax however, seemed indifferent and simply shrugged. “I know how to handle that,” he remarked, undeterred. “I’m more interested in the learning experience anyway.”

“Hmm.” Fly thought about it for another moment. “When did you say this day camp is being held, Thornton?”

“Next Tuesday. Which is the second reason I bring it up; if I’m doing this, I’d need your permission to get off work in time to do it.”

“You’re probably going to need someone to help cover for Thornton while he’s at that then,” Spike reasoned a little too quickly, as he saw a way out of having to participate himself. “I’d happily do that.”

“Nah, I’m expecting this next Tuesday isn’t going to be especially busy, so I could handle it myself,” Fly said, shrugging off Spike’s offer. “In fact, why don’t you two both just take that whole day off?”

Both of her employees did a double take in surprise. “Really?” Thorax asked.

“Sure!” Fly said with a grin. “You two have been working with me for about three moons now, and you’ve both been a great help. I think you two have thusly earned the right for a little extra time off to use as you please.”

Thorax grinned himself. “Thank you for that, Miss Fly,” he said in appreciation.

Fly merely winked back, considering the matter settled.

Spike wasn’t quite so settled on the matter himself though. “No offense to Thornton,” he began, motioning apologetically to the disguised changeling. “But…I’m really not that interested in this day camp thing…so I don’t think I need to have the day off too.”

“Oh nonsense,” Fly said dismissively. “Like I said, other places in town are going to be having their own sort of classes usually about the same time, if not the same day. If you’re not interested in Thornton’s airship class, then I’m sure you could go and find one that catches your fancy instead.”

And when asked where to look for such classes, Fly suggested they visit Vanhoover’s city hall, where there was a public access bulletin board that would have announcements for any such upcoming events being held in town. So the following morning, Thorax and Spike put on their usual disguises and paid the building a visit to view this bulletin board, located just inside the front doors. As Fly had predicted, there were a lot of other businesses and places in the city that were holding their own versions of the day camp for their respective fields, and Thorax was able to find a duplicate announcement for the airship training day camp posted on this board too. None of these held any particular interest in Spike though.

Finally though, Thorax saw one that jumped out at him, and with a knowing grin, tapped it with one hoof. “Here you go Spike,” he remarked aloud to his friend. “I know this one will interest you.”

Spike glanced at the advert, eyes darting back and forth behind his false eyeglasses as he skimmed through it, before his eyebrows went up hopefully. “A parkour class?” he remarked aloud wistfully.

Thorax nodded, unable to keep himself from looking a little smug. “I remember you had mentioned before you wanted to learn, but hadn’t gotten the opportunity before now,” he recalled accurately. “And look, it’s being held on the same day, at the same time, as my day camp at the airfield, so it works out perfectly for our schedule.

Spike chuckled, putting his claws on his hips. “I suppose it does,” he conceded. “Bah, all right then, we’ll do it. You go to your airship thing, while I finally will get my chance to try my claws on some parkour.”

With that settled, the two then proceeded to plan and prepare accordingly. Spike still had a few lingering fears, namely in that Thorax getting caught somehow. He recognized this was probably an unfounded fear, given they had managed to avoid getting caught on more than one occasion, but the still-recent scare of Thorax’s brief detainment by the police not so long ago was still on his mind, and he feared any sort of repeats regardless, especially with Thorax being on his own. Thorax however was completely confident that things would work out and that he would be able to avoid detection. He had been living in Vanhoover long enough that he knew how mingle with the ponies without drawing unwanted attention to himself, and reminded Spike that his brief detainment with the police had been due to unusual circumstances that were highly doubtful to be repeated. In so doing, he was able to reassure Spike enough that his dragon friend saw he was being overprotective and relaxed.

Spike did have another, more minor, concern however in the fact that Thorax’s day camp would be handled in a boot camp-like manner as Fly had warned them. It was the sort of environment Spike had no wish to put himself through, and knowing of Thorax’s generally gentle nature, couldn’t picture Thorax would want to do this either. But Thorax continued to be indifferent about the matter, shrugging it off, and finally explained in private that it wouldn’t be any different than the constant berating he got from his superiors on a daily basis back in the changeling hive—so much so that Thorax had grown adjusted to such treatment long ago, and had learned when and when not to take it personally.

So finally the Tuesday in question arrived, and both departed from Fly’s shop together, walking as far as they could in each other’s company before finally having to part ways for their respective destinations; Spike for a gym near the city’s center that had been reserved for the parkour class the dragon was eagerly looking forward to, and Thorax off for the airship yard. Upon arriving and sent to wait with the other participants that had signed up outside the yard’s main office, waiting for their instructor to arrive, Thorax found himself in fairly good spirits and his classmates all bearing a generally similar interest in airship travel as he did. He chatted briefly with a couple of them while they waited.

In all, there were twelve students, most of them pegasi, which made natural sense considering pegasus ponies were the most airborne of the pony tribes. It was for that reason Thorax had considered on his way there switching disguises from his usual unicorn disguise as Thornton for a pegasus variant, granting him the use of his own wings currently concealed by his disguise…but then reasoned he had signed up for the day camp as the unicorn Thornton and decided he had better stick with it for the day camp for consistency’s sake. And at any rate, from the eyes of others he wasn’t the only unicorn there; there were two others also present, as well as two earth ponies. One of the earth ponies, a somewhat smug and well-built mare named Esperia, bragged that she already had past experience on an airship and thus already had a frame of reference for how they worked; taking the day camp was more of a “formality” to finalize her knowledge, but the point was that one did not need to be a pegasus to be involved with airships.

A point further demonstrated when their instructor arrived, ready to begin, and proved to be gruff, stern-looking, griffon getting up in years with a clipboard gripped in one set of talons. “Good morning, I see you all managed to make it here at any rate,” he barked loudly to the group as he regarded them with a very critical eye. “I am your instructor, the poor sap that’s going to have to find some way to get something useful out of you lot, Emeritus Airship Captain Gervas, retired, with honors.”

“You’re retired?” someone in the group repeated innocently but unnecessarily.

