The Adventuring Type

by Cold in Gardez


Secret Agent Mare

It was odd standing on the Orithyia’s deck while she was in dock. Not just moored to a mast by a rope, which they did all the time; they were actually docked in Canterlot, their hull resting on the felt-padded beams of the airshipyards. The normal motions of the hull as it swam in the air, bobbing in time with the wind, dancing with the thermals, they were all gone. The deck was as still as a stone.

Rainbow Dash didn’t like it. She frowned at the deck like it had offended her. She tried stomping with her hooves, but she was a pegasus mare and pegasus mares were the lightest of all ponies, and not well-equipped for stomping. The wood made a hollow thumping sound but nothing more.

“Everything alright, Miss Dash?” Nutmeg trotted up beside her. He looked down at the deck beneath her hooves. “No dry rot, is there? I just had the planks treated last year.”

“It feels weird. Like it’s asleep, you know?” Rainbow peered up at the airship’s gas envelope. It hung in limp drapings, empty of the precious hydrogen that carried them aloft. Until they refilled it, the Orithyia would not truly live. “Are they done yet or what?”

“Almost,” Nutmeg said. “We don’t want them to rush. Calibrating gem-fired engines is a complex and time-consuming blah that requires years of blah to blah blah blah unless you want blah or blah to blah. And blah if blah blah blah… Miss Dash, are you even listening?”

“Huh?” Rainbow turned. She’d been peering over the railing at the city below. It was weird (again!) to look down without actually being flying herself. For a moment she thought she could understand why some ground ponies were afraid of heights; that the endless euphoria she experienced when flying were due entirely to the control she had. And if that were stripped away, if a pony saw heights without control, well, they might be a bit scared.

No, that was stupid. Ponies who were afraid of heights were stupid. “Yeah, I’m listening. So, are the engines done yet or what?”

He sighed. “Almost. Can you start inflating the envelope? Only to half-buoyancy for now.”

Finally, an actual task! She snapped to attention and saluted with a wing. “Aye, captain!”

Filling the balloon was easier than it sounded. There was a valve near the rear of the envelope. She connected it with a hose to the pressurized hydrogen tanks on the the dock and opened it slowly. You had to be careful with this part – releasing gas from a pressurized tank caused it to expand dramatically, which also caused it to cool a great amount. It could cool so much that the hose could freeze and ice start to form on the metal of the valve. And if the metal cooled too much it could shrink, and that could cause problems with the valve fittings, and then hydrogen might go everywhere and that was never a good day. So she slowly bled the hydrogen into the envelope, until over the course of an hour it slowly regained its balloon-like shape, though wrinkled and sagging and only light enough to lift its own weight, rather than the entire ship.

She was so engrossed in the task that she jumped in surprise when the engines started. First the starboard, then the port engines rumbled to life. The deck vibrated beneath her hooves as their internal workings got up to speed and the oil in their gears warmed. The low uncertain rumble turned into a deep, steady hum that echoed in her hollow bones. The Orithyia came back to life.

Her cheeks hurt. She realized she was grinning like an idiot. She tried to stop, but it was impossible. So instead she lay down on the deck, pressing her ribcage against the wood, letting the ship’s vibrations into her heart. She rubbed her muzzle on the aft halyard rig and didn’t even mind the scratches it left.

“Never gets old, does it?” Rainbow lifted her head to see Nutmeg smiling at her from the ship’s wheel. “Every time they start the engines.”

She stood and stretched. Normally letting anypony catch her in such a silly display would be grounds for mortification and sudden, panicked escape into the sky. But this was Nutmeg. They’d lived together in tight quarters for far too long to feel something as silly as embarrassment around each other.

“Envelope’s about half full.” She knocked a bit off ice from the valve. “Orders?”

“The engines are ready.” He motioned with his nose at the engineer ponies packing up their tools and heading to the ladders. “She’s ready for a test run. Fill her up all the way, if you please.”

Yes! Rainbow did please! They were about to go off again. A heady, giddy glee seized her. “Right away!”

Soon the mooring lines were cast aside, and the Orithyia floated free of her bonds. Nutmeg took the wheel and backed her away from the docks. It was on about evening by now, and the lights of the city were starting to shine. Canterlot glowed like a million jewels beneath them. The shipyards were flooded as always, the brightest part of the cityscape, but as they drifted further away the full extent of the mountainside castle became apparent. Rainbow peered over the port gunwale as the ground drifted further away.

