Another three weeks rolled by before they were ready. In that time, a collection of Earth Pony farmers had taken to the castle gardens and wrangled the overgrown mess into something resembling useful, using the old flower beds to plant their seeds, restoring an old irrigation system and flooding the ground with magic to kickstart crops that would feed the refugees. More soldiers from the scattered Equestrian army had made their way to the Castle of the Two pony sisters, finally giving Luna enough ponies and other creatures to start her campaign of hit and run attacks, leaving the Castle and the departure mostly in her sister’s capable hooves. Not only that, but a few scouting parties had reported the condition and whereabouts of the Storm King’s army.
Still sequestered up in Canterlot with the bulk of his forces, Gaul was hidden behind walls of Jotuns, and was organizing the first of many groups of search parties, trying to find his missing prey.
Static and Twilight had been busy, with Twilight being forced to leave many of her scientific projects in the hooves of other exceptional ponies, much to her chagrin, in order to better organize the venture south.
Captain Caelano had volunteered her ship to fly them south, and much of the organization had been in restoring the ships’s weapons and engine to proper working order after it’s tenure as a courier ship. The Skylark was being laden with food and supplies for the trip and enough to keep them alive for a while longer so they could set up some kind of temporary base to work from.
Of course, upon hearing that this mission was vital to Equestria’s survival, all of Twilight and Static’s friends had volunteered to go with them, but there were only five mares that either wanted to take.
Applejack had taken over the food loading, being the strong mare she was, while Rarity had of course, focused on getting the fabric’s and other materials necessary for repairing clothes, sails, and other things of cloth-ly origin, but had incessantly griped over everything being more function over style. Caelano had placated the mare by showing her the flashy, stylish rogue outfits she and her crew wore, which had inevitably turned into a fashion show on deck for the squealing Unicorn. The Pirates called Mullet and Boyle had to haul Rarity off of the captain’s coat before she “improved it” too much. They then had to do the exact same with Pinkie Pie, who tried to stuff miniature party cannons into the hems to add some “party pizzazz!”.
Twilight focused on keeping everything organized with her usual checklists, while Rainbow and Static visited Forged Steel and his slowly growing number of apprentices to get spare parts made for the ship’s engine, in case of failure, and also to replace the Elements magical armour and weapons with the new, more mundane armour.
Fluttershy had very little to do with getting the ship done- at least physically. However, her ability to call upon a swarm of forest critters to help get everything loaded up sped things along very nicely, earning more than a few cheers when she returned from gathering up her little friends. Her prideful blush made Static’s heart start doing somersaults in her chest while she started singing the first few lines of an Equestrian love song under her breath, that was imaginatively and ironically called “Heartsong for my Love.” which had originally been sung as an actual magic induced Heartsong between two lovers a few decades before Luna’s return from exile. It had since been recorded and sold to the public after the couple had agreed to it, and it was still quite a popular song even years later. Static had found it among Shy’s mother's old family records, forgotten and gathering dust in a box. They’d pulled it out on a date night and spent most of the night dancing under the stars to the romantic tunes while Crystal spent the night at Sweet Apple Acres and Discord played DJ. It had been a wonderful night.
Static’s reminiscent smile faded a little as the present reasserted itself, leaving her hauling cargo onto a pirate airship in the middle of a dark forest. Grunting, Static heaved her crate of repair materials up the gangplank and into the cargo hold, where Twilight gave it a quick look and a magical scan before smiling and checking it off on her ever present list.
“That should be the last of this lot, Twilight.” Static groaned aloud, slumping to the floor and wanting nothing more than to stay there hugging the floorboards. The cargo hold of the Skylark was the largest room on the ship, and was divided into smaller segments by support beams arranged in a grid pattern, with ropes tied or bolted to some to be used as fasteners on cargo to keep it from shifting mid flight. “We’ve got everything for the kitchen. What next?”
Twilight looked down at her checklist, while Caelano looked over her shoulders, making a few additional notes with a quill on the side of the parchment. “With the food and the replacement galley tools all in place, Lix’ll have everything she needs to keep my crew and you ponies fed- as long as you keep Miss Pie under control.” The Captain made an odd clicking noise with her beak, while her right leg, which Static had only realized the week before was a crystal peg-leg replacement, clacked noisily against the floorboards in lieu of actual claws to tap.
