Reef Skimmer bounded up the ramp to tween deck, his wings half-unfurled to help with balance. The big grey hippogriff reached the main corridor and skidded to a stop, eyes widening as he sees the scorch marks on the deck and singed corners on the tarps covering the crates. The smouldering trail was easy to follow, and he thought it wise to do so, considering the embers glowing in the burnt tassels of the hanging ropes the enraged kirin had brushed against. It didn't look like anything was going up in flames just yet, but it was a fire's tendency to grow.
Reef cleared his throat, about to call for... but instead, a little screech escaped his beak as he realised one scaly foot was directly on a hot spot. Holding the claw up for a moment, he shouted "Fire! Fire in the tween deck corridor! Look lively, get some buckets in here!" A couple of pony faces had already begun to poke out of doorways, and now the crew began to spring into action, splashing buckets of water on anything that looked like it might start a blaze. It took them only a minute or two to put everything out, though the corridor was left considerably wetter than it was before. More ponies continued to arrive and could only stand there with full buckets, with nothing further to do.
Seeing that the ponies had the situation under control, Reef surged forward again, heading towards the rear of the ship. "Nutmeg? Are you there?" he called out. No response was forthcoming. This utilitarian part of the vessel held coal bunkers and steam pipes, oak decking giving way to the imperial iron of the Storm King, without much decoration or embellishment. The pink-crested stallion's claws clicked on metal as he entered the engine room proper: the sturdy iron hatch separating it from the rest of the ship had been left open and unattended.
The bulk of the engine crew were in the mess or resting in their bunks, with only a few ponies present to check dials, operate the coal lifts, or in one case stand there looking at him questioningly. The tawny, blue-haired earth pony stepped forward, saying in a slight brogue, "What'd you do to the chief? She came though here, flamin' mad!"
Reef Skimmer tilted his head a little and stared at the stallion, trying in vain to recall the pony's name. He'd wanted to examine the whole crew before setting off, but between checking and stowing all the medical supplies and getting the sickbay ready, he hadn't had time. Steam something maybe, he thought, craning his neck to catch a glimpse of the pony's flank picture... a pair of blue gears. Hmm, still didn't ring a bell. Oh well... "I assure you, my good pony, my efforts were directed entirely towards preventing a disaster." he began. "It was one of those blasted passengers who took it into her head to soak our engineer in sarsaparilla."
The blue-haired stallion lifted a hoof, opened his mouth as if to speak, then glances down as a chuckle escapes him. "That'd do it," he said, before looking up and approaching the hippogriff. "You know the chief?" he asked in a curious tone, glancing over his shoulder down the corridor to where the turbine of the engine is humming away. "She probably just needs some time to herself."
"Know her?" Reef replied. "No, not really, only a couple of staff meetings and she was all business at those. Fascinating though, a kirin who prefers machines to forests, and ponies to her own people?" Reef realised he was staring into space and cleared his throat. "Which is to say, one hopes she hasn't taken this too badly. We can't have our chief engineer on less than top form when we're trying to steam through a giant storm now, can we?"
Backing off, the pony said "Oh, don't let me stop you. Just keep in mind she might be kind of emotional. Given what she is and all. Just don't act like you think she eats ponies and you'll be alright." Some of the other crew who were looking your way relax at that, and go back to whatever they were doing. Gesturing dramatically in the direction he glanced, the tawny stallion confirmed, "She's over there between the boilers, where there ain't nothing to burn."
Reef gave the pony a curt nod of thanks and cautiously walked further into the noisy engine room, gazing at the crew and the machinery in turn. In truth it was an unpleasant space to be in with the din, smoke and lack of windows, not to mention the source of quite a few minor injuries as the engine ponies cut, scraped and burned themselves doing their jobs. The actual mechanics of it all were quite interesting though; pony technology (or storm beast technology, for that matter) was significantly more advanced than that used by his own people. Not that a hippogriff cutter wasn't a fine ship with a good wind behind her!
The giant drums of the ship's boilers were in a the poorly lit and ventilated area, filled with a constant, pervasive thrum punctuated by occasional hisses of steam, creaking of pipes... and a series of sharp clangs, as if something was hammering on metal. A strange purplish light was flickering somewhere behind the starboard boiler, contrasting with the orange glow of the fireboxes. Reef gulped, before finally gathering his courage and shouting over the din: "Nutmeg Inferno? Is that you back there?"
