Dear Faithful Student

by Muramasa


CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SIX:
REVOLUTION
COBALT AEGIS


"Cobalt! You know I can't keep up with you!"

Princess Celestia had said a variation on that phrase just about every time she tried to follow me, and I relished in it constantly. Knowing there was some kind of advantage I held over my mentor--even in something as silly as galloping speed--gave me a margin of confidence I will admit was likely far too great for what it was. Nonetheless, I slowed down immediately, allowing Celestia to catch up and walk easily by my side.

"Sorry 'bout that," I said, a sly grin unable to hide from my face. "I'm just very, very excited, Princess. I know you're going to love this." Celestia chuckled, nodding in her head in reminiscence.

"Yes, I know. You've been working on this for over a year and a half." Suddenly, her face dropped, and she looked over to the prosthetic leg that softly clanged with each passing step.

"You lost your leg for this, Cobalt. Before we see this, I want to ask you something." I stopped in the hallway, causing Celestia to take a few extra steps forward. She reeled back a bit and, with that serious, brooding expression only she could have, turned to me. She let out a small sigh before she spoke, a soft regret weaved into her fierce tone.

"I want you to tell me that it this was worth it. Worth... that. I am still beside myself every day that I couldn't help you." despite the heavy emotional undertones of the question, I merely shook my head in affirmation, pointing with my prosthetic down the hallway

"Celestia, I have three of these," I began, bumping the leg on my head to let the little ping of the alloy ring out. I pointed back down the hallway again, and I could feel my face settling into that eager grin Celestia always teased me for whenever I got excited about a project I was working on.

"But that, Princess? Waiting in that garage? There's only one. I'd do this again in a heartbeat."

She seemed taken aback at first with my conviction and motivation, but I truly doubt she was really surprised: I'd been working on the development of this project for a long, long time, and I had managed to keep a secret from the Princess of the Sun for its entirety. The only ponies who were in on it were the guards: the lads had to make sure I wasn't building some crazy doomsday device, and of course, I didn't blame them. I was just worried that one of the bastards would snitch on me, but they had either done a fantastic job or she was keeping it from me to feel better.

A warm smile crept onto Celestia's face, and she nodded much like I did only seconds ago.

"Then let us go on, Cobalt Aegis. I'm very excited to see your project come to fruition." Eagerly, I returned her smile, ever infectious from the likes of the Princess, and I started in a light jog towards our destination. Celestia followed suit and began humming a tune I didn't recognize, though it was certainly filled with beautiful, cascading harmonies.

As we turned the corner in our trek to the back of the castle, a pony in armor immediately entered my vision, coming towards us from the opposite direction. I recognized the mono-colored light blue pegasus immediately: it was Soaring Valor, one of the guards assigned to my project, as well as one of the very first ponies to experience it first hand.

The Royal Guard was taught with a very specific set of rules--my father had followed them and upheld them for close to twenty-five years--and one of its most basic tenants was its upholding of stoicism. The iron, emotionless gaze of the Royal Guard was legendary all across the world, and it was to be upheld especially in front of Princess Celestia, Equestria's monarch.

So I had to look to her face the moment Soaring stopped and spoke to me with a wide beam burning through his gaze.

"Are you showing her the invention?" He asked me. I got exactly the look I wanted from Celestia: her eyes were wide and jaw dropped ever so slightly in amusement, mildly surprised at the guard's words. I turned back to Soaring with a slyness I could feel on my countenance, nodding assuredly before I spoke.

"Indeed I am, sir. We shouldn't be gone long." Soaring nodded with a chuckle, patting me on the back before shifting his sight back up to his ultimate commander. He had a glint in his eyes as he addressed her next, his tone firm but mischievous.

"He took me on a test run last night," he told her. "My princess, it's incredible. What your lad here has done is nothing short of revolutionary." Without another word, he carried on with his shift, marching perfectly in time as he disappeared around the corner behind us. Celestia watched him leave before looking to me, a stunned and impressed look plastered on her face.

"Soaring has been among my personal guard for close to ten years now," she told me, "And I've never seen him praise anypony that highly. You must have truly outdone yourself, my little pony." I shrugged arrogantly, looking around the glass-stained hallway to an audience I didn't have.

"Well, princess, it's all to be expected from a stallion such as myself. Now come: I want to make sure the city lights are at their brightest." Celestia's face twisted in a very slight confusion at the last hint, but she nonetheless followed once I continued down the path to the garage my mentor so graciously had built for my project.

There were slices of small talk for the rest of the route, with myself mainly asking about Celestia's day and Celestia asking me how the rest of the royal guards had reacted to my creation. I didn't take long at all the reach the very simple wooden door to the garage, entirely out of place with the fabulous trimmings and stained glass of the hallways we had been walking through.

I stopped her right at the door, holding up my prosthetic leg in an effort to halt her. She complied, and with a curious expression listened intently as I launched into my preliminary tirade.

"Do you remember when we went to Liverpony for that ambassador's meeting three years ago?" I asked. Celestia nodded quickly, and so I leaned back into the wall as I continued.