“We will, Captain.” Twilight promised, still scribbling. “The next boxes should be going into the ship's armoury. We can’t take too much ammunition, but we should have some in case of an encounter.”
“HEAR THAT AJ?!” Static yelled back down to the Earth pony, who walked easily up the gangplank with three heavy boxes of cannonballs, powder charges and botefeux’s, the long poles with matches on the end for igniting the primers and sending a cannonball flying.
“Ah hear ya, sugah.” Applejack called back, jogging up the plank with barely an ounce of effort showing for her troubles. Captain, Princess and Knight stared at her as she trotted by and disappeared into the armoury, then emerged again without her load. “Need a hoof there, partner?” She asked, not slowing down in the slightest and passing the tired and sweating Static, grinning all the while.
“Showoff!” Static yelled after her, stubbornly hauling the box onto her back again and carrying it over to the ropes used to secure cargo. She fastened it into place and turned to trot back out of the ship, only to see a still smug Applejack carrying another three boxes up the ramp.
Rolling her eyes, Static went back to hauling boxes around.
She still glared at Applejack’s flexing.
Rarity gushing over it from the top deck didn’t help.
**********************************
It was a solemn goodbye when the ship finally took off. There were no large crowds to cheer them on their way as they left, instead only a few ponies and a dragon who wished to say goodbye to their friends. Luna, back from a night raid, Spike, Starlight and a few others waved to them sadly as the ship ponderously began to rise up above the spires of the Castle, and above the forest canopy. A few illusion spells served as camouflage to keep them hidden from prying eyes as they rose up, the ship’s sails catching the winds and beginning to pull them southwards.
The ponies kept busy, each of them tailing one of Caelano’s crew in order to learn how to assist on an airship. Pinkie kept to the Galley with Lix Spittle, the ships cook, while Applejack followed Boyle, the strongest member of the crew, who was in charge of shifting cargo in the bay whenever supplies needed to be brought out. For now that wasn’t a necessity, but they unpacked and repacked several crates so that AJ knew what to do when the time came.
Dash, to her annoyance, was directed to follow Squabble, an Avian who communicated almost entirely through squawks, grunts, yells and squeals of various pitches, something Dash began to protest the moment she was out of the Captain’s earshot.
Twilight and Static stayed with the Captain, learning about navigation and flight plans, the various commands, and all the hard work that went into directing the ship and it’s crew. This also allowed them time to question Cealano on what they should expect down in the Empire, but most of her answers were often the tried and true: “Ask me later, when we’re not busy.”
Fluttershy and Rarity were two of the only ponies around not assigned to anyone, instead instructed to use their skills in sewing to repair and maintain the spare sail cloths and the crews gear when they got too damaged.
Tempest was confined to a small cabin, with one of Caelano’s crew, an Avian who served as second in command, who went by the name Mullet, to watch over her, though he frequently had to leave to do other things. Not that Tempest even tried to take advantage of his absence, preferring to stay sat on her cot as the minutes ticked by.
But that meant that the last member of the pony side of the crew was left with nothing to do. The eighth member of the voyager team had been an unexpected addition, but she was adamant that she needed to make up for her mistakes.
Princess Celestia was not well practiced in being normal as it was, so seeing her sit near the prow of the ship and take in the sight of her Kingdom as it slowly slipped past underneath them only served to highlight how out of place and alone she was now. Cut off from her people and robbed of her powers, which she had used to protect and guide them for centuries, Celestia was floundering and lost for the first time since she had banished Luna to the moon.
What was worse was that no one knew exactly what they could do or say to help her.
“Uh, Princess?” Celestia looked up from her perch on the bowsprit and into a pair of concerned green eyes above a smattering of pale freckles. Applejack was still wearing her stetson hat, as always, but had moved the red neckerchief she wore underneath the hat to use as a bandanna. The combination did wonders to keep her mane away from her face, letting her show the princess her concerned frown in all its glory. “You, uh, wanna come help me and Pinkie in the galley? Got a bunch of stuff need’s movin’, and magic’ll help a treat.”
The Princess arched an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t Twilight be more helpful in that regard?”