When no reply came, the hippogriff ventured a little further and caught sight of a beast darker than the darkness itself, enveloped in strange flames that somehow radiate heat but no warmth. Shining against the red wreathed blackness were a pair of glowing eyes, with bright, sharp, predatory fangs fully bared as the unearthly mare took out her frustrations on the sturdy iron wall of the giant pressure boiler. Reef couldn't help staring in wonder at the strange creature: he'd read that kirin had an alternate form, not unlike his own people's ability to assume an aquatic shape, but the sketches in his book hadn't done it justice. This was clearly a creature of magic and passion, her nirik shape possessed of a certain dangerous beauty... and apparently a propensity to vent her anger at the machinery. 'Not exactly safe, but certainly better than doing so on the crew', Reef thought.
Catching sight of Reef Skimmer, the transformed kirin paused her assault on the boiler for just a moment, her face betraying surprise before shed fled with blistering speed, heading deeper into the labyrinthine pipework. The mare herself might be hiding but the eerie light from her flames was all too evident, flaring brighter and brighter as if to consume her.
Reef's concern was rising in tandem with the kirin's magic. Had he made things worse? She clearly wasn't comfortable being seen like this. Shaking his head to dismiss an unpleasant vision of the entire engine room going up in flames, he swallowed and tried to keep his tone casual "I thought you should know, erm, that the crew... that it's fine, nothing damaged, no one hurt. Significantly that is... So! One rather hopes, err, that the silly filly hasn't ruined your whole evening..." His voice trailed off.
The light seemed to be ebbing away now, but still no response came. Following further seemed unwise: the kirin clearly didn't want to show herself and the big hippogriff would have trouble fitting through the tight spaces between the pipes. Perhaps he could coax the engineer out? "It can't be easy." Reef tried in a softer, more calmer tone. "It hasn't been for me, when ponies just see a predatory face looming over them. Add fire to the equation, and... well. This can't be the first time." The griff fell silent, wondering if he should just leave.
At that point a coughing sound emerged from the tangle of machinery, followed by a mare's voice loudly calling out, "It's okay! I'm not on fire!" Moments later an out of the ordinary creature hastily emerged, who true to her word had returned to her previous appearance. Her fiery red ruff was considerably less literal, now made of bountiful fluffy hair. Her eyes were strikingly normal, green rimmed, and looking downward as the horned kirin scurried forward, hunched in an awkward submission.
Noticing who the clawed forelegs of whom she's approaching, she looks up in surprise and says in her cool alto, "Oh, you're not a pony. You're one of those... birdy creatures. Not a griffin, um, I forget what they call you, sorry. I'm a kirin FYI." Flicking an ear and looking aside, she added in a slightly louder tone, "Uh... were you saying something? It's kinda noisy in here, so you have to speak up." The mare still bore an unmistakable scent of sweet sarsaparilla.
Reef gaped for a moment before recovering his reserve, his voice immediately returning to a loud formal tone as he tries to forget the fact he'd started pouring out his heart to this strange unicorn creature. "Hippogriff, my dear; they say we're half eagle, half pony and half fish. Not that you can see the fish part right now. But yes! Reef Skimmer at your service. Surgeon, you know."
"Pleased to meet you, doc!" Nutmeg declared practically, holding out in greeting one of her brown furred forelegs. It ended in the sort of dual-hoof that characterised her kind, as gold in sheen as the smooth scales on her back, "Nice to at least meet someone outside the engine room, at least. I guess you saw me blow up like that." As her ears turn down at that last part, she starts to pull her hoof back insecurely.
The hippogriff took the offered hoof gingerly in one of his claw, looking at it as if it might burst into flames again, before giving it a quick shake. "Indeed I did, and I see that your mane isn't the least bit singed!" he said cheerfully "Not natural combustion then, it must be a transformation of the keratin to a noncorporeal... I mean to say, you seem fine. Good, very good."
Surprised that he took it after the impression she must have made, Nutmeg shook firmly nonetheless. "I dunno how it works, sorry. We were taught it was like a candle wick but something about ethereal something transmution." As her hoof was released, she kicked it slightly against the floor, saying sheepishly, "I didn't set anything on fire, did I? I swear I'm safe I haven't had a flareup in weeks. Not that it... y' know, really matters... in here. Heh heh."
"Oh just a little singing, perhaps a few ropes a bit shorter now, nothing too serious." Reef reassured her, "The crew are well drilled it seems... Captain must have them practicing with those fire buckets every week, heh!"
"I just said it's been weeks," Nutmeg said irritably, ears going flat, "I believe it though. Most ponies here think I'm some kind of a powder keg, just gonna blow up at the slightest thing."
