//------------------------------// // 13 - I Believe In A Thing Called Love // Story: Velvet Underground // by MagnetBolt //------------------------------// Modern airship design owes much to traditional naval design. The older an airship is, the more obvious it becomes that their gondolas are essentially boats hanging from a bag full of lighter-than-air gas. Over time, materials were lightened, control surfaces were refined, and various methods were found for propelling them against the wind. “...and since it’s a boat, we can put it down on the ocean safely,” Sunset yelled over the wind rushing past them. “We’re in a good spot. We’re near land but not right over any islands.” “We can’t hold up a whole airship!” Velvet shouted. “Do you know how much it weighs?!” “A couple of the gas cells are still intact, so that’ll help too,” Sunset continued. “Look, I know you’re used to being weak but I’m the best! I don’t wanna hear about how weak you are! All I wanna hear from you is ‘wow, Sunset, you’re amazing and this plan is gonna work!’” “But--” “I could probably do it myself,” Sunset said, cutting off Velvet’s protest. “I’m using you as a safety net, understand? You just use the levitation tricks I’ve been teaching you and try to make the airship a little lighter.” Velvet nodded. There wasn’t much point in arguing. They were going to crash either way so they had to try something. She reached out for the rigid base of the gas envelope around her and tried to use what Sunset had taught her. Just pulling and lifting was like using a lever attached to your horn - a long distance was a lot harder and too much weight would give you a terrible headache. The trick to self-levitation, and holding up large objects, was just to keep them from falling. That might sound obvious, but cancelling the momentum was easier than actually moving them. It was the difference between trying to stop a baseball being pitched by an expert and one falling off a shelf. Unfortunately, the Merriweather Post Pavilion was already moving. Velvet tried to bleed it away, streamers of her magic acting like airbrakes, shaving off only a fraction of the momentum they were gaining moment-to-moment. Light flashed through her closed eyelids, and she opened her eyes to see Sunset’s horn blazing like a nova, the filly’s aura as bright as the sun. The whole ship started to glow with that light, and Velvet’s own spell redoubled in power, like a common note with Sunset’s magic was striking a chord. Everything became weightless for a moment, loose scraps and drops of water falling upwards in defiance of an entire world’s worth of gravity. The ship slowed and nearly came to a stop. The very tip of the bow touched the water. Sunset’s horn flickered and the light snapped off like a bulb burning out. Velvet’s spell collapsed in the rush of unraveling sorcery, and the Merriweather Post Pavilion lurched back into motion, hitting the water hard enough to make everything jump. “Any landing you can trot away from, right?” Night Light asked. “It occurs to me,” Sunset said, her voice faint. “We punched a big hole in the hull in our cabin.” “Do you think that’s going to be a problem?” Night Light asked. The three of them watched as the last of the Merriweather Post Pavilion sank below the waves from their lifeboat. “At least the cold water and the shock from the fall woke everypony up,” Night Light offered. “I heard somepony mention that everypony got out okay.” “We had to leave that monster onboard,” Sunset muttered. “I don’t like it. Trapping it with airtight cloth was clever but it’ll eventually figure some way out.” “What monster?” One of the other ponies on the lifeboat asked. Velvet looked back at the dozen ponies she didn’t know. All of them looked like they were from Canterlot. That is, they had too much money to know what to do with and only listened to other ponies when it wasn’t convenient for anypony involved. The mare who had spoken was wearing a fur coat despite being on a tiny lifeboat. It was already soaked but she refused to take it off. “It’s, um, foals like to make up stories,” Velvet said, lamely. “It was probably an iceberg.” The well-to-do pony blinked in surprise. “In the air?” “Winter comes earlier every year,” Velvet said. “Nothing like the winters I had as a foal,” a pony in a ripped top hat at the back of the boat scoffed. “Why I remember there was so much snow we got the whole weather team fired for ruining our lawn!” The vacationers descended into comparing stories about the weather, and Velvet breathed a sigh of relief. “There are boats on the way already,” Night Light said, pointing. Lights were moving closer from the shore. “We’ll be back on land soon.” “Good. Once we get picked up, I’ll pay the captain to take us the rest of the way,” Sunset said. She pulled out a small bag of bits with her cutie mark on it. “Right, then we can-- wait, you had money? You made me pay for the airship tickets!” “This is an emergency fund,” Sunset snorted. “It wasn’t an emergency until I was the only one with cash. Night Light groaned. “Really? This is where we were going?” Velvet asked as she stepped off the small fishing boat and onto a dock that had seen better days. The town couldn’t have held more than a hundred ponies and half that many buildings, a tiny speck that probably didn’t even appear on the map. Everything looked weather-worn and sun-bleached, like it had stood undisturbed for generations. “Trust me, I had the same reaction the first time,” Sunset sighed. “I was expecting like, a secret castle hidden in the forest and instead I got dropped off here.” “Should we go to the hotel?” Night Light asked. “Is there a hotel?” “You two are going to stay around here,” Sunset said. “I have to check on some important stuff. Don’t wander off. I’ll come back when I need you.” Velvet frowned. “When you need us?” “You’re right,” Sunset said. “I shouldn’t have been so rude. If I need you. There are actual trained guards here. You’ll probably be going back home.” The filly stuck out her tongue and strutted off, Velvet and Night Light watching her go. “I’m going to write a letter to Princess Celestia about her,” Twilight Velvet decided. “And I’m going to recommend she appoints somepony to spank that filly until her cutie marks are