“Well, she might, but she’s a little busy helping Static and the Captain plan our journey a bit better, and they’ll probably be a while, even with the information that Tempest mare is givin’ us.” Applejack extended a hoof to the somewhat sullen looking Princess. “So, really it’s just y’all, cause, Rarity may be pretty, but liftin’ heavy stuff ain’t exactly her….uh, strong point.”
The Princess looked back out to the increasingly alien world that drifted lazily along. Her lonely perch seemed very empty compared to a galley full of her marefriend and her farmworking friend.
“You know what Applejack? I would be delighted to help.” The Princess smiled.
Unbeknownst to them, a third person was listening in on the conversation with a smile.
Twilight watched from nearby with a satisfied hum. “That’s what will get us through this.” She said, to no one in particular, before going back inside to help plan out the journey the ship would take. “A little friendship.”
“What was that, Princess?” The captain asked, as Twilight returned to the map table.
“Oh, nothing, nothing at all.” She settled herself back into her chair before she returned to the conversation properly. “Alright, so, we’d just reached Klugetown?”
“It’s the first stop on our journey, a few kilometers from the Wall of Storms. The only reason Gaul has such a tight grip on it is because he’s been using it as a staging post for years. It functions as a shipyard labour camp and is run by a gang when Gaul isn’t swinging his weight around. Verco is the leader, he takes all the best stuff and keeps everyone else beneath him.”
“Shouldn’t be too hard to rile everyone up in a city of disgruntled workers.” Static murmured from behind a hoof. “A few displays of goodwill and kindness should get the ball rolling in our favour, and after that….hmmm….”
“Add in a few bits and pieces about your capital, and about the fight for freedom. Empathy won’t win many hearts in a city of pirates like me, but personal gain will. If they think they can throw the King out, they’ll do it for themselves sooner than they would for you.” The Captain chimed in.
“But how do we go about doing it? It’s not like Pinkie throwing parties will go unnoticed, or having Applejack and I yelling propaganda in the streets.”
“Tempest? Any thoughts you would like to add? Any recommendations?” Static asked.
The former commander looked at Klugetown on the map from her spot on the table, cuffed to her chair as a precaution that was entirely unneeded anyway, at least since Tempest still hadn’t tried a thing to escape. “Well, while Klugetown is being used as a staging post, with most of the fleet gone, they’ll be missing a large part of the guard force. It will still be a lot, but nothing like it was before the King flew to Canterlot.”
“So anything we do has to be quick, in and out kind of business?”
“Essentially, yes. Not much to work with.”
Static and Twilight frowned as they poured over the map some more.
*************************************************
The trip to Klugetown was a long, hot ride across devilishly dangerous sand dunes populated by the Sand worms, a vile creature that liked to spit torrents of sand at the ship, which resulted in the thunderous drumming of clogged together sand hitting the hull of the ship and spraying back down again. Almost every half an hour, they would pass over a Sand Worm pit-trap, noticeable from above for their nearly perfect circumference amid the random shapes of the dunes, and the drumming would start up for a few seconds, then end again as they moved away.
Tempest groaned louder each time, clutching her hooves over her ears at the auditory assault the giant insects were forcing upon the ship, and Static wasn’t far off from joining her, wincing with every new deluge that came their way. It was actually bordering on painful when inside the ship itself, the deck soon becoming the favoured gathering spot for the tail end of the first day, and the majority of the second day of the trip as well, with Equestria and it’s affiliates now far behind the Skylark and the ship floating high above the middle of Sand Worm central.
The entire crew was rather sullen and annoyed at the constant noise, but no one said anything aloud.
“HEY!! CAN IT, SANDWORMS!! YOU’RE BEING VERY RUDE!!!”
Everyone except Pinkie at least.
“How much further before we’re out of Sand Worm territory, Captain?” Twilight asked after an hour of nearly non stop drumming.
“We’re just passing over the densest groupings now, in case you couldn’t tell, which means we’re about six hours away from being mostly worm free.” Caelano ground her beak as she contemplated the damage the constant battering was doing to her ship. She’d have to spend some of her stash to get it fixed- once she had retrieved the stash, of course. She wasn’t stupid enough to have her hidden stash of treasure on her ship where it could be found by thieves or boarders. “Be thankful we’re flying high. Too close and they could actually damage the ship.”