It was beautiful, in its own way. Rainbow was never one for paintings or landscapes, but even she could appreciate the colorful, dazzling mosaic below. Strobing warning lights atop the highest towers sparkled like grounded stars. The streets were rivers of embers between dark expanses of parks and lakes.

A purple flash caught her eye. Her eyes darted toward it reflexively, but it was already gone. Some unicorn magic, no doubt. The city was filthy with the stuff. She shrugged and pushed away from the rail to join Nutmeg at the wheel.

“How’s it feel?” she asked.

“Smooth as cream,” he said. “Ready for full power?”

Rainbow darted to the ship’s prow. Ahead of them the sky was empty for days. “All clear!”

He didn’t answer. Or rather, he didn’t speak; his answer was the ship’s throttle, pushed forward to maximum. The engines roared, shaking the decks. The wind began to slice at them. The ropes whistled through the air. And the Orithyia was once again the fastest thing in the skies.

* * *

Rainbow dreamed her head was on sideways. She kept running into walls. She couldn’t walk straight, nevermind fly. She kept going in circles, weighed down by the fact that the world was spun 180 degrees off true. And because it was a dream, it seemed like the realest thing in the world. She landed on a cloud and clung to its side so gravity wouldn’t fling her into the endless abyss of space. The sun rose below her and the earth was a wall far to the west.

She woke in a confused daze. After several nights of sleeping on a bed, her hammock felt like a net, and she the trapped prey. She flapped and struggled and eventually fell out.

“Uff.” She blinked at the dark space. It was cramped as always, and she climbed out over the crates of supplies. The engines were sleeping still, set as low as they could idle without stalling. Nutmeg was asleep too, hanging in his hammock. It was too dark in the cabin to see him, but she could hear the steady beat of his heart and smell his mix of engine oil and feathers and musk. She crept out quietly so as not to wake him.

The ship held station in the sky far above the great plains west of Canterlot. An ocean of grass waved beneath them in time with the wind. It moved in great waves stretching out to the horizon, lit by the full moon. She stared at the sight for a few minutes, then turned, frowning.

Something was wrong with the ship. It was unbalanced. She walked from stern to prow and back again, placing each hoof on the Orithyia’s midline. No doubt about it, there was something uneven in the hull.

She jumped over the rail and soared a huge orbit around the ship. There were no stray ropes or anchors dangling from her sides. The envelope was even and full. She landed on the very tip of the prow and frowned harder. Some piece of unsecured cargo? No, she’d tied it all down herself. The new engines misaligned? Nutmeg would have spotted that instantly. Engines were in his blood. He knew them better than his own wings. If Nutmeg said the engines were fine, they were.

So what was it, then? The question nagged at her like a burr under her saddle. She snorted and walked to the middle of the ship and extended her wings.

Port. It was to port. She walked to the rail and flapped her wings ever so gently. She started to fly, and stopped just before her hooves left the deck. Down. Up again. The ship began to rock along its long axis, swaying beneath the balloon like a pendulum.

Now she could really feel it. The extra weight was right in front of her, but the deck was empty. Had they used the wrong paint? Heavier ropes tethering the balloon? Nothing made sense. She started to walk forward along the rain and promptly ran into something soft and fuzzy that yelped in surprise.

Rainbow yelped too. She jumped away, wings flared. “Who’s there?!”

“Well, shoot, you found me,” the empty air said. It shimmered and glowed, and when the glow stopped a unicorn mare stood in front of her with a sheepish expression.

“Uh, hey,” Starlight Glimmer said. “Sorry about that. How’d you find me, anyway?”

* * *

The Orithyia didn’t have a brig. It didn’t have much of anything, actually, aside from the engines and some space belowdecks for their hammocks and a bit of cargo. The lack of space for a brig had never troubled Rainbow Dash before, nor had it even crossed her mind, but now it seemed like a glaring oversight in need of remediation.

“So, you know Miss Dash?” Nutmeg asked. He set one of their precious scare teacups on the table for Starlight. Faint wisps of steam rose from it and scented the air with jasmine. “Are you one of her friends from Ponyville?”

“She’s a stowaway!” Dash slammed her hooves down on the table. The teacup jumped and nearly spilled. “And yes, she’s a friend. Or, she was before she turned to a life of crime!”

“Okay, first of all, when you met me I was a power-mad villain intent on ruling the world and enforcing my twisted vision of equality on all ponies everywhere. That was the before.” Starlight lifted the teacup before Dash could threaten it any further. “And second, I’m not a stowaway. I’m here on a mission.”

“Did you sneak on the ship?” Dash asked. “Did you have a ticket?”