hoofprints and she’s learned how to be polite.” Night Light sighed and stopped as they walked off the dock and onto the grass. “I don’t care how rude she is. I’m just glad to be back on dry land.” He stomped his hooves a little. “This isn’t going to sink or explode or crash into the ocean and right now, that’s enough.” Velvet smiled. “Come on. We’ll get a snack while we wait. My treat.” “And what is this?” Night Light asked, looking at the paper plate Velvet had returned with. “Well, these are fries,” Velvet said, pointing at one side of the plate. “And, uh, the pony at the booth said these were kind of a local specialty.” The other half of the plate was occupied by golfball-sized battered balls, and everything had been doused in malt vinegar and mayonnaise and sprinkled with seasoned salt. “Did he tell you what the specialty actually was?” Night Light asked. “Try one first,” Velvet said. Night Light carefully speared one of the balls with a toothpick and bit into it, revealing a mealy white center. He chewed slowly before swallowing. “Fish?” he guessed. Velvet nodded and took one for herself. “Apparently they do a lot of fishing here, and the land isn’t really great for farming. The balls are kind of a fish sausage made with olive oil and barley, then battered and deep-fried.” “They’re not bad,” Night Light admitted. “Sort of pegasus cuisine, I guess.” “Is it, though?” Velvet asked. “I mean, how would a pegasus catch fish? They live up in the sky. They don’t have rivers or lakes or anything.” “Well, there’s some interesting history there,” Night Light said, perking up. “It’s actually because of the long history of cultural transfer between griffons and pegasi! Griffons have to eat meat or they get sick, kind of like how ponies need to eat vitamin C or we get scurvy. Fish are basically the only thing they could eat around ponies, and pegasi ended up incorporating it as part of their own culture because--” Velvet popped another ball of fish into his mouth in the middle of his speech. “Eat before it gets cold. Fried food is awful once it cools down.” She grinned, holding back a giggle at his expression. Night Light nodded, blushing and sharing the food with her, the two occasionally feeding each other as they polished off the street food. “You know, despite all the near-death experiences, this hasn’t been a bad trip,” Night Light said. “I never got to do anything exciting with my life before this.” He looked out over the bay. There were cone-shaped islands stretching out to the horizon, most of them black rock and overgrown with tangles of scrabbly plants, the trees stunted and twisted. “It hasn’t been that bad,” Velvet admitted. “The filly is annoying but she’s probably right that we’ll be going home. The Guards are better equipped to handle this.” “If you wanted, maybe we could… do something sometime?” Night Light asked. “I wouldn’t mind a hoof around the house with Dad in the hospital,” Velvet said, her cheeks turning pink. “You can cook, right?” “I can manage sandwiches, and they’re usually…” Night Light looked past her shoulder. “...beautiful.” “Beautiful?” Velvet asked, turning to follow his gaze. A pink pony was watching them, trying ineffectively to hide herself while she stared, wings halfway spread like she was about to take to the air. And she was beautiful enough to make Velvet’s heart jump in her chest. “Oh, uh, don’t mind me!” the pink pony said, embarrassed. She stepped out of the cover of the bush she’d been watching them from. “Sorry.” Night Light prodded Velvet and pointed at the pink pony’s head. And her horn. Horn and wings. Velvet gasped and scrambled to her hooves and bowed, Night Light quickly following suit. “I’m so sorry, Princess! Sunset didn’t tell us you’d be coming!” “No, no, please, don’t bow,” the pink alicorn pleaded. “I’m not a princess. Not officially, anyway.” She helped Velvet and Night Light up. “Please, just call me Cadance. The last thing I want is ponies making a fuss over me.” She smiled a little. “I heard ponies talking about some new arrivals and I just wanted to sneak out and have a look for myself.” “Sunset Shimmer really should have warned us we’d be meeting you today,” Velvet said. “I’m so sorry. My name is Twilight Velvet, this is Night Light, and my mane is a mess, we both need showers--” “You don’t need to apologize. I’m nopony special,” Cadance assured them. “Ponies keep trying to pretend I am, but I’m not really royalty or anything. Princess Celestia raises the sun every morning, I can barely even help the ponies here that need me.” “I’m sure that’s not true.” Velvet smiled. The pink alicorn’s presence was warming, somehow, even more than the hot food had been. “My father always said that everypony is special in their own way.” “Sometimes I wish I was less special,” Cadance said. “It was easier when I was just an orphaned pegasus filly.” “But… you’re an alicorn,” Night Light pointed out. “I wasn’t a few years ago,” Cadance sighed. “Now everypony acts like they don’t know how to treat me. I used to be the filly they took care of out of pity, and now…” Cadance trailed off. “Now you’re a bigger pain in the flank than the monsters!” Sunset snapped, appearing in a burst of sorcery. “What’s wrong with you?! I told you before I left not to go out in the open and to stay away from strange ponies!” “Well, um…” Cadance blushed and smiled. “It’s nice to see you got back safely, Sunset.” “I tell you to stay away from strange ponies and what do you do? You go and talk to the only two ponies in town that are strangers!” Sunset huffed. “You didn’t even tell the guards where you were going!” The filly started in on her, squeaking out a long list of annoyances that the pink alicorn had forced her to suffer through. Cadance looked past Sunset to Velvet and mouthed the word ‘help’ silently. “Um…” Velvet coughed. “So you’ve been teaching her magic, Sunset?” “Huh?” Sunset stopped her tirade. “Yeah. Why?” “Princess Celestia must really trust you a lot if she gave you a responsibility like that.” Sunset blushed and scoffed. “Obviously! She always says I’m the most ambitious student she ever had!” “So, since you’re in charge, what should we do next?” “In charge- right! Of course I’m in charge!” Sunset grinned. “Follow me! We’ve got planning to do!”