The ponies blanched at the thought, not liking the sound of their ship possibly becoming worm food while they were still on it. Both Pinkie Pie and Rainbow, who had been peering over the side, backed away from the gunwales as quickly as they could while trying not to appear worried.
“Once we’re past the Sand Worms, we’ll be a day out from Klugetown. I suggest we use the time to get some sleep.” Caelano mumbled, stretching her arms and yawning as the sun sank further down towards the horizon . “The last stretch of the desert before the town is the hottest. I suggest we stay below deck as much as possible- since most of us will be sleeping anyway, it shouldn’t be a problem. We’ll take turns on watch and at the helm so that we all get a turn in our bunks. Boyle, Miss Thunder, you take first shift. Mullet, Miss Dash, you take second…” Caelano listed out the rest of the shifts, and one by one, the Ponies and Avians slipped below deck, leaving Static and Boyle standing on the decking with nothing but the wind to keep them company.
Boyle took the wheel, while Static flew up to the front observation basket, one of two that were balanced on the top of the balloon. There were rope ladders up the side of the gas filled sack, but Static ignored them in favour of her own powers of flight, before settling in for a few hours of watching the slowly growing band of dark clouds on the horizon.
It would be a long night.
**************************************
Celestia and Pinkie were the ones who woke up the majority of the crew in the morning, having beaten Lix to the galley and baked as many pancakes as they could before the irritable chef chased them out, waving her soup ladle at the pair like a sword as they clattered off with several stacks of fluffy pancakes balanced precariously on a pair of trays. After the cooking session with Applejack and Pinkie, Celestia certainly seemed to have perked up.
Static certainly seemed to think so, when she blearily stared at the ex-alicorn standing grinning at her and Shy, curled up together in their assigned bed. She was holding two plates of pancakes out for the pair, who were taking their sweet time to process the Princess waving delectable deliciousness just inches from their bewildered faces. Fluttershy was wondering why there was someone in their cabin, while Static was wondering what kind of syrup was on the pancakes. It smelled like maple, but as far as Static knew, they hadn’t had any in supply.
“Good morning!!!” Pinkie hopped past in a frilly apron, one so pink it was nearly impossible to distinguish the garment from her coat. “Breakfast is served!”
“Celestia? Pinkie?” Static slurred as the early morning blues started to slip away thanks to the becoming aroma of soft, fluffy deliciousness. “What’re you doin’?”
“Giving you breakfast.” Celestia beamed, her coat matted by sticky batter, splashes of syrup, dollops of whip cream, and squished pieces of fruit. “If you want some other syrup, I’m sure Pinkie has some stashed somewhere."
Static looked at the sugary liquid dripping slowly down the Princess and the pancakes, before sitting up, rubbing her eyes, and then taking the offered plate, while Fluttershy mirrored her movements almost perfectly. “Thanks?”
“Any time, both of you!” Celestia smiled, seeming to regain a bit of her cheerful radiance for the first time since her rescue. “You know, since I became Princess, I’ve always had meals cooked for me. I quite forgot how much I enjoy making food for others! Seeing ponies happy faces as they enjoy a meal prepared especially for them is like feeling the sun on your face on a lovely spring morning!”
Static had to admit, she was liking this Celestia even more than when she was playing the part of the Princess. She was just so....normal. It was such a breath of fresh air compared to the refined, polished statue of regality she very much appeared to be when sat in that throne of hers. Deciding that she very much didn’t want to see this Celestia retreat back into that shell, Static eagerly carved out a chunk of pancake and speared it with the fork that had come with her breakfast. Turning it towards her, she bit down on the fork and moaned in delight at the perfect balance of flavours that tickled her tongue.
“Pinkie had to remind me of a few things. I hope I didn’t get too much wrong.” Celestia’s smile became tinted with red cheeks.
Static swallowed, almost sad to let the food slip down her throat, since she wanted to savour it for as long as she could. “You don’t have to worry about that. These are delicious!!”
Celestia’s smile got even bigger, forcing her to close her eyes because she was unable to contain her own delight.