“With honors,” Gervas stressed curtly. “I served a longer and more distinguished career serving in first the Griffon Air Forces, then later the Equestrian Air Forces after the Griffon Kingdom ended its airship program, than you all will ever have, and I’ll have you know that I earned every bit of it too, which is far more than any of you can currently claim, and I expect many of you still won’t by the time you all get to my age, but never mind that.” That tirade concluded, he moved on, glancing at the clipboard to do a silent headcount as he spoke. “The desk jockeys that manage the paperwork side of all this keep telling me that it’s supposed to be called a day camp, for reasons I’ve never bothered to pay close attention to because I’ve disputed calling it that from the start. Calling it a day camp makes it sound like it’s all friendships and flowers and Sunday flights for picnics in the park, but flying an airship right is none of these things.” Apparently satisfied with his headcount, he stuck his clipboard in a bag strapped to his back and started to pace back and forth in front of his students, continuing to gauge them with a critical eye. Clearly, the rumors Fly had heard of the day camp being ran like a boot camp weren’t exaggerations. “Flying an airship, takes coordination, calculation, determination, and a hay of a lot of hard work. It is not a cake walk, not something you can just sit back and take it easy on, because one slip up is all it’d take to send you from sitting all high and mighty in your airship to an unsightly stain in the dirt! Because of that, back in my day in the military, learning to fly, operate, and crew an airship was no joking manner. We took it seriously, and we did not tolerate anyone who didn’t. And if there are any of you squabs that are like that, you might as well leave now before I boot you out myself!”

He turned and surveyed the group closely, waiting for someone to do precisely that. However, though several in the group visibly gulped and some looked like they were now wondering just what it was they had gotten themselves into, after a few moments it was clear no one in the group was going to leave. They all seemed as committed as Thorax was, who was unfazed by Gervas’s loud talk; he had faced worse verbal abuse back in the hive on a regular basis. Nonetheless, it was clear Gervas was not a griffon you wanted to be on the wrong side of.

Eventually, once it was clear all twelve of them were sticking around, Gervas folded his forelegs crossly. “Hmpf,” he coarsely grunted. “Well, it appears you all think you’ve actually got the spines needed for this. We’ll have to see about that.” He resumed pacing. “Now because this is basically a mere crash course in basic airship operations, I must concede there’s really only so much I could possibly expect from all of you, and so, lucky for you, you all get it easier than you would if you were learning the way that I did. But don’t think you’re not going to get run ragged doing this. You’re going to earn what you learn here today, and as everypony these days love an added incentive…” he said this in a very sarcastic tone as he pulled out a small golden pin. “…at the end of the day, I’m required to judge and then reward you squabs based on how well you preform. Don’t worry, even if you do awful, I still have a pin with your name on it because that’s what my employers insist upon, but the one who does the best gets this gold one. There’s only the one gold one though, and I have high expectations for anyone who’s going to be worthy of it. If you want it, you will have to work for it, and prove to me you deserve it.” He pocketed the pin again and stopped before the middle of the group to survey them once more. “Any questions before we begin?” One pegasus mare timidly raised her hoof. Gervas nodded his feathered head in her direction. “Speak, Miss Poppy Curls.”

Apparently this was the mare’s actual name, because she briefly did a double take in surprise, clearly wondering how Gervas knew this as he had yet to do anything to confirm who was who in the class, and beyond the list of names on his clipboard, they had given him nothing to inform him. Thorax knew how he did it though; it was a common changeling trick. Study the cutie marks of the ponies and through the process of elimination, put the name with the cutie mark. With proper practice, one could be startlingly accurate in figuring out a pony’s name through this method, especially if you already knew the name and just needed to match a face to it like Gervas did.

Regardless, Poppy Curls got over her surprise quickly and innocently asked her question. “You called us squabs. What’s a squab?”

Gervas replied by simply gazing at her with something that was neither a stare nor glare, and could really only be summed up as a him simply “looking” at her, but it was still intimidating enough that Poppy eventually bit her lip and lowered her hoof again.

Thorax, however, found he couldn’t resist. “It’s an old griffon term for children, hatchlings, foals, youth, etcetera,” he answered for Poppy’s benefit calmly. “It bears a mild derogatory sense, but is not considered that especially offensive. It would be similar to the terms “brat” or “whelp,” and stems from the fact that it originates as a term for a baby pigeon, an animal griffons have historically not viewed in high regard.”

The group all stared at Thorax for a moment. Eyes narrowed, Gervas stepped up so to stand directly in front of the disguised changeling, glaring down at him. “You consider yourself a know-it-all, Mister Thornton?” he asked with some contempt.

“No sir,” Thorax replied, looking back at him with a calm face, not cowed by Gervas’s behavior. He had caught on fairly quickly that the griffon’s mean demeanor was mostly a front; emotionally speaking, Thorax was actually finding him simply more aloof and disinterested in the group, not particularly wanting to be here. “I do not attest to know everything. I just happened to know something about the etymology for the word, and was trying to be helpful.”

Gervas raised an eyebrow. “You know Griffish, then?” he asked in a doubting tone.

Thorax shook his head. “Only a few words sir,” he explained. “But I do know—besides Equestrian—Diamond Dog, Zebra, a portion of Breezie, and I’ve lately been teaching myself Cowhili in my spare time.” He motioned to his horn. “And of course, I know from my magical studies various magician codex languages, namely standard Runic, as well some Ancient Equestrian and Ancient Crystallian where it’s applicable.”

Gervas folded his forelegs again. “So you are a know-it-all,” he concluded.

“No sir,” Thorax repeated, “Just multi-lingual.”

Gervas’s eyes narrowed slightly more. “I’ve got my eyes on you, Mister Thornton,” he growled, before walking off again.

It was then that Thorax realized that perhaps he hadn’t made the greatest of first impressions with the griffon and had already earned his instructor’s ire.

After they had gotten past as what probably counted as a proper introduction in Gervas’s mind, the griffon began to drill into their heads the basic safety protocols that he expected them to follow at all times throughout the training that would follow. During this discussion, he berated most of the rest of class in similar manner to how he did for Thorax at least once, and did so repeatedly for the braggy mare Esperia, whose ego they quickly found clashed with Gervas’s rough attitude. The only pony who seemed to escape this was a pegasus stallion named Valiant who quickly caught on to Gervas’s militaristic manner and began to respond back accordingly, which apparently was more along the lines of what Gervas was expecting as he took it in turn and didn’t criticize Valiant for anything. The rest of the class quickly began to see Valiant as the closest thing to the ‘teacher’s favorite,’ as it were, though there were also mixed feelings on whether that was actually all that noteworthy in Gervas’s case.