The avian stallion found himself staring at the kirin's horn: a deeper red than her mane, it curved slightly back in an S shape, branched but blunted and smooth, with lighter orange stripes on the main branch in the centre, a neat V pattern that almost look painted on. 'It looks more like an antler really' he thought 'The morphology is quite different to a unicorn's, and the geometric patterning is fascinating. Is it unique to the individual? Would need more specimens to compare...'
"I guess now they'll really think it's true," Nutmeg concluded says glumly, looking up at the considerably taller hippogriff. Then her horn rotated slightly, as she tilted her head in puzzlement. "My eyes are down here, doc," she said dryly.
"Yes, of course... I mean..." Caught in the act, Reef took a moment to refocusing on the conversation "...well that simply won't do! That unicorn was completely out of line, harassing an officer. Why, if she were enlisted the Queen's Navy she'd be scrubbing the decks for a week. I have a good mind to bring this up with the captain..."
"What unicorn?" Nutmeg interrupted his tirade, her expression confused. "The bartender was an earth pony. And you know I can't really blame her for being scared of me. I'm pretty flipping terrifying!" She grimaced before continuing: "Still wish I'd gotten that ale though; they don't exactly have room service down here."
Reef cocked his head again, now equally confused. "The pale blue one, that sprayed you? After telling her pegasus friend what a kirin was? You didn't see her? I mean, the bartender may be stingy with the ale, but he knew better than to hose down his customers, one would think."
Tossing her head back, Nutmeg crowed, "Oh! Her! She was just trying to put the fire out. It's that bartender who was totally outta line." Staring off into the machinery, the brown and gold kirin added in an amused tone, "I forget what she said that really set me off. I was already pretty much ready to toast the place though."
The kirin mare winced and lifted a foreleg, looking down at it and taking a sniff. "Would've been nice if she used water though." Looking up at Reef Skimmer with a sudden smile, she said, "Say, would you mind grabbing one of those water buckets over there, and maybe a washcloth? You'd think catching on fire would get rid of all this sweet root juice, but I'm pretty sure my tuft is glued to my butt." Strictly speaking it wasn't, although the red hairs did seem to be clinging stickily to the upper part of the tail.
The hippogriff considered for a moment. "You know, the sick bay is well stocked with clean water, towels, soap, disinfectant..." Reef looked away, fluffing and refolding his wings. "What I mean to say is, why don't we get you cleaned up, and I can do your physical at the same time! Won't take a jiffy you know, and it's very important that I examine the personnel, particularly the more unique specimens. Crewgriffs, rather... Crew-creatures, even! So that I'm prepared! Should I need to treat you, I mean." he stammered.
"Treat... okay?" Nutmeg said, a little confused by his choice of words. "I usually stay down here, to keep the ponies from gettin' nervous. I didn't know I had to get a physical. How much of your sick bay is flammable?"
Reef frowned with renewed concern. "I suppose... some of it? I confess, I hadn't given it a lot of thought." He decided he was willing to take the risk, ear tufts perking back up as he put on a cheerful tone: "Still, better to find out now than when you are brought in with a serious injury, wouldn't you say? Not that I would want that to happen, of course! ...but, a surgeon must prepare for the worst."
Head sinking, the kirin admitted, "That's true enough. I honestly don't know where the sick bay even is though. I figured I'd just be staying down here for the whole expedition." Giving him a nervous look, she reiterated, "It won't be a problem though, I swear. But uh, might be better to clear out any papers or y'know... flammable pony things, and stuff. Just in case."
Reef cocked his head, considering her advice, then nodded "Indeed, I suppose that's just good bedside manner when it comes to kirin. Well then, no time like the present. If you'd care to follow me..." With that the silvery hippogriff turned around smartly; a little too smartly, as his long pink tail plumes accidentally dusted Nutmeg's face. The lanky stallion failed to notice, taking a few steps back towards the entrance, before looking back to see if the kirin is following.
At that Nutmeg wiggled her snout, crossed her eyes, then sneezed. Her own tail still twisted uncomfortably as the big orange tuft at the end tried to separate itself from the stickiness. Seeing the doctor waiting for her, she shrugged, then hopped along after the hippogriff in a casual, light-footed gait. "Gonna get cleaned up!" she called back to the skeleton crew in the engine room, "Back in a few," to mild grumbles of affirmation.