“Our compliments to the chef!” Fluttershy giggled, offering her own thoughts on her meal, which had more strawberries and mango chunks on it than Static’s did. Static’s had more blueberries, and both were exactly as they liked them.
Celestia grinned, quickly running in place, nearly dislodging the other plates of pancakes from their seat on her back as she did. “I’m glad you like them! I’ll have to make more sometime!”
Static declared her desire for more the best way she could: by greedily taking several large bites from her stack of pancakes and giving the Princess a syrup drenched, closed mouth smile.
*******************************
“We’re a little further north than I thought we’d be by now, but it’s not an issue.” Captain Caelano explained as she stood at the wheel. Most of the crew was gathered on deck, only Rainbow and Applejack absent, as they were taking their turn sleeping after having had the last watch in the early hours of morning. “It just means that instead of docking in port tonight, we’ll be doing it early tomorrow. I know a place where we can stop the ship, and we all get some more rest before we go in. We’ll need time to get all of you ponies ready for the city anyway, so this is probably a good thing.”
There were mumbles of acceptance as the crew accepted the plan, before they busied themselves checking over the ship’s many ropes, pulleys, machines and devices to make sure they were all in good condition still- despite having done so the day before. It was something to do in the long hours of the day.
The sun was just reaching the highest point in the sky when the first sign of trouble appeared.
A smoky trail slowly encroached on the skyline ahead, the thin wisps drifting lazily through the air up ahead.
“Scout party.” Caelano murmured, the ponies barely hearing it from their positions across the deck. “Looks like it passed by an hour or two ago.”
“Is it gonna be a problem?” Twilight asked.
“No. They won’t come back through this area for another few hours yet. We’ll be way out of sight by then.”
The Skylark continued on, the captain guiding the ship towards a rocky plateau that surrounded an even larger outcropping of rocks. Slipping between two large faces of stone, the ship emerged into a hidden opening, approximately five hundred meters in length and barely two hundred feet in width, letting the Skylark just barely scrape through with only a short span of open air between the port and starboard sides. The opening widened towards the inside, a wooden building constructed in the shape of a horseshoe clung to the rock at the far end, the tips just in line with the bow, allowing for the relieved crew to drop a gangplank across and disembark.
The building was a ramshackle mess mascarding as architecture, with no style and almost no concept of utility- or safety either. Nails stuck out of thin, plywood walls and wooden beams, walkways were patchy and missing entire planks of wood, and the roofs of multiple sections of the building were so full of holes that it resembled swiss cheese.
Thankfully, the lower levels were at least a little more sensible, having clearly been built first and with an actual plan in mind. The lower rooms were more uniform, and while still crooked and misshapen, it was less to do with lack of care and more to do with the shoddy building materials themselves. The beds were an improvement over the hard and uneven cots and bunks on the ship, as all beds on transportation tended to be outside of the odd “deluxe suite” rooms. None of them were complaining, though the kitchen room had been on the top level and had since collapsed from water damage, likely due to rain.
There was a small area of actual ground where a campfire pit had been set up, but the last people to use it had not cleaned it out, the blackened remains of burned wood scattered and smeared across the ring of stones that was supposed to keep the flames inside their confines. Small benches ringed the stone circle, and a few tables were sat just behind those benches. Like the building itself, the furniture was beaten up, the tables and benches outside too, many of them displaying cracks and stains.
With everyone off the ship to explore, the weary travellers started scouting out suitable beds for themselves, with Static and Fluttershy managing to quite happily snag a larger bed for themselves, due to bunking together, with Rarity, Applejack, and the Avian members of the crew all claiming the other mid and large sized beds. The others all sought out the smaller, almost child-sized beds. Pinkie and Celestia did have a bit of luck, managing to find the only set of bunk beds. With a bizarre giddiness, both Pinkie and the Princess clambered on top of them, peeking out from on top of the bed’s top level safety beam, giggling like a pair of idiots, with grins to match.
“Luna and I had one of these, a very long time ago, before we became Princesses. I have many fond memories of Star Swirl storming into our rooms to tell us off for still being awake in the middle of the night. The old coot was always irascible, even in his younger days before his beard had grown in properly. We used to call him an 'Old Goat' because if how it looked!” Celestia explained as she climbed back down, smiling in amusement as Pinkie simply hopped off, then proceeded to nearly go right through the floorboards too with her happy pronking.