Finally, once he seemed satisfied enough that his students understood the safety protocols enough that they weren’t going to do something foolish to get themselves hurt, he took them to a nearby hanger where the airship yard kept a small and worn air yacht for training purposes. It was simply and unimpressively designated “T-1,” though Gervas often referred to her as “old girl.” As airships went, she definitely wasn’t a large one, with her main deck barely big enough to hold all of them as Gervas led them up the gangplank and onto the berthed ship so to give them a brief tour. She barely had a below decks either, which was dedicated almost entirely to the airship’s aging engines, and all of the other ships amenities (such as sleeping cots and a closest of a cooking space) being bunched together into a single room located underneath the ship’s quarterdeck. This included the only toilet onboard, which thankfully still used flush plumbing, but was also positioned in such a way that it was all but fully exposed and offered next to no privacy from the rest of the room. When this was pointed out by Poppy Curls, Gervas merely replied that if anyone had a problem with it, then they had better make sure they go before they take the ship up as that toilet was the only thing they were going to be able to use afterwards…other than, as Gervas frankly put it, “hanging your rump over the side of the ship,” of course.

Nonetheless, Thorax found the little ship charming, and clearly she had a lengthy history that he wished Gervas could take the time to talk about. Perhaps because of this and thus getting caught up in the moment, Thorax again was the one to respond first when, upon concluding the very brief tour, Gervas asked what they knew about the proper terms to use on an airship. At least this time Thorax remembered to raise his hoof and wait to be called upon before speaking…which wasn’t long as he was the only one in the group to do so.

“Any particular terms you’re looking for, sir?” he asked Gervas innocently once the griffon called upon him.

“Surprise me, Mister Thornton,” Gervas merely replied.

So Thorax decided to list all he knew until he either ran out or Gervas stopped him. He was admittedly curious to see which would happen first. “The front of the ship is called the prow, the rear of the ship is called the aft, the right side is called the starboard side, the left side is called the port side, the crewed part of the ship is called the gondola, the balloon that lifts the ship is called the envelope, and the gases that are used to fill it are called lifting gases. In modernity, that lifting gas is usually the mystically-crafted hydrium gas and is non-toxic, but smells faintly of mangos.” As Gervas still hadn’t stopped him yet, he pressed on. “The pressure height is the maximum altitude an airship can rise up to before the pressure within the airship’s envelope becomes greater than the pressure outside of it and begins to burst, often critically, releasing the lifting gas keeping the airship up, though this can be delayed by venting some of the excess gas so to reduce the pressure within the envelope. This can also be used as a means to control the ship’s altitude, although this can also be controlled through the use of ballast, which is simply carried aboard the ship to give it weight. Often tanks of water is used, as water is the easiest and cheapest resource to use for this purpose, but any number of things can be used to generate weight, even ponies in the ship’s crew if absolutely necessary. Likewise, a ballonet is a separate gas cell of external air that is used as a weight and/or pressure against the internal lifting gas and is also used to control the ship’s buoyancy. This is controlled through a series of air scoops and valves, and I saw such controls for this airship around the ship’s wheel—the wheel with which the ship is steered and it and all the other piloting controls serving as the ship’s helm—on the quarterdeck. If the airship is rising, it is said to have positive buoyancy, and conversely, if it is sinking, it is said to have negative buoyancy. If the ship is in perfect balance in the middle in-between the two, it is said to be in equilibrium. The airship is steered through the use of a rudder that controls the directional heading of the airship, and the elevators, which are used to control the airship’s pitch. The airship is said to be “trim” if it is perfectly leveled off in flight. The shape of the airship determines what is called its fineness ratio, in which the higher the ratio, the longer and more slender the airship.” By this point, Thorax was surprised Gervas hadn’t stopped him yet, realized he could continue on for a considerably while longer at this rate, and paused for a moment. “Shall I continue, sir?”

His classmates were staring at him by this point. “You know more?” one of them suddenly called out.

Thorax shrugged, feeling embarrassed but was trying to keep it from showing on his face. “I had been reading up on airships already before I signed up for this day camp,” he explained simply.

Gervas simply looked at Thorax for a long moment. “No one likes a show-off, Mister Thornton,” he said, and did not comment further on the matter, instead moving on to other topics. Thorax again was left with the impression that, even though he had answered as asked, he still wasn’t winning favors with Gervas. This impression wasn’t helped as Gervas then proceeded to teach precisely the same things Thorax had all just related again to the class, simply rephrased into his own words and in slightly greater detail, again in a blunt manner as his way of ensuring it actually stuck in the heads of his students.

Once they had finished with that, Gervas decided it was time for the practical part of the class, and declared they were to tow the airship out of its hanger. He explained that normally a separate ground crew was assigned to do this, but he was of the opinion that the best airship crewmembers were the ones that could perform all of the tasks involved in running an airship, and so he was going to have them do it instead. While he stayed aboard the air yacht to man the controls, give commands, and overall ensure they didn’t “mess it up,” the rest of them were all to take one of the mooring lines that was keeping the airship in place and tow it out of the hanger and into the open airship yard outside in preparation for takeoff.

This seemed simple enough in theory, but in reality was an act that required a great deal of coordination that they all spent the first several minutes squabbling about trying to find some. And for a lighter-than-air craft, which of course already had its envelope properly filled with the needed lifting gas, she felt much heavier and harder to move than expected, requiring a lot of pulling power. A lot of them were tired and sweating already by the time the training ship had cleared the hanger doors, not helped by the fact that their ears were ringing thanks to a small mishap that nearly caused them to slam the side of the airship into the hanger door and had led to a lot of shouting and berating from Gervas as a result. It probably would’ve taken even longer and even more work were it not for Valiant, catching onto the pattern in Gervas’s commands, finally taking de facto charge of the rest of his fellow students, got them organized finally under Gervas’s guidance, and led them for the remainder of the task. This earned Valiant a word of approval from Gervas, the first time the griffon had done so for any of them. Thorax decided Gervas liked Valiant’s yes-pony approach to things, and that the griffon simply wanted a pony that would do as he asked.

So he attempted to put this theory into practice when they then lined up so Gervas could explain what would follow next. While the air yacht sat before them, buoyancy low enough that its hull was still touching the ground, the ex-airship captain clarified that while the little ship could be flown with only a couple or even just one crew member, he was going to treat it as if it were a larger airship requiring a full crew and assign each of them a specific job operating the airship, rotating them to different positions “as I see fit” during the next several hours once they took off on their planned training flight. And it turned out there was no shortage of them, including tasks such as maintaining the integrity of the envelope, maintaining the suspension cables and rigging that kept the envelope tethered to the rest of the airship, tending to the engines, navigating or plotting a course, and of course, piloting the airship, among several others.