Reef headed back down the ramp out of the engine room, passing the main deck and continuing down to the tween deck, making a sharp left at the next landing to enter the sick bay. The main area had several cots, currently empty, with tables, cupboards and various bits of medical equipment lining the walls. Evening light streamed in through three portholes, combining with the incandescent lamps to fill the space with a warm, diffused glow. Bottles and jars of disinfectant, saline and other things were held tightly in racks, to stop them falling and smashing whenever the ship encountered turbulence. Two smaller doors lead off to side rooms, bearing signs reading 'Surgery' and 'Medical Stores'. The later had been repurposed by the hippogriff into a rather cramped study area, specimen collection and on occasion sleeping quarters.
"So this is..." the auburn ruffed kirin began, stepping lightly through the door and gazing at the various devices and anatomical charts pinned to the walls. "I'm supposed to wait here, right? I think that's how it works?" She placed a hoof on one of the cots and gripped it lightly, unsure of whether to lay down or stand. "The place I was in last time was something like that. Do you have a... shower somewhere in here? That'd get me cleaned off quick."
The eagle-faced hippogriff looked down at Nutmeg, cocking his head to the side. "Oh, we're certainly equipped to clean up blood, bile, and, erm... mud," he said enthusiastically, "Non-sterile fluids of every kind really." Reef blinked, realising he might have failed at that whole 'bedside manner' concept again. "Erm, so... if you could just step this way, I'll demonstrate!" He gestures with one broad wing to the the door bearing the 'Surgery' sign.
The kirin gave him a long look, again wondering at the griff's choice of wording. Nonetheless, she walked quickly to the side door, pushing a hoof down on the handle, and proceeded into the 'Surgery' room. Nutmeg's broad brown ears drooped as she turned right to avoid a large steel table, bolted firmly to a floor that consists of a dense cast-iron grid. The lights in here were a harsher white than the main room, glinting off the polished metallic surfaces. Her leonine tail curled far out of the way to admit the hippogriff doctor, as she edged to the side of the room, saying, "Well this is a... place." Looking mostly overhead for a shower of some sort, she didn't take much note of the broad sink she was standing next to.
"Hmm, yes, can't say the crew have been all that keen to come in here." Reef admitted. "Terribly practical, those storm beasts, not really much for aesthetics, the opposite of ponies really. Must say, it cleans up in a jiffy though." He grabbed a cylindrical shape from a bin by the wall and with a practiced flourish unrolls the rubber mat onto the central table. The kirin seemed a little nervous, he thought, perhaps sitting on something softer than solid steel table would help? "Now if you'd just hop up here?" His beak hung slightly open in an avian smile, but his eyes betrayed some concern that Nutmeg would be the third patient in a row to run screaming out of the examination room.
Nutmeg approached the table warily, peering at the mat now covering it. "Oh, huh, yeah that'll keep my butt from freezing I guess" she observed, before rearing up and climbing onto it. Standing on the table, her eyes were now level with the hippogriff's; the chocolate mare turned completely around, cloven hooves dimpling the rubber mat as she moved. Giving the doctor a confused look, she asked, "So, where's that shower? On this thing?" Looking up, she could see only the harsh arc lights, nothing like a shower head.
"Good, yes, shower... of course, hold on!" Pleasantly surprised that his patient hadn't made a break for it, Reef spun around, almost whacking Nutmeg again with his big pink tail feathers. He grabbed a spray head from the wall in one scaled claw, then turned back around sporting an almost maniacal smile. 'This Kirin will be so pleased when she's cleaned right up in 10 seconds flat!' he thought. The hippogriff pulled the trigger on the nozzle, and for the second time inside an hour Nutmeg was blasted by pressurised liquid.
Still gazing at the ceiling, Nutmeg had very little warning of the imminent soaking. The jet of cold liquid caught her right in the chest, and she reared up in shock. She tries to protest, struggling against the force of the flow, but her forelegs pedal uselessly, and her words are drowned by a face full of water. The doctor seemed somewhat surprised as well, quickly turning the stream from her front to her flank, and fiddling with the nozzle until it lessened from a torrent into a spray.
The kirin coughed and gasped, trying to speak but breathless with surprise. "You..." she began, as Reef moved around the table to spray her rump and tail. After precisely 10 seconds of soaking, he shut the device off, leaving Nutmeg a shivering, bedraggled mess, limp red mane hanging heavy with water, dripping onto the table with in turn dripped into the mesh floor.
As the results of his treatment became apparent, Reef Skimmer's enthusiasm faded, his feathery ear tufts flattening against his head as he realised he may have overdone this. "Ah, valve was still wide open. Not ideal. Still! I guarantee you are now fully disinfected and ready to assist with surgery! Not that... I need you to do that... or anything." He dropped the sprayer and looked away, embarrassed.
