“Brace!”
“Brace!”
The word came from all through the airship as each crewmember repeated it loudly when they heard it.
I lit my horn and wrapped myself and the five closest changelings and ponies into my shield as I held on tightly.
Shield wouldn’t do much for the impact itself, but it would help with potential flying debris.
Amber had one foreleg around me, her other three legs planted firmly on the floor as she held on tightly.
I wrapped her tightly in one wing for extra support.
The ship suddenly rocked slightly and there was the sound of impact over the howling wind outside.
“Brace!”
Something hit metal and there was a crashing and ripping sound and the ship kind of vibrated beneath our hooves, tilting slightly before it suddenly jerked with the sound of impact.
Another impact rang through the ship, something scraped across the hull in a horribly screeching sound followed by another impact and then another and then…
It was over.
I slowly raised my head without lowering the shield, “...That’s it?” I asked, “We don’t seem to be moving much.”
Another bang, but this one much softer and was more you could hear it more than feel it.
There was a whine and then a bang from the rear of the ship, the sound of the rear hatch banging open.
I dropped the shield and looked to Tempest and Amber as the three crew members quickly galloped off to where they were going before the brace order came, “Come on, let’s check it out!”
Amber looked like she wanted to protest, but still nodded and let go of me.
We headed for the hatch at a bit more sedate pace. Whatever was happening was clearly mostly over.
The exit of the ship was filled with ponies passing lines along and being lowered out by unicorn crewmembers, pegasi jumping out and flying back in to get more equipment or tools, clearly fighting against the howling wind outside.
“What’s going on?” I asked the closest unicorn.
He looked to me for a moment, “We need to tie down, My Lord, or the storm is going to crack us open against the forest.
“Anything we can do to help?”
He shook his head, “You’re not trained, sir.”
“Fair enough, we’ll stay out of your way.”
He looked to me in slight surprise as he kept preparing a set of rope with his magic before he gave me a nod and trotted over to the edge to hand it over to one of the pegasi.
I took a breath and then shook my head and looked to the other two, “Come on, let’s get going. We shouldn’t be in the way.”
Tempest shook her head, “This is something I ‘am’ trained for, Commander,” she said and crossed the chamber to the earth pony that was clearly in charge.
“Well, we useless ones should at least get out of the way,” I told Amber, “But there is something we can do.”
It was the middle of the night, it was raining hard and when it’s over, everypony was going to be freezing and starving.
I’m going to the galley.
XXXXXXXXX
It took a bit of work to figure out how to use the magic powered burner and a some more to figure out where everything was and how to lock the large pot down to it.
Then it was simply the task of locating all the ingredients and getting to work.
I’m hardly the best chef in the world, but there is only so much you could buck up making soup.
“What in Celestia's name are you doing in my galle-” an angry voice asked as I added some more pepper before it broke off as I looked over to the speaker and the earth pony cleared his throat, “I mean, may I ask what you’re doing, Lord Page?”
“The one thing I can actually do to help,” I said and turned the heat down a little, “My apologies for borrowing your equipment, Biscuit, but we’re going to have a lot of hungry ponies soon.”
He nodded, “Which is why I’m here. Now, out of my kitchen!” he said and trotted over.
I obediently got out of his way and he sniffed the soup before picking up a spoon and trying some.
Biscuit frowned and then looked to me, “Is that goulash?”
“Ish,” I said, “Goulashish. It has a lot of the same things in it, but it’s a soup not a stew. Need another hour to get ready.”
Biscuit nodded and looked at the puttering pot, “Very well,” he said and then looked at Amber and me again, “That’s going to need time to work and we’re going to need some bread and something else as well. I have dough rising for tomorrow, we can use that a bit early. I get to work with that. Changeling, how are you with a knife?”
“I can use a knife,” Amber said and eyed him warily.
“There is a barrel of carrots in the storage room, get five pounds, peel and grate. Lord Page,” he then continued and turned to me, “Same deal, twice as many potatoes.”
I saluted him.
Let’s get some ponies fed!