It was piloting that Thorax was especially interested in trying, but Gervas first assigned this task to the snooty Esperia and assigned Thorax the duty of manning the radio instead. Disappointed though he was, Thorax took up the task without protest like he had seen Valiant do repeatedly when given instructions by Gervas, hoping this would put him in a bit of a better light with the griffon. Instead, Gervas’s eyes only narrowed more at Thorax’s unquestioning obedience, and Thorax sensed a whiff of dissatisfaction coming from Gervas’s emotions that suggested it hadn’t helped. Regardless, Thorax endeavored to maintain this new approach, thinking that it at least couldn’t make things worse.

Training cruise as it was, they were not going to fly the air yacht especially far from Vanhoover, though they would certainly leave the city. Gervas had a course plotted that would take them in a large but rough circle around the city, heading first down to nearby Tall Tale, veer east over the Unicorn Range, skirt the neighborhood of the Galloping Gorge and the forest that bordered it, circle north until they came over the North Luna Ocean, then swing back south to fly back into Vanhoover. The round trip would take most of the day, but Gervas had flown it so many times before he claimed he didn’t even need a map or compass to fly it anymore, and seemed almost bored by the idea of flying it yet again. However he wouldn’t be doing the actual flying; he would merely supervise the rest of them operating the airship, not intending to intervene unless it was an actual emergency, or “you squabs are about to get us very lost very fast,” which he spoke with a tone of inevitability.

Thorax hoped they could all prove themselves more capable than that as he radioed for clearance from the airship yard’s control tower to take off. The moment he received word back, the rest of his classmates worked in conjunction to get the airship moving. Though they all had individual tasks to perform, raising the airship in the arrangement Gervas had imposed required many of them to work jointly and in rapid succession, all overlapping. Judging from Gervas’s impatience during this part, they did so with far less speed and efficiency than he preferred, but they still successfully got the air yacht into the air and at a decent altitude. Their confidence beginning to come back for most of them then, Esperia then steered them southwards for Tall Tale and the cruise formally began. By airship, a trip from Vanhoover to Tall Tale typically took about a half hour, and for most of it the air yacht all but flew herself. Regardless, Gervas kept them busy with any number of tasks, all of which he claimed were “routinely done” on any airship and wanted them to be well versed in them regardless of how mundane or unnecessary they may seem at that moment in the flight.

Thorax’s task, as he was operating the radio, was to maintain regular radio contact with ground control, first in Vanhoover, then in Tall Tale as it came into range, giving regular updates on their status and progress. Apparently for a training cruise, this was required procedure in the event something should go wrong during the cruise, whether pilot error or otherwise, and was more for safety reasons. Thorax quickly got the impression from the radio operators receiving his messages that, at least for a flight like theirs, it normally wasn’t considered necessary otherwise. Still, Thorax dutifully carried out the task, and it seemed he was doing it satisfactorily enough because he managed to evade Gervas’s ire for a while, the griffon more focused on berating the others for their small mishaps. Esperia especially seemed to chaff on Gervas, the griffon beginning to call her “slow,” as despite the pegasus mare’s initially smug confidence she could pilot the airship, she instead was often a little overwhelmed by the many controls required for steering the craft, occasionally uncertain which control she actually needed to use to keep them on course.

Still, they managed to stay on track as Gervas’s expected, and upon safely arriving above Tall Tale, they turned east for the Unicorn Range. As the flight progressed though, Thorax began to notice that Esperia’s piloting had gradually lowered the air yacht’s altitude until they were eventually far lower than would be normal for a traveling airship such as this. He didn’t seem to be the only one to notice either; a couple of his other classmates seemed to notice and he occasionally heard subdued chatter about it. As they were still maintaining a high enough altitude to avoid any risk of collision with the green country terrain still a fair distance below them though, everybody opted to wait for Gervas to say something about it, expecting the griffon would order it be corrected. As the time went by though, he never did, never once commenting on the matter of the low altitude although certainly by now he was aware of it.

Sensing a growing feeling of expectation in Gervas’s emotions though, Thorax eventually decided that Gervas was waiting for Esperia, being the pilot and thus in charge of maintaining altitude, to realize what had happened and try to fix it herself without being told to. Realizing it was supposed to be a learning experience then, Thorax followed the example of the others and did not comment on it, even though he knew they couldn’t safely maintain this low altitude forever; Esperia was only getting away with it because the terrain was presently flat and level, neatly accommodating the low altitude and offering no dangers. That eventually changed as they neared the mountains of Unicorn Range, mountains that were all tall enough to bar the air yacht’s path if she were to maintain her present altitude and presenting a growing danger as they sailed closer and closer to the mountains.

At first, there wasn’t much concern about it, as they were still far enough away that there was more than ample time to correct this. Yet Esperia made no attempt to do so, and Gervas still made no comment on the matter, apparently still interested in seeing if Esperia would correct their altitude herself, instead busying himself in having some of the ponies involved in maintaining the rigging tethering the airship’s envelope in an upkeep exercise. Steadily though, concern on the craft grew as one particular mountain started to loom closer towards them. Esperia could certainly see this, as Thorax—also stationed on the quarterdeck and sitting not far from where she stood at the ship’s wheel—could sense a growing concern in her emotions, but she still did nothing to raise their altitude. Thorax started to believe the thought to do so hadn’t occurred to her yet, though whether this was out of lack of experience or her usual smug confidence that she knew what she was doing, he could only speculate.

His greater concern was whether Gervas would do anything about it or if he would actually risk the ship and all aboard it, himself included, for the sake of letting Esperia figure it out herself, something Thorax was becoming increasingly sure she would not do in time. Eventually all eyes were turned towards the mountain drawing dangerously close, a number of other ponies on the ship declaring aloud they were too low. Gervas still said nothing for several moments longer, but as Thorax was watching him, saw the griffon’s eyes were alternating between Esperia and the oncoming mountain, keeping close attention to both and growing more and more impatient as he didn’t see what he wanted happen.

Finally Gervas could keep his peace no longer. “Miss Esperia, I have no wish to crash into that mountain ahead of us,” he stated flatly.

“Uh, right, right, give me a moment,” Esperia replied unsteadily, and was finally spurred to action herself.