Nutmeg blinked the remaining water out of her eyes, and gave the stallion a look of extreme displeasure, saying, "You couldn't warn me about that?! What's did you say this stuff was, it smells funny?! I wanted to clean off the funny smells!"
"Indeed." It was hard to tell with birds, but Reef was definitely blushing under his feathers. "Well, erm... Let me get you some towels."
At that, Nutmeg's eyes fell into shadow. "No need," she remarked ominously. Then she shook off vigorously, unleashing a wall of water in all directions from her lengthy mane and soft fur, soaking everything else in the room. The hippogriff had just turned back to look at Nutmeg, fresh-scented towel in claw, when the expanding sphere of droplets hits him, making him squawk! and blink several times. Ignoring him for now, the kirin sat back on her haunches there on the table, curling her tail around, and quietly wringing it out in her somewhat grippy hooves.
"Oh, erm, it was just a mild... disinfectant," Reef spluttered, trying to reassure her. "Also works for delousing. Not that Kirin have a problem with that, I imagine, with the flaming... hmm." He barely managed to stop himself launching into more questions, realising he should put the patient at ease first. "I do apologise, won't happen again." he said, regaining a modicum of composure. "Can I get you anything else, tea perhaps?"
Nutmeg shook her head, whipping her still-damp tail out behind her, saying, "I've had enough tea to last me a lifetime, thanks. And uh... I don't have lice, but the whole stream of silence thing kept us from flaming for generations, and we lived in a wood, so... yeah it's been a problem." She motioned to climb down from the table, then stopped, asking him uncertainly, "So do I get down, or what? I haven't been in for a... check-up before. Not sure how you even would do a check-up without you know..." Leaning down, she lightly taps her own horn.
"Ah, of course your medicine would follow unicorn practice." Reef said, beginning to regain his enthusiasm, his ear tufts fluffing out again. "Never fear, we hippogriffs get along quite well with just these..." he holds up a claw and wiggles his dextrous talons "...although I must ask, how does your magic compare to ponies, unicorns I mean? Can you cast the same range of spells? No signature effects I suppose, with no cutie marks..."
"Oh I dunno much about magic," Nutmeg said, her voice uncertain, "but some back at the village were super good at it, making things grow, looking at life forces, that sort of thing. What kind of magic can unicorns do? All I can do pretty much is lift things..." Doubt clouded her face, and she muttered "...and burn things," but then with a head tilt and half a smile, she concluded wryly, "You must get just as many questions about those weird... wiggly multi-hoof things. I dunno what they're called, sorry."
"Claws? Not strictly proper terminology you know, but colloquially 'claw' refers to the whole forefoot and 'talon' to the actual claw." As if to demonstrate, Reef had taken one of Nutmeg's forefeet in his claw and was shifting the two hooves as if to test their articulation. "But yes, not so much... ponies are familiar with birds after all, even if they've never met a griff. Hmm, interesting, interesting."
Her green eyes lit up as she declared, "Oh, yeah! It's like a bird! That makes a lot of sense." With a sheepish grimace to wrinkle her snout, she admitted, "I kinda uh... never was that good at life studies. That's why you're the doctor and I'm just here to keep the ship running. I've seen birds. We're not THAT out of touch back in the village."
"Put that way, I'm just here to keep the crew running!" Reef was now peering at Nutmeg's back and running a talon over the smooth scales he found there; the same golden colour as her hooves. "Though I do hope to contribute to the research effort." he said, optimistically. "You know what little reports we have of these islands mention creatures like nothing in Equestria! Hmm, these scutes seem quite flexible, compared to a dragon at least. Do they shed individually or moult all at once?"
The kirin's scales were interlocking and pliable, with a slight ridge in each ones. She didn't pull away, but she does try to look over her shoulder, shifting at his touch and saying "Uhm, they uh, you have to be really sick for them to shed. Or really old, I think. You didn't know that? Sometimes one or two will fall out if they get hurt. Dragons just shed all their scales?"
Reef adopted a lecturing tone: "Dragons shed scales individually, like most large reptiles, the young more frequently although no one has managed to do a comprehensive study..." The hippogriff had been holding his palm against the kirin's fluffy belly while talking: "Hmm, body temperature definitely feels higher than a pony. Do you feel normal?" Nutmeg blushed, biting her lip as he pushed his palm on her belly, soft beneath the wispy brown fur. "Let me get a thermometer." the doctor said. He moved to the wall and began rummaging around in a drawer.
Nutmeg continued to stand uneasily on the table as he turned his back to her again, her tail curled down against her hindquarters. "I swear I'm not gonna catch on fire!" she called out, "I'm not even feeling a little flarey!"