"Well, I saw two things that caught my attention that day. The first came from all the steamboats that were traveling upstream in the River Maresey. I'm sure you remember that I sat by the shore and watched them for hours." Celestia giggled for the thousandth time that evening, recalling my jubilance upon my first viewing of the landmark invention.

"I do, yes," she answered. "Pulling you away from them at the end of the night was a greater trial than any." I smiled sheepishly at that remark, but didn't relive the embarrassment for long as I continued my tale.

"The second thing was the hot air balloons in the fields near the center of town. They had these brilliant patterns on them and the blokes were taking tourists up by the dozen." Celestia nodded once more, though I wasn't entirely sure she'd remember the few precious moments we'd seen the balloons during the trip. Nonetheless, I finally put my hoof on the door handle, looking up to my mentor with wild eyes.

"So for a year and a half, I thought of a way to bring out the best in both of them--" I swung the door open with extravagance and bowed mockingly, motioning my left hoof out to the large invention Celestia now had complete eyes on.

"--and it came out more spectacularly than I could have possibly imagined."

It was a sleek but simple design. The body looked very similar to the hull of a boat, and a very basic one at that: it was made almost entirely with wood, but I couldn't help adding an outline of bronze around the edges for a much cleaner look. The first thing I knew Celestia would notice was the clam-shaped wings, three on each side made and coated in various alloys for a nice rippling effect. Finally, its pitch black steam engine contrasted strikingly with the rest of the body, sitting atop it with a glimmering sheen.

That, of course, wasn't what made it special. An abundance of cables sprouted from each side of the ship, running across it for now as the main attraction--the balloon slightly bigger than the ship itself--lying gently on the floor to the side.

Celestia was speechless for a moment, but once she came to her senses, she spoke slowly while she continued to scan my creation.

"It's an... airship?" she asked, walking closer to it now. I gladly walked with her before parting ways quickly as I trotted to the other side to start it up.

"That's what I called it as well! Wonder how we both came to that conclusion." I quickly hopped up the small stairs and onto the deck, the familiar smell of the engine nothing short of blissful. I walked over to the port side and leaned over the railing to see Celestia continually admiring it, occasionally leaning left or right to get a closer look at the machine.

"Cobalt, this... this can fly?" she asked, the incredulous look she had upon first viewing it still plastered on her face. I nodded a bit more hubristic than I intended, and instead of speaking up again I merely waited for her to finish inspecting the craft. After a minute or two passed by, she looked to me again, this time with a dumbfounded smile from ear to ear.

"I have no words for this, my faithful student. How much of this is magically powered?" she asked, looking to the steam engine on my left. I had been waiting for this moment all night, and I suavely leaned up against the engine as I made a slicing motion with my hoof.

"Zero," I said, causing her to immediately turn back to me in a state of shock that far surpassed her countenance a few seconds ago. "I used lots of magic to make it, of course, but everything on this airship is entirely technological: there is no magic powering anything or replacing anything. One-hundred percent organic."

Celestia was clearly at a loss for words, and she backed up slightly from the ship's body to admire my craftsmanship one last time. She was at a total loss for words, and I could feel my sense of pride swelling higher than I knew it ever had before at the sight of my lifelong mentor mesmerized by my work. As she wouldn't speak, I leaned over the railing just a bit more and spoke for her.

"There's a whole new Equestria out there, Celestia," I said softly, gesturing behind me to the currently closed garage door. She stared back at me with pride, fear, and amazement all in shambles across her visage, letting out a very nervous chuckle. I motioned to the deck, pointing particularly to one of the many chairs I'd installed on the airship.

"Do you want to go see it?"


It took the help of Celestia and her guards to bring the airship out of the garage and into the vast open field behind Canterlot's castle, but it was labor she was more than willing to do: she looked like a filly on Hearth's Warming Day as I fired the engine up and the balloon began to float above us. It wasn't long until the ship began to slowly ascend in the air, and I quickly manned the controls as the ground--which was now barely visible in the dark--appeared farther and farther away.

"How high does this go?" she asked, turned back to me after watching her castle become smaller and smaller. I answered without turning back, keeping a steady and watchful eye on the controls and manipulating them with my magic as I spoke.

"I am not entirely sure," I admitted, steering a course for a Canterlot fly-by. "I've been very conservative with it in my testing, but I've gotten considerable altitude from it. I'm gonna try to take it higher than it's ever been here tonight, though." I could practically feel my mentor's concern from behind me, and as I expected she quickly spoke in a worried tone.

"Be careful, Cobalt! Are you sure we'll be alright?" Getting every setting exactly where I wanted it, I hopped away from the pilot's controls and walked down to where she was standing.

"Well, Princess, we're already at that height." I stood on my hind legs and waved my forelegs in the air to demonstrate before quickly falling back on all fours. "And we're cruising just fine, so I'm sure it can go even higher than this without a problem. BUT, I've saved the best part of it all for last." I gestured for her to follow me, and I briskly walked to the starboard side of the airship with her in tow. Stepping aside, I gestured for her to look over the edge, and she brought a hoof to her mouth almost immediately upon seeing the view below.

It was her city.