Only instead of raising their altitude by either adjusting the air yacht’s elevators or buoyancy accordingly, she instead chose to adjust the craft’s present course, steering it towards the space between the mountain and an adjacent peak. This annoyed Thorax somewhat, because he knew what control the ship’s buoyancy was and he could see it right next to the ship’s wheel, to Esperia’s right. It would be very easy to adjust, and Thorax wondered if Esperia simply didn’t know this. At any rate, the change in course moved them around the mountain safely, but it also brought them closer to the jagged edges near the adjacent mountain, the rocky outcroppings reaching very close to the ship, and at this altitude, some of them felt close enough to touch. One brushed extremely near the craft, so much so someone cried out that they were going to crash.

They didn’t, but the danger was real enough that Gervas had enough. “Miss Esperia, raise altitude!” he ordered, starting to turn and urgently approach the acting pilot on the higher quarterdeck from where he stood midway out upon the main deck.

Esperia visibly froze and started to scan the controls in front of her. “Uh, uh,” she uttered in an uncertain panic.

Thorax became confident at that point that Esperia truly didn’t know how to do this, and grew increasingly alarmed himself as he spied another outcropping rock, this time actually just tall enough to reach the airship, and appeared to him that it would certainly collide with the airship’s underbelly in a matter of moments. Fearing for all of their safety and certain Esperia wouldn’t act soon enough, Thorax lunged forward from where he had been sitting at the radio and to Esperia’s side, flipping the needed buoyancy control for her. The airship immediately rose, faster than Thorax intended, so much so that the suddenly climb jolted the craft’s crew. Thorax immediately worked to adjust the buoyancy control more precisely so to slow their ascent while Esperia stared at him with wide eyes, then, almost apologetically, refocused her attention on the ship’s wheel as Gervas arrived on the quarterdeck, looking cross and glaring at both of them.

By then Thorax noticed  the outcropping he feared they would collide with was actually further away than he first thought as they passed above it, so had they not rose in altitude in time, they would have passed close, but never actually close enough to come in contact with it. Nonetheless, Thorax felt he acted appropriately to avoid it, and any other potential dangers as they rose to a new height safe from any other possible collisions. Indeed, Esperia, looking slightly spooked by the incident, seemed inwardly thankful, and Thorax sensed secret gratitude that Thorax had acted when she could not.

Gervas, however, thought differently. “Mister Thornton, your position is at the radio, not the helm,” he reminded the disguised changeling and pointed a talon back at the abandoned radio, signaling that Thorax was to return to it and shouldn’t have left it in the first place.

Thorax turned to face him and bowed his head submissively. “I’m sorry sir,” he apologized then continued with an explanation. “But I feared we were going to crash, and no one else was acting soon enough. I only acted to ensure that didn’t happen and we all stayed safe.”

Gervas was unswayed. “Radio,” he repeated firmly, still pointing Thorax back towards his assigned post. “Now.”

Thorax frowned, disapproving of this, but saw arguing further wasn’t going to help. “Yes sir,” he mumbled and trotted back to the radio.

He took some comfort in the fact that Gervas then turned his attention to Esperia and criticized her for not acting herself, accusing her of “thinking two-dimensionally” too much and being overall reckless, risking the craft for as long as she did. It also humbled Esperia greatly as it made her realize that she didn’t know as much about airships as she had thought, and she apologized for her lack of action. Nonetheless, Thorax still felt annoyed about how Gervas had handled the whole situation. He agreed with the griffon in that his position was at his assigned post, and that leaving it to act on the behalf of others on the airship all the time would not help things run smoothly…yet at the same time Thorax thought it would have been negligent of him to have not acted in the sight of the danger he felt there was to both ship and crew at the time. If Gervas had intended to intervene himself then he should have done so far sooner, when it was first apparent Esperia wasn’t going to be able to act. But he withheld his criticisms, supposing that the more important thing was that ultimately no one was harmed.

Once they had leveled out at a higher and more standard altitude, they continued on passing over the Unicorn Range. After they had cleared it and their course had been adjusted so to take them northeast towards the forest that bordered the Galloping Gorge, Gervas decided it was time to rearrange what positions everyone was serving on the air yacht. Not to Thorax’s surprise, Thorax was again passed up for the piloting position at the helm, and was instead sent below decks to tend the engines. He replaced the stallion Valiant, who was to take over piloting next instead. Thorax admired him but didn’t tell the pegasus this, especially after Valiant kindly stopped and gave Thorax a few brief tips on how to upkeep the engines.

Because the air yacht was so small in general size, the engines were largely self-sufficient. Once started, they pretty much ran themselves so long as there was sufficient fuel. Regardless, Thorax’s job wasn’t to just monitor the status of the engines and the fuel supply, but he was also to manually maintain the ship’s throttle from down here. Said throttle could be maintained from the helm like most everything else, but Gervas was having them assume this was not the case “for the experience” and to simulate functions on some, other, larger airships. It meant whoever was serving as acting engineer had to work closely with the above decks to adjust the ship’s throttle and occasionally altitude depending on the type of maneuver (a series of which Gervas then had them all undertake as they continued on their flight), obviously meant to be a lesson in coordination.

Thorax felt his assignment down here was more Gervas’s version of punishment for his actions earlier though, meant to keep Thorax out of the way for the time being. And below decks as he was, where there weren’t any portholes, he couldn’t see much of what was happening outside the ship. He didn’t seem to miss much more than some scenery, though as they arced around to start heading back northwest, he heard Galloping Gorge could be seen. It was still over a mile off, but even from there others said they could make out the impressive crevasse. The fact that Thorax missed it didn’t improve his mood much.

Fortunately, nothing of real event took place while he was tending the engines except for him getting hot and sweaty working around the warm engines and getting grease and oil smeared on his hooves (but fortunately not on his jacket that he had been wearing). As they were cruising over the countryside sitting to the north of Vanhoover, about halfway to the North Luna Ocean, Gervas again rearranged what positions everyone was doing aboard the airship. In so doing, he again passed up Thorax for a chance at piloting, barely acknowledging Thorax’s presence and suggesting the griffon’s opinions of him still hadn’t improved. However, as lunchtime had come and gone and everypony had worked up an appetite, he instead assigned Thorax to work in the kitchen “corner” of the ship’s one room under the quarterdeck and prepare a meal for everyone.