Reef decided to ignore that part, and came back holding a mercury thermometer: a tiny silvery thread in a glass straw. "Good, good, now hold this gently in your mouth please, if you would be so kind. Just need to get a baseline here, none of my textbooks cover your species... um, which is to say, people, I'm afraid."
"Well, none of MY textbooks cover... uh," she said a little defensively, then carefully bit down on the thermometer... without closing her mouth. "Rike vis?" she asked.
"Uh, if you could rather, I mean one has to close one's mouth and press the tongue against it to..." the doctor instructed; the kirin made a funny face as her tongue rolled the strange device around in her mouth. "...yes, that's it, very good. Now we just wait a jiffy, and... Hmm, that's a little higher than a griffon even."
Reef carefully removed the thermometer, taking a moment to scratch a few notes on a quill pad. As his gaze returned to Nutmeg, he cocked his head and tried again to give a reassuring beak-smile. "Now this fire transformation syndrome, did you say you had a treatment for it back home? Stream of something? Is that not something you could bottle and bring with you?"
"Sometimes I wish I could," she grumbled under her breath, the switching of her tail dropping to let it hang off the end of the table. "No, the magic from Stream of Silence is in the stones, not the water," she told Reef in a resigned tone, "It's a runic resonance array of some sort, way above my head. You wanna ask Rain Shine about it, since she's the one who created it. She's the uh... princess kirin, though we call her our matriarch. The only thing you can bottle is the cure that makes you talk."
"Makes you talk?" Reef Skimmer looked perplexed. "Am I to understand, my dear mare, that your ruler created a magical device to render you mute? How does that help with the fiery transformations?"
Nutmeg looked away, briefly lost in thought. In a bemused tone, she reminisced "It just seemed normal to me. We just... did what was needed and didn't bother each other. I wasn't into... machines, or anything really. I just... got the water, because it was the thing we all did." Frowning now, she continued "They say all this talking is normal, and the silence was an enchantment, but... when I flared up the first time, I was just completely freaking out, and I don't know if I like feeling that way."
Then she stared into Reef Skimmer's intense purple eyes, and said plainly, "No, it was an enchanted stream that washed away our feelings. When you're like that you just... don't feel like talking. We couldn't get angry, so... no fire. So now I have feelings, and they make me talk..."
Outside, in the tween deck corridor, Summer Scribe was pacing nervously up and down. Once she'd felt ready to go apologise to the kirin, she'd set out to find the strange mare. However by the time she'd worked up the courage to enter the engine room, the crewponies there had told their boss had departed for the sick bay. So Summer had headed back down the ramp and waited near the door, practicing what she would say again.
"Sorry," she would lead, lowering herself deferentially to the floor as she spoke. "I'm trained to act on my instincts, and I thought I was saving the day, but I think I only ruined yours. I hope it got better afterwards. I'd like to have a second chance at a first impression, if I may." When talking to new people like this, the little unicorn had always found it a struggle to get the words right. Practicing her lines beforehand usually helped, and she thought this sounded right.
A good fifteen minutes into Summer Scribe's spell of pacing and muttering to herself, a fluffy and fussy Nutmeg Inferno came striding out of the med bay. "Erm, splendid, do come again!" could be heard from inside before the door banged shut. The kirin seemed troubled, if not outright angry. With neither mare paying much attention to where she was going, the red, brown and gold kirin collided head-on with the pacing unicorn, resulting in two confused leaps backward then both falling flat on their rumps.
Summer Scribe let out a shriek as she undaintly landed on her rear. "Umm! Sorry! I was thinking about apologising to you! I mean, again! Uhh, for the earlier! Thing!" she babbled loudly, her words coming out in a stream before she can get control of herself. She rose to her hooves, still a flustered mess. Swirly eyed and holding a hoof to her head, Nutmeg sat up, then shook out the dizziness. Their eyes met.
"Err... I'm sorry that I sprayed you down!" apologised Summer, at the exact same time that Nutmeg began "Woah, um, sorry...". After a moment of silence, the kirin picked herself up and continued "You didn't need to apologise. I mean, again! Uhh, for the catching on fire! Thing!" just as Summer blurted "Um, it won't happen again, I swear!" The combination of mild concussion and both speaking at once was not resulting in effective communication.
Nutmeg blushed and shuts her mouth, while Summer Scribe shrank back and looked at the floor. There was a long beat of awkward silence, before finally a reassured kirin said, "Apology, uh, accepted. You're one of the expedition ponies, aren't you?"
