//------------------------------// // Act 1: Prepare for Landing? // Story: Honeymoon Hazard // by DakariKingMykan //------------------------------// ACT ONE Cadance and Shining Armor had a lovely weekend… They swam; they play tons of games, which Shining Armor lost to Cadance each time, and not on purpose, much to his humiliation. They had wonderful meals, chatted with many ponies and couples on the voyage. At night, they danced on the deck under the stars as the band played soft music for them, which awed the crowds. They took many photographs of the things they did, and put them in postcards to give to the mail pegasi who took them to their friends and family all over. Captain Aero invited the couple to the control cabin where he and his officers steered the ship. “It’s been so lovely.” said Cadance “I almost wish it didn’t have to end.” “I feel the same,” agreed her husband “But what goes up, must come down. This ship can’t really stay in the air forever. You heard what the Captain said… …It needs to land for servicing and maintenance, or bad things could happen.” Cadance didn’t even want to think how badly. Still, the couple would be delighted to land back in Canterlot again, and see their friends and family who were going to meet them at the docks. Indeed, Twilight Sparkle, and all her friends and her parents were at the airstrip along with many other ponies, waiting for the arrival of The Skylord. They were going over the postcards Shining Armor had sent, and laughed at a few of them where he lost to Cadance at the games and seemed to be throwing a small fit. “That’s my bro,” teased Twilight “Never could take losing too well.” Her parents still couldn’t believe that their son was married to a Princess, but just the same it would be nice to see them again. “If you want, I could fly out and send them a message for you.” said Rainbow Dash. “Sorry, Rainbow, but you can’t.” said Twilight “The Skylord is so massive and such a marvel, only authorized ponies are allowed to fly near it. They might think you’re trying to sneak onboard.” Rarity sighed, “Oh, how I’ve always dreamed of flying on a first-class ship so chic.” She imagined herself on the ship, elegantly dressed, and many ponies would stop to gawk at her and awe at her grace, and even a handsome young stallion would wish to court her. Rarity’s fantasy was suddenly interrupted by Pinkie Pie hollering, “Ooh, Ooh, I can see the ship. It’s coming this way! It’s coming this way!” Indeed, everyone could see the ship off in the distance. “It seems like such a little speck when it’s that far away.” said Spike. Applejack chuckled, “Well, just you wait ‘till it gets here. I heard it’s so huge, why a big red barns looks like an outhouse.” Fluttershy felt nervous, “I don’t really like big things.” she whimpered. Still, Twilight was excited to see her brother and her new sister-in-law again. While far off in the airfield, Skye Light could see the ship coming in as well, and smirked wickedly at it. “Any second now,” she said to herself “…The real fun will begin.” Earlier, she had written a letter to the airstrip control tower, and at this very moment, the Head Controller was making preparations for the landing of the Sky Lord. He kept in contact with Captain Aero via a special magical book, since there were no radios due to the primitiveness of Equestrian technology. The Controller would write his message in his book, and the message would magically transport to the other book where the Captain would read it and respond with his own message. “Preparations for landing complete.” wrote Aero, and the message was sent. The Controller read the message and responded, “Prepare to reduce height and fire hydraulic jacks.” Suddenly, a lieutenant came barging into the main ops. “Controller, Controller!” she cried. She really seemed to be in a panic. “What is the meaning of this?” snapped The Controller. The lieutenant handed him a letter that was addressed to the tower staff, “Read this, sir. It’s very serious.” The Controller read the letter aloud… “I thought you would like to know that a highly explosive bomb has been planted in the hydraulic jack system of the Sky Lord. When the ship fires its jacks to land safely, the bomb will explode, and blow the ship into a million pieces, and release poisonous gas over a large area.” “My word!” cried The Controller “Could this be some sort of hoax?” “I don’t know sir.” cried the Lieutenant “But we better make sure.” The Controller agreed, and wrote to Captain Aero immediately. Aero received the message, “What?” he snapped “He’s telling us to climb in altitude and remain on free-float around this area.” The pilots were all confused, but soon they felt shocked when Aero gasped and said, “We’ve got a bomb!” The crew began to panic, and Aero whistled at them to snap to their senses, “We cannot let the passengers know of this! The last thing we need is for them to start panicking.” The ship suddenly started to climb, much to the passengers’ confusions. “What’s going on? Why are we climbing?” asked Shining Armor. As the passenger all chatted in concern and annoyance, a stewardess announced over the ship intercom, “Attention all passengers. We seem to be experiencing technical difficulties and are maintaining altitude in the hopes of straightening things out. We apologize for any inconvenience in this delayed landing, but we are doing everything we can to resolve this. Please feel free to continue to partake of our hospitality and activities onboard.” Unable to argue, and not wanting to just stand around and wait, many of the passengers went off to eat, swim, play, or whatever they could do. Cadance, however, felt different “They’re not telling us something, are they?” Shining Armor agreed, “I think I’ll go ask the captain what it is.” Down at the airstrip, all the ponies couldn’t understand what was happening. “They’re just hanging up there in the sky.” said Night Light. “Is something wrong?” asked Twilight Velvet. Twilight was especially confused, and starting to grow concerned. Then, she could see a large device shaped like a long tube sticking out. “What’s that?” she asked. “It’s an Infrared-Scope.” answered Rainbow “The Wonderbolts have things like that too. It’s like a telescope, but it’s used to X-Ray air vehicles far away for security purposes. This began to concern all the others. “Do you think something’s wrong up there?” asked Spike. “I sure hope not.” said Twilight. Up in the control tower, The Controller was looking through the scope straight at the ship in the sky. He looked straight at one of the hatches for one of the hydraulic jacks, and he could see the bomb with its flickering light. “There it is! …This is no hoax!”