In times past, Canterlot would have only been lit by torches and bonfires, likely appearing as pinpricks to a pony that was flying this high in the air. Equestria had entered a new age, however, and the city was lit up bright and powerful, the streetlights and rooms creating a mini galaxy across the city below. It was what had stripped the breath from Soaring Valor and his men, and it was what I knew had captivated Celestia's heart in this moment now.

I let her look at it for what seemed like an eternity. She stared and stared and stared at the city come alive in light, the hoof never leaving her face, but there came a point when I saw something I had never expected to see from the Princess of the Sun.

Tears.

Gently trickling down her cheeks like morning dew across the leaves, it came slow but steady. I quickly ran up to her and placed my forearm around her, but I realized it had been my prosthetic: sheepishly, I switched sides and wrapped my very attached left forearm around her as I did my best to counsel her.

"Princess, is something wrong?" I asked, looking towards her face. She let out an emotionally charged fit of laughter, a nod of her head assuring me she was fine despite the rapidly increasing tears across her face.

"I am more than fine, Cobalt. I shed tears of joy," she said, still looking out to her city below her. "I'm unbelievably proud of you and all of my little ponies for what they've accomplished in such little time. A hundred years ago, my faithful student, I couldn't even to begin to imagine seeing what I'm seeing now." She sighed--possibly out of nervousness, happiness, or both--and finally turned to me, her face bright red but the widest smile I'd ever seen from her spread from ear to ear.

"I'm overwhelmed right now," she said simply. "I'm not entirely sure of what my place in all of this will be as this technology becomes greater and greater... but you've made me beyond excited to find out tonight, Cobalt. Thank you."

I could have gone for a sly remark as I typically did, but I shook my head instead.

"Thank you, Princess," I began. "None of this would have happened without your guidance for me--" I motioned to the airship we were standing on. "--and none of this would have happened without your guidance for everypony in your kingdom."

There, hundreds of feet upon the breathing machine that was Canterlot, she brought me into an embrace. I can't remember how long we stayed like that, but I do remember one thing in particular: I could see her out of the corner of my eye, longingly staring at the full moon that hung so graciously in the night sky. I didn't know if she was remembering something or merely appreciating its, beauty, but I certainly didn't question her at the moment: after some period of silent thought, we broke apart, my mentor quickly wiping the tears from her eyes as she spoke with heavy breathing.

"This has been a very emotional day for me, Cobalt," she said, laughing slightly. "I could stare at the view forever, but we really should be heading down." I nodded curtly, making a note of our current location based on the landmarks I could see before waltzing over to control panel and igniting my horn.

I made short work of it, but I'd been tirelessly studying the mechanisms of the airship for a long, long time. I had set the course to descend, and after what I imagined was close to forty-five minutes Canterlot's towering castle came back into view. The lights on the street were shut off now, with the stragglers and shady figures roaming the streets at this hour left to the darkness. Doing the best I could, I landed the ship relatively close to the garage entrance, but I mentally cursed myself when we touched down: I could have gotten it just a bit closer to make everypony's night that much easier.

Nonetheless, I helped Celestia down from the stairs--not that she really needed it--and walked out in the field to greet the guards who had waited on our arrival. Even in the darkness, Soaring Valor's familiar face couldn't hide from me, nor could his thrilled smile as he led his equally-impressed guardponies behind him.

"Isn't it incredible? I got excited just watching it from down here!" He exclaimed, doing nothing to hide the childish excitement in his voice. She nodded eagerly, turning to me with a twinkle of pride in her eyes.

"It's amazing. Historical, even," she commented, looking back to the ship. "I don't suppose you've given thought to a name?" The question was a very easy one, but it hadn't even occurred to me until the second she'd said it. I shook my head in the negative, also shifting my gaze to the airship.

"No, I haven't. Have anything for me, Soaring?" The question was asked teasingly, and Soaring held a hoof in the air in a gesture of denial.

"Me? I'm not one to ask about that, lad. How about our Princess here?" All eyes turned to Celestia, who instead of shying away from the challenge seemed to embrace the opportunity. Thinking for a few seconds, she turned back to ship and admired it from afar as she gave her answer.

"Revolution," she said, the conviction in her voice glaringly apparent. "For a ship that brings a new age." It rolled off the tongue quite nicely, I thought, and I found myself nodding in agreement along with Soaring and the rest of the guards. Wistfully observing the ship for a few more precious seconds, Celestia turned back to us with satisfaction in her smile.

"Thank you for sticking with my faithful student for so long, and for your service in staying guard until we returned. You are all dismissed." Their faces immediately reverted to the empty gaze they had long been known for, and with a perfect salute, the guards marched in unison across the field to the back side of the castle.

Celestia and I stayed for a moment and watched them go before she began walking back towards the garage. I quickly followed suit, and she began to speak to me when we were about halfway there.

"I cannot understate how proud and amazed I am at your invention. This will go down as one of Equestria's finest achievements, Cobalt." she mused idly, staring out to the grass. "I couldn't ask for a better student." I chuckled a bit, causing the Princess to look at me: with a look on my face I knew well was smug, I looked directly into her eyes as I gave my reply.

"Well, it damn better be. Cost me a hoof and a leg."