The unicorn's eyes snapped back to the kirin's face; she blinked and shook her head out, considering what to say next. "Wait... I don't need to apologise! But I wanted to! I felt really bad!" she implored... but then she realised her apology had been accepted, even though she'd totally mangled it. Summer looked away again, rubbing a hoof behind her head, her expression relieved.
A deep breath, hold, let it out, now she was ready to continue, a smile back on her face. Talking about the expedition, now this was something she could handle. "Yep, I'm super pumped for it!" Summer said with renewed enthusiasm. "This is like, my dream: I'm going to figure out all the tricks and traps, study all the historical world firsts and write a research paper afterwards that'll propel me to the top of Academia!" she beamed proudly. "Oh.. and the name's Summer Scribe, and you?"
Holding out a dual fingered hoof out, the kirin said, "I'm Nutmeg! Nutmeg Inferno. I keep the ship going." Summer eagerly went for a bump with her own smooth hoof, then blinked as she realised Nutmeg was actually holding it, shaking it and saying "Yeah..." followed by an uneasy chuckle. "Going out into the middle of nowhere. I'm sure there's gonna be lotsa... ruins and old stuff." After releasing the unicorn's hoof, Nutmeg looked away, concluding softly, "You're really lucky that you have something to do out there. Wish I could get out of the ship and explore a bit."
With the intense pressure to make a good impression receeding, Summer could take a moment to look down at the hoofshake: the cloven shape looks really cool, and grabs her attention. She wondered what having opposable digits would feel like: it was one thing to know about a species academically, it was another to shake their hoof! Looking back at Nutmeg's face, she agreed "Yep yep! And this place is *surrounded* by storms, so you know it's gotta be holding something good!"
The little unicorn clopped her hoof down and gave another cheerful smile. "Wellll... Are you just planning on hanging around on the ship the entire time we're disembarked? You should come with me! You could be my... hmmm. How would you categorise yourself, skillset-wise?"
Flat-eared, the red and brown kirin said, "Not exploring, not the wilderness, not nature, and not some dusty old ruins. I'm not good for anything except this ship. If you show me a machine, I can probably fix it. But we're going off to the middle of nowhere, not the middle of Manehattan. These ships are the only machines in a hundred miles."
She sighed, and rubbed beneath her horn with a hoof, saying, "Sorry, it's not something I should complain about. But yeah, not everypony gets to leave the ship. You didn't think we'd all go... exploring, did you?"
Summer Scribe listened thoughtfully, before nodding. "That's okay! I've had advisors like that: prefer to stay stuck in their books. And I like a real good book as much as the next pony, but I've gotta get my hooves dirty, too!" As if to emphasise, she rubbed them eagerly.
"I totally get it, though. How about I come back when I can and tell you about how cool everything is going? I bet you'd at least be interested in that!" She smiled again. "And you can tell me about how your work is going, if you like!" She nodded her head for emphasis. "Well, no, not EVERYONE. But you sounded like you were going to be bored, so I figured I'd offer, yeah?"
Managing a weary smile of her own, Nutmeg replied, "Wow, really? Yeah I'd love to hear about your adventures. My work is nothing to talk about though." Rolling her eyes, she drawled, "We're the best mechanics west of Trottington, and all they have us doing is running an airship." She looked over her shoulder, then leans a little closer to Summer, whispering, "Most days, there's nothing to do but watch the pressure gauges all day!"
The pale blue pony pondered that for a moment, before chuckling and flashing a playful grin. ""Hmm... so what you're saying is, it'd be REAL exciting if we came under attack by sky pirates and we had to push this baby to its limits to do or die!" She seemed enthused with her own imagined scenario.
"You might get lucky, then! You know we don't really have a clue what's inside that storm: we might need the best airship mechanic we can find!" The unicorn bowed her head low again, seemingly oblivious to how close her horn kept getting to the Kirin's snout. "But no matter what, I promise I'll keep you company, Nutmeg!"
"O...kay, great," Nutmeg said, a little uncertain about how this unicorn kept pointing that sharp looking horn at her for some reason. "I could totally get this ship flying ten knots faster if I could rebuild the propellors. But if push comes to shove, this engine ain't giving out any time soon. Those storm guards sounded pretty freaky, but they knew how to build a really sturdy engine." A hoof under her chin, and she pondered, "You know, we don't have superheaters, but if we did the turbines could definitely take the extra pressure. And if we vented the steam out under the propellers, you could probably pick up another three knots easy. Huh, I hadn't really thought about making the ship go fast."