Though still not the task he wanted to do on the airship, Thorax would’ve had no problem doing this. But as he was a changeling that didn’t have much need to cook and eat solid foods like the rest of the crew, he didn’t actually know much about cooking, not even enough to prepare the simple, prepackaged rations Gervas had ensured the airship was stocked with before takeoff. After Thorax delicately explained this without revealing his true nature to the griffon but assured he was still willing to try and muddle through to the best of his abilities, Gervas granted him an assistant and pulled the pegasus mare Poppy Curls off from where she had been assigned maintaining the ship’s envelope, with the instructions that she would help ensure “that what we all get from Mister Thornton here will still be edible.”

Poppy Curls hadn’t been particularly enjoying her previous task, so she was more than happy to assist Thorax with preparing the foods, giving Thorax a crash course on how to operate the equipped toaster oven they would be using to heat up the food. As well as stressing the need that the kitchen area must be kept clean or risk contaminating the food, urging Thorax to wash off the grit he had collected when working with the engines. While they worked, they got to chatting, talking about what they had thought about the supposed “day camp.” Poppy was of the opinion that “day camp” was indeed a poor description for what she more readily called a “class,” and as such, had gone into it all with very different expectations. Nonetheless, despite the experience thus far being much more trying than she had anticipated and that she didn’t particularly care for Gervas either, she felt it still had been a good learning experience and had given her an excellent feel for what it was like to work on an airship.

Thorax found he couldn’t argue with all of that either, and though he was personally beginning to sport something of a grudge for Gervas more than Poppy, he conceded that he too had learned a fair deal about what it was like to work on an airship, the whole reason he had pursued doing the day camp in the first place. And minus his bickering with Gervas and the fact he hadn’t gotten the chance to actually pilot the airship yet, he still had enjoyed the experience. As such he thanked Poppy for helping him to see this and put it into perspective for him. Poppy happily replied that he could consider it a returned favor for what he had done to prevent the airship from potentially crashing earlier in the mountains, which Poppy admitted she admired Thorax slightly for his actions. This left Thorax pleased that the act was appreciated by someone at least.

With Poppy’s help, Thorax was able to successfully prepare the lunch for the group without mishap, resulting in a decent enough of a meal that everyone was able to partake. It was mostly enjoyed, although more than one in the group noted that the meal wasn’t especially flavorful. This was attributed more to the fact that the meal stemmed from a prepackaged ration kit and not from Thorax and Poppy’s cooking though. The more important fact was that it was fully edible, healthy, and filling. Thorax even nibbled a little at the meal, though of course being a changeling, he didn’t need to partake of the meal like the others, and emotions-wise, seemed to be doing pretty well, as he found that even though he hadn’t made any concentrated attempt to feed on any emotions much during the class, his own hunger was remarkably sated.

As they arrived at the North Luna Ocean coastline, beginning a maneuver to swing around in an arc that would start to take them back towards Vanhoover, Gervas decreed he would reshuffle the tasks of everypony aboard one final time, saying it was “your last chance to prove yourselves, so no pressure.” Seeing this would also be his last chance to try piloting the airship himself, Thorax feared Gervas would yet again overlook him for the task in favor of somepony else, and this time decided to try and be more proactive about it.

“Sir, may I ask if I try piloting this time?” he asked the griffon politely when it came to his turn to be reassigned.

Gervas regarded him bluntly for a moment after this request. “You want to pilot, hmm?” he asked, with a tone of skepticism in his voice.

Thorax sensed a flare of concealed marvel within the retired captain though. “Yes sir,” he pressed gently, keeping his expression neutral.

“And just what makes you think you’re suited for such a task?”

Thorax found this a valid question, and for a moment was uncertain how to respond. “I wish to learn it, sir,” he offered in a frank tone after only a beat of hesitation. “I have a genuine interest in attempting it, and if it helps sir, I feel confident that it is a task I can perform satisfactory.”

“Yes, we all got that earlier at the Unicorn Range, when you decided you could fly better than the rest of us and took it upon yourself to demonstrate,” Gervas reprimanded firmly, clearly having not forgotten this instance.

“For the record sir,” Thorax interrupted calmly before Gervas could continue. “while I apologize for enacting a task I had not been assigned without your permission, I was simply doing what I felt was best for the airship and its crew…I meant no malice or ill-intent by it to anyone, and it is not a feat I wish to make a habit of. I do wish to be a good crewmember of any airship though, and it is my belief that sometimes to achieve that, one has to be prepared to step outside the confines of their given tasks.”

Gervas regarded him in silence for a long moment, but it was clear he was considering Thorax’s words. “I will not assign you as pilot Mister Thornton,” he finally told the disguised changeling in a definitive tone that made Thorax’s heart immediately sink. “And I have my reasons for that, but namely I think it would be better suited to give other ponies the chance at that particular task than you.” He tilted his head at Thorax as he watched the apparent unicorn’s face, waiting for a reaction. He seemed disappointed when Thorax was able to keep his outward appearance neutral despite his inward disappointment. “Instead…I think I will assign you as navigator,” the griffon ruled, and turned away. “You wanted a more ambitious task then there you go. Do try to not get us lost, Mister Thornton.”

It wasn’t what Thorax had hoped for, but nonetheless it was still a step in the right direction, as this meant he now worked very closely with steering the ship, giving the information needed by the pilot—this time an intelligent, proactive, but otherwise quiet and electric indigo-colored unicorn stallion named Dark Flare—to maintain course. It was also something Thorax was familiar with already, as it involved a lot of maps and the plotting of courses, something Thorax had light training for back in the hive and had put into practice in depth in his and Spike’s early days staying in Vanhoover, when he spent all that time planning where they might travel next or various escape routes should they ever be caught. This frame of reference helped, because even though Gervas (knowing that he couldn’t expect everypony tasked with this job to immediately learn it and thus provided all the tools and means necessary to make it all but foal-proof) had laid out a very clear course for them to follow, it became harder to maintain it once they were out over the North Luna Ocean, where useful navigating references all but vanished. They never traveled out of sight of the coastline, so if worse came to worse, they could always just follow that, but Gervas was very particular they stay on the course he laid out, which wasn’t quite so straightforward.

It also didn’t help that, save for the coastline that was still far enough away that it was little more than a dark line in the distance, everything else was just level and unbroken seawater as far as the eye could see. And as it all looked alike, it was easy for the air yacht to drift off course without its crew noticing. It didn’t help that there was more wind out over the ocean, powerful enough to tug at the little airship during the remaining stretch of its voyage, making it something of a fight to keep the craft from veering off entirely on its own when caught in the whims of nature. It tried the skills of most everyone aboard the ship so much so it was easy to see why Gervas had saved this leg of the voyage for last; it gave them the chance to all become more familiar and practiced with how sailing an airship worked first.