Boyle and Mullet went back to the ship to grab some food for the night’s dinner, opting to stay away from the ladies as they got themselves ready for bed. Caelano surprised the ponies when she emerged from her chosen room wearing as very fancy looking gown that resembled a bathrobe, made of red cloth with a purple velvet sash. Rarity once again had to be restrained in case she flatten the Captain to the wall or floor with her excited antics at a chance to talk fashion after so long. They were all sat around the now very much lit campfire, ready for a bit of food and the nights rest.
“Am I really this bad when I think I can learn something new?” Twilight asked, horn glowing to keep Rarity from using hers as the Unicorn was left to calm back down.
“Worse, more often than not, sugar.” Applejack snorted. “Remember that time you just had to go look at that ancient statue in the jungle temple? The one that dropped us into a room full of snakes?”
Twilight went a strange white and red colouration, embarrassment and remembered fear warring for position on her cheeks. “T-that wasn’t my fault! How was I supposed to know the statue’s hoof was booby-trapped?”
“Cause with us, everything’s booby-trapped?” Rainbow smirked.
“You seemed pretty pleased at the time, Rainbow, if I remember correctly.” Static grinned.
“Come on, it was pretty awesome!” Rainbow protested, waving her hoof wildly in the air from where she was laying on her side. “It was just like being with Daring Do again!”
Tempest sat off to the side, her shackles off for the moment to let her stretch her stiff joints out a bit. She wasn’t engaging in the conversation, but Static caught her following along with a small smile on her face.
“I had to hold open a three ton door while you played hero.” Applejack grumbled. “I can still feel where it hit my back coming down.”
“Everyone else was stuck! I had to! It was that or let everypony get bit!”
“We were only supposed to be on a tour.” Rarity complained from inside her restrictive bubble, idly tracing dress designs for the captain into the dirt floor of her cage. “How we even stumbled upon a previously undiscovered secret room in a tourist attraction like that is completely beyond me.”
“The snakes weren’t so bad. They were just hungry.” Fluttershy smiled her classic “I love animals” smile, showing off her slight dimples.
“Yeah, but you didn’t have to make us wait and see them all get lifted outta there. We were missing the fiesta!!” Pinkie beamed, tail wagging back and forth.
“They needed to get out of there, and I couldn’t just leave them without making sure they did!”
“Eh, they’d have been fine.” Rainbow waved her hoof at her friend, lying on a cloud at the same height as the benches. She was just settling back down when a cacophony of bashes and clangs rang out through the narrow canyon, the angry yells of Boyle and Mullet easily distinguished amid the tumult. A few girlish squeals pierced the early night air, several pony heads shooting up at the familiar sounds.
Static and Rainbow’s wings were blurs as they streaked towards the source of the commotion, with Applejack and Rarity charging along behind. Twilight was right behind them, the other crew members bringing up the rear.
They arrived in front of the ship to find five familiar figures trying desperately to keep the much larger and stronger Mullet and Boyle at bay, the bulk of their efforts forwarded by a growing, increasingly more lithe, purple teenage dragon, who’s wings flapped frantically in an attempt to escape the pirates who were holding his other limbs in their claws.
“Spike?!” Twilight screeched to a halt, her hooves digging miniature trenches into the grounds. “What are you-”
Simply stopping in front of several charging ponies and avians is never a good idea, no matter what the title of the individual doing the stopping was. As such, even Princesses can end up at the bottom of a dog pile, or, in this case, a pony pile. Twilight swiftly became a fine example of this concept, the approaching crewmembers colliding with her still sliding rear and sending her toppling forward onto her face. When the tumult ended, Twilight was buried under no fewer than three of her best friends, and her mentor as well, with all of them trying to stare at the four fillies standing there with wide eyes.
Rainbow, Static and Applejack’s mouths were hung open in shocked disbelief, and Rarity was lividly vibrating at the sight of Sweetie Belle standing there with the other three.
“Apple Bloom?!”
“Scoots?!”
“Sweetie Belle?!”
“Crystal?!”
************************************