“Well, no.” Starlight took a sip. “Ooh, that’s nice. And do you have a ticket?”

“Miss Dash doesn’t need a ticket,” Nutmeg said. He put a hoof on Rainbow’s shoulder and gently pulled her away from the table. “She’s part of the crew. You are not, however. May I ask why you are aboard our ship?”

“I told you. I’m on a mission.”

“From the princess?”

“Yeah, sure. From the princess.”

“Oh yeah?” Rainbow pushed forward. At times like this Nutmeg could be too nice for his own good. “What mission? A friendship mission?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t tell you. It’s a secret.”

“A secret friendship mission?” Nutmeg asked.

“No, just a regular secret mission. It’s honestly not all that exciting, I just need to use your ship to get somewhere.”

“Oh.” She was right – that wasn’t as exciting. Rainbow frowned. “Where?”

“I can’t tell you that either.”

Nutmeg frowned. “We’re bound for Groveport. Is that where your mission is?”

“Uh, maybe? Where’s Groveport?”

Oh! Rainbow knew this! She dashed across the room to their chart box and pulled out the drawer with the southeast Equestria maps. It was second from the bottom, and she yanked the scroll free and plopped it down on the table. “Okay, we’re about here. Groveport’s this little place here. That dot where the railway intersects the river.”

Starlight peered at it. Her eyes weren’t as good as a pegasus’s, and the little cabin was lit only by a few lanterns. “That’s not a port. Why’s it called Groveport?”

Rainbow shrugged. “Dunno. Just a name, I guess?”

“More importantly, why are you on our ship if you don’t know where it’s going?” Nutmeg asked. “That doesn’t seem like an efficient way to travel.”

“On the contrary!” Starlight’s ears perked up, and she smiled widely at them. Too widely. Her teeth showed, and though Dash knew there wasn’t any malice in her friend, it was easy to remember that Starlight was that pony who’d been a villain not so long ago. “Your ship is incredibly fast! I’d hoped to just stay invisible the whole time and maybe hop off when it looked like you were getting somewhere, but this is even better! Now I don’t have to worry about sleeping out in the cold or figuring out how to use the bathroom while invisible!”

“The head,” Dash said.

“The what?”

“The head. The bathroom is called the head on an airship.”

“Oh. Uh, okay.”

“You know, you could’ve just asked us for passage,” Nutmeg said. “Any friend of Rainbow’s is a friend of mine. We’d be happy to take you wherever you want to go.”

“Ah, but that’s just it.” Starlight finished her tea and set it down. “If you knew I was on board, you’d ask me where I wanted to go! And that would ruin the secret.”

“But…” Rainbow frowned. “We’re not going where you want to go. We’re going where we want to go.”

“Exactly!” Starlight clapped her hooves. “I can’t wait to get there!”

“How do you know that’s where your mission is, then?”

“I don’t know. That’s part of the secret too.”

Nutmeg took Starlight’s empty teacup and set it in the little sink mounted on the wall. “Is there anything about this secret mission you actually know?”

“Well, it involves Groveport. I know that much now. And we can deduce that it probably involves magic, or else why send me to fix it? Like, if there was a problem with a wild animal you’d send Fluttershy, right? So this must be a magic thing.”

“Who sent you? Don’t tell me that’s a secret too.”

“Oh, no, it was Twilight. I recognized her writing.”

“You know, we ought to just let you off at the next stop,” Rainbow said. “How are we supposed to trust a mare who sneaks onto our ship? That’s dangerous!”

“Well, I’m sorry about that. I just felt like I needed to at the time,” Starlight said. She managed to look contrite, her ears folding. “And, you could let me off. You’d be well within your rights to. But, on the other hoof, don’t you want to be part of a secret agent team?”

Hm. Secret agent team. Rainbow rolled the words around in her brain. They settled in nicely, like they’d always had a home there. Rainbow Dash: Secret Agent.

Nutmeg was staring at her. He had that look he sometimes got. “Miss Dash, even if this was a real secret mission, you realize you wouldn’t be able to tell anypony about it, right? That’s the whole point of it being a secret.”

Truth. It hit her like a bucket of cold water. Her dreams of secret agent fame dripped away between her hooves. “Oh. Uh, yeah, I guess that’s true.”

They sat in silence for a moment. The airship creaked around them.

“Well, we’d know,” Starlight said. “That counts for something, doesn’t it?”

Hm. That bore considering. Maybe some things were worth doing just to impress a few ponies? Or even just one. She glanced at Nutmeg to gauge his reaction. He sighed.

Good enough! She nodded. “We’ll do it.”