Summer Scribe sat herself down politely to one side of the corridor, blue and white tail flicking as she listens to Nutmeg talk, beaming at the passion the kirin was showing for her craft. 'Now that's more like it!' she thought. "See? You're destined to do REALLY cool things and you know it, too!" she exclaimed. "You just have to wait for opportunity to strike; or make your own, of course!" Some of Summer Scribe's most ambitious finds had been, ahem, self-motivated.
The unicorn's enthusiasm was apparently infectious, because Nutmeg Inferno's eyes brightened, and she asked, "Hey, yeah. Oh hey, did you see that Storm Piercer device though? I'd give my left hind leg to work on that. It's a 730 thaum radio enforced negative air dispersal stabiliser! They say it can literally stop the wind!"
"Oh yeah, you bet I *saw* it." Summer confirmed. "I gave it part of an hour of solid oggling! I bet the pegasi can't get enough of it! And we'll see it in REAL action when we reach our destination, huh?" She made a mental note to be up front for the best view of the show, when the ship reached the storm wall.
"They're the ones who get to operate it. The uh, pegasi that is," Nutmeg said affably, "Oh and if you didn't know, I'm a..." She almost places her hoof on her chest with pride, but remembering Summer's earlier words she stops herself and instead offers in an embarrassed tone, "So, you... uh... heard all about kirin already, huh? I guess they didn't tell you how simple water won't put out the flames."
Summer Scribe shook her head bashfully: apparently her reading had been less thorough than she'd thought. "I didn't know that part: never gotten a chance to test it, so I made an inference and it was wrong. I guess now I have a chance to ask you all I want to know, though!" she said, smiling at the prospect.
"Sure, though to be honest, I just spent an hour answering..." The kirin shook her head, dismissing the thought. "Never mind. You seem like you know a lot more than just stuff about ancient history though."
"Well, what gets MY fires going is learning all about the mysteries left by our ancestors before us!" Summer gushed. "There's so much about the world we don't know, just waiting to be discovered - and it's up to folks like me to brave prehistory and bring it back!" She grinned again, playfully thumping her forehooves on the floor. "Tomb raiding, trap dodging, puzzle deciphering: Summer Scribe's game for it all!"
"I'll have to remember to look you up, if somepony ever gets me one of those dumb jigsaw puzzles again," Nutmeg said happily, "So, no hard feelings then? I swear I don't catch fire that easy most of the time. I was just uh... figured I'd try to get out of the engine room for a bit for that launch party, and of course I start flaring up and scaring everypony right away."
Summer's face brightened at the mention of jigsaws. Oh, she *loved* puzzles! But the puzzle remained hypothetical for now, so she restrained herself. "No hard feelings, yeah! Something you ought to know about me is, when you've explored a few dangerous, crumbling ruins, you learn to act on instinct and think quickly. Sometimes I'll make the wrong choice in the heat of the moment, but... I mean well and I'll own up for it."
Nutmeg Inferno : "You don't ever, um... you know?" she pointed a cloven hoof at her own bendy, branchy horn. "Unicorns don't have... horn magic going nuts a lot, do they? Not like fire, but just like..." Laughing nervously, she said, "H-heheh, I mean it's no big deal just wondered if... I uh... yeah."
The unicorn hmmed, and tapped at her own horn in turn, looking at the kirin's. "Well, if I'm upset my telekinesis might squeeze a little too hard or fumble, but nothing like what you have to put up with, no." she replied. "I HAVE heard tales of unicorns getting flustered and casting a spell they didn't mean to, though; would hate to be in their hooves!"
"Sounds like not really then," Nutmeg said, curvy ears wilting a little. "Not that kirin are broken or anything," she added with a nervous laugh, "It's just kind of overwhelming, and I guess it's neat that unicorns don't... do stuff. I'm pretty easygoing... that means I don't catch fire much... so don't worry if you screw up. If I had a bit for every time me and my crew made a stupid decision, I'd be able to buy this whole airship and then some."
The unicorn chuckled nervously at that, giving the back of her head another bashful little hoof-rub. "Yeah, it is pretty nice. Umm. Not that - yeah, you got it already." She quickly nodded her head, as though to change the subject.
With a sigh, the kirin decided it was time to wrap this up, "Well, I'm all clean now, so I guess I'll go check on them. Still can't believe Gearshift didn't go..." her voice dropped to a mumble, as she adopted a thoughtful stare. Shaking her head, she straightened, puffing out her chest and saying "It was nice meeting you, Summer! Let's talk again, maybe, after you went out and solved all the puzzles."
Summer stood up and shook the kirin's hoof again. "Pleasure meeting you as well! I'll keep you on my mind! Thank you!"