Fortunately Dark Flare, though a pony of few words, was a dedicated fellow, and upon realizing this was a danger he became resolute in ensuring it did not transpire. He was so determined to the task that he clearly strained himself to avoid it, both in eye, mind, and body. He had his hooves gripped to the ship’s wheel so tightly in attempting to keep the ship perfectly steady that Thorax inwardly worried he was going to cut off the blood circulation to his limbs, and he unintentional grimaced while trying to not miss any variations in the ship’s course so much so that Gervas sarcastically told him at one point that his face would freeze like that.

Thorax liked to think he had helped contribute greatly to their success too, figuring out very quickly what he needed to do to ensure they remained on course, and thus was able to alert Dark Flare every time they began to deviate off the course taking them back to Vanhoover. Working together, the two made a fairly good team and were able to successfully keep any straying to a minimum. It also helped that Gervas demonstrated that he really did know the course by sight, as he would quickly notice any notable deviations through means unclear to the rest and alert them in his usual critical tone without hesitation. With them being out over terrain that was so easy to get turned around over, there was no waiting to see if they would figure out what they need to do themselves this time.

As such, Thorax later thought that he probably should’ve known better to try it, but regardless, he became confident enough in his navigating abilities that he noticed a practical change to make in the course, and did so. “Adjust course by three degrees to the east,” he reported to Dark Flame as he worked with the map laid out on a table before him.

Dark Flame nodded silently and proceeded to make the requested adjustment to the course, but then Gervas blinked and turned to approach them. “Belay that, Mister Dark Flame,” he said as he started to walk across the quarterdeck.

Dark Flame blinked blankly at the griffon, stopping what he was doing in uncertainty. “Sir?” he prompted.

“It means don’t do it,” Gervas explained gruffly, approaching Thorax’s post at the back of the quarterdeck. “Mister Thornton, why are you deviating us from our course?”

Thorax looked up at him. “Technically, sir, I’m not, because we’re still heading for Vanhoover,” he explained simply.

“That’s not my point,” Gervas stressed. “Your proposed course change would take us off the planned course that you are supposed to be following.”

“Yes sir,” Thorax said with an apologetic nod. “I just saw the change would put us on a more direct path to Vanhoover than the planned one, hastening our arrival and…I was just trying to be helpful, sir.”

Gervas had to stop to massage the bridge of his beak for a moment. “As well intentioned as that is, Mister Thornton,” he conceded before explaining. “The point of the course is not to find the best route back home, but to serve as a training exercise to see how well you can stay on that course.” He leaned on the table between him and Thorax, glaring at the disguised changeling. “I don’t think I need to tell you then that you are failing to do that with your little change to our heading.”

Thorax regarded Gervas for a moment while seeing the griffon’s point and that he had yet again not done as the griffon had hoped, only this time he had only himself to blame. “Never mind Dark Flame, keep us on our original heading,” he said to the stallion, attempting to backpedal from his failure to realize the error sooner.

Dark Flame simply nodded and took steps to keep them on the original course. Without making any further comment, Gervas stepped away from Thorax’s post and went back to what he was doing. The griffon’s emotions were a muddle that were hard to sort, but Thorax was still able to pick out a tone of frustration among them, and feared that was the last straw for Gervas on whether or not Thorax would be able to earn any of his favor. Dismayed at this lost chance, Thorax quietly resigned himself to it, instead working to keep them on the course Gervas intended for them.

The remainder of the voyage proceeded on without much more event, and as the sun began to sink back towards the horizon heralding the approaching evening, Vanhoover pulled back into view. Soon the airship was maneuvering to come back in for a landing at the airship yard. Everyone was feeling victorious at this successful completion of the training cruise, and Thorax shared in that feeling of victory…but he still felt somewhat dejected, seeing himself having not performed as well as he felt he may have should. His failure to see that Gervas had laid out their course in such a way deliberately as part of the training especially weighed heavily on his mind, and knew the other times he had butted heads with the griffon during the cruise only added to put him in an unfavorable light. It left him thinking that, as the teacher and leader of the cruise, Thorax should have set his misgivings about Gervas and his methods aside and instead just done as asked or expected of him regardless…and he felt he hadn’t given Gervas the respect due.

So Thorax wasn’t expecting much after they had landed the air yacht and, serving as its ground crew yet again, towed it back into its berth in the hanger before proceeding to gather in a line out in the yard before Gervas, coming full circle to when the day camp had first started that morning.

The retired airship captain had pulled out his clipboard and was regarding his students with a critical eye once again as he gave his concluding remarks on their day. “So you all managed to get us safely out and back again without any injuries of note,” he remarked flatly, like this wasn’t noteworthy. “I’m sure this will please the insurance agents covering all of this. At any rate, I suppose you all did well enough, given the circumstances, some more than others. Some of you…I hope you got something out of this whole experience that will make you learn not to repeat whatever it was you respectively did. I think you all know who you are, so I’ll spare you the embarrassment of calling you out in front of your peers. You’re welcome.”

Thorax sighed to himself, figuring himself to one of the “less successful” Gervas spoke of.

“There is one final matter of business to resolve before I let you all run off though,” Gervas continued, pulling out the gold pin he had shown off at the start of the class. “As you recall, this goes to the one of you I feel preformed the best during the cruise, and as you may also recall, there’s only the one. This is good, because I’d hate to have to figure out more than one of you to pretend you had actually met all of my high expectations. Instead, I have to pick out which ones of you did marginally a little worse than the lucky squab who gets the gold one here, and the rest of you will have pins of your own to receive…all notably more silver in color, and frankly not as impressive as the gold one. Not that I’m saying anything by that.” He totally was and they all knew it, but they had all been around Gervas long enough to know better than to try and point it out. “But first things first, let’s get the big one out of the way.” He held up the pin higher. “I will now name who will be walking out of here with this pinned to their chest.”

He then paused for a moment, probably deliberately to build suspense, but Thorax wished he would just get it over with. He already had a guess that Gervas was going to pick Valiant, the pony Gervas had ridiculed far less than the rest and who the griffon had seemed the most pleased with. But even if not, Thorax knew who it wasn’t, and wished Gervas would just get on with it.

However, Gervas surprised him completely. “Mister Thornton, step forward please.”

Thorax jerked his head up, looking at the griffon in surprise and wondering if he had actually heard that right. “Me, sir?” he asked with shock notably clear in his voice.

Gervas gazed at him wearily. “Your name is Thornton, isn’t it?” he asked.

Thorax stared at him for a second longer, then looked at the rest of the ponies in the group and saw they seemed somewhat surprised too before realizing he really wasn’t imagining this. So he stepped forward towards the griffon as asked, starting to wonder if this was perhaps some sort of trick Gervas was setting him up for.

It wasn’t. Gervas promptly pinned the gold medallion to his midnight blue hoodie that he wore. “Now you’re properly decorated,” the griffon noted aloud after he had done this.

Thorax just stared at it, completely baffled by this, not understanding why Gervas had chosen him to receive this honor after everything that had transpired on the cruise. He looked back at the griffon. “But…”

“You think on your hooves, Mister Thornton,” Gervas explained, seeing Thorax’s confusion. “Anyone can do as they’re told, which is still good, but you thought for yourself, thought of the greater picture, of every action and the resulting consequences that would affect the airship as they happened. If there was something taking place you thought there was cause for concern, you brought it up or took action, and you were not just complacent or unquestioning to my every whit or whim just because I was in command. I may be the more experienced one here, but even I can make mistakes, and sometimes I need calling out. I was especially impressed by your actions to raise our altitude in the Unicorn Range. It was not what you were asked to do of course, and just acting like that is still not proper behavior aboard any airship. But it showed you were thinking of the safety of the airship and its crew, and to you that was more important. You also showed little to no outward malice when I didn’t give you the positions you wanted because I thought you didn’t need the practice already and instead thought it more prudent to broaden your horizons by having you try your hoof at other tasks that any good crewmember of an airship should be familiar with. And you performed them to the best of your abilities, showing you have more to learn, but you’re willing. You’re also an adept navigator; most ponies I teach never stop to think about how the course I have laid out is deliberately inefficient and indirect for the learning experience. But you not only did, you thought to do something about it. What I’m getting at here Mister Thornton is that you have a respect for authority, but not so much that you aren’t willing to think beyond it, that there might be other, better, ways. And that’s a grossly underappreciated trait. There are too many yes-ponies and not enough independent thinkers out there. And you do have both a talent and a clear interest in this field to boot. I realize my teaching style didn’t make that clear to you, but I’m generally tougher on my favorites. At any rate, I personally hope this gruff griffon hasn’t put you off and that it won’t be your last time in an airship because of it.”

Gervas then did something Thorax had never seen him do before; he grinned. Even more surprising, Thorax sensed a flare of pride behind it, and it overall left the changeling both touched and somewhat flabbergasted. “I…I don’t know what to say, sir,” he said, genuinely shocked by this unexpected development.

“That’s even better, I hate it when ponies speechify,” Gervas said, giving Thorax a friendly pat before motioning him to rejoin the group, the brief display of fondness gone as quickly as it had appeared.

Thorax numbly did so, trying to process that he clearly had left more of a mark on Gervas then he first thought while the griffon proceeded to pull out the next award (silver in color as promised) and name the first runner-up. He again surprised Thorax when he named Dark Flare as the recipient of “second place,” citing some of the same traits in Dark Flare as he did in Thorax, but most especially the equally surprised stallion’s determination. And Gervas didn’t stop there, naming Poppy Curls as the next runner-up (absolutely flooring the bashful mare), Gervas describing her skills as “budding still” but still showing “great promise,” urging her to “keep at it” and be more confident in herself; he believed she was more capable than she saw herself as. Valiant, the stallion Thorax had been certain would’ve placed first, instead was named as fourth, Gervas remarking that he liked Valiant’s dedication, but observing he still had “much to learn.”

The remaining pins handed out to the remainder of the class proceeded more mundanely from there, but the whole group was regardless stirred by it all; clearly there was more to Gervas’s character than they had thought. Seeing this, Gervas concluded the day camp by admitting it. “In my long years of service, I’ve found that most only show all of their true talents or strengths if pressured to do so,” he explained seriously in what was perhaps his most stunningly compassionate statement of the day. “That’s why I teach this class the way I do. And I realize that doesn’t make me many friends in the process, but regardless, it still enabled me to learn what I needed about each of you in turn. Despite who got what pins, know that you all did far better than I may have conveyed during all of this, and I hope I haven’t deterred any of you from pressing on in this field in the future. You all have the great potential for it; you just need to step forward and reach for it.”

And with that, they were dismissed, the day camp over. All a little humbled by this unexpected conclusion to the day, the group all started to walk off for their respective destinations, but as they did so, Thorax lingered on the airfield just a few moments longer, watching Gervas walk off for the main offices. Noticing the disguised changeling watching him, Gervas made a casual salute in his direction before proceeding on. Soon, Thorax was the only one remaining, lost in thought as he reflected back on the events of the day in a new light. Eventually though he left too, heading for the spot where he and Spike had agreed to meet up at again at the end of the day. Thorax did not need to wait long, Spike giddily appearing on the scene somewhat abruptly as the dragon vaulted himself gracefully over a nearby wall.

“I take it the parkour class went well then,” Thorax observed with a grin as Spike strolled up to him.

“Well, apparently they only taught the basics,” Spike explained with a grin and obvious bounce in his step. “But that was good enough for me!” With a dexterity that Thorax hadn’t often seen in Spike, the dragon showed off some of these new skills by vaulting himself onto a nearby lamppost and twirling around it so to face his friend again. “How about you, how did the airship flying go?”

Thorax put a hoof over the golden pin on his jacket. “Better than I imagined,” he observed with a faint smile.

As they proceeded back for Fly Leaf’s shop, Spike continued to practice his newfound skills at every opportunity, running, vaulting, and even on occasion flipping himself over a variety of things they passed along the way. He stumbled on occasion as he did so, but far less than expected, proving that Spike had learned lots in his parkour class. He continued to show off the skills once back at the shop, especially after he found he could bypass ponies in the hallway by doing a wall-run maneuver along the wall adjacent to said pony. He especially liked doing this to Fly Leaf, as Fly wasn’t never quite certain how she ought to react to it every time he did it, and would just comically stand there, looking a little blank.

Thorax, meanwhile, was more timid about what he had learned in Gervas’s class, and spoke of it in general, but positive terms. He went to bed that night still lost in thought about what Gervas had told him when he gave Thorax the gold pin. Though he wasn’t sure how it would happen, Thorax decided to rise to Gervas’s expectations, and ensure that the training cruise certainly wasn’t the last time he served on an airship.