//------------------------------// // Castoff // Story: Clear Skies // by Amber Spark //------------------------------// Twenty minutes later, the smug engineer had departed into the still-teeming throng of the Vanhoover Skydocks. Despite my annoyance at him, I’d still hugged him again and promised that the next payment for the deposit would be in the mail as soon as I made Whinnyapolis. Despite his little gift, I needed this ship to be mine, or at least as ‘mine’ as I could afford it to be. If I didn’t get the Wandering Blossom under my name, it would hang over me. I just needed to be free, if only for a little while. However, that wasn’t meant to be, because now I had a stowaway. One I’d willingly let on board, to make matters worse. So yes, it stretched the definition of stowaway, but I felt it was appropriate.  I found Minuette still studying the ‘Waystone’ on the stern of the ship, a view dominated by the sprawling city of Vanhoover and the great blue expanse of the North Luna Ocean stretching out to the horizon beyond. Of course, with the rain that had started a few minutes ago, it was difficult to see much, but the Skydock’s pegasi-operated rain shield was doing its job nicely, protecting the Skydocks and the smaller vessels in their slips from the drizzle. Still, it was a beautiful sight.  Minuette didn’t seem to notice me at first. She just kept turning the ‘Waystone’ around and around in her magic like it was a particularly interesting Hearth’s Warming ornament. I watched for a short time. The way the blue lightning arced inside of it was rather hypnotizing, but not to this level of fascination. “Okay, what’s the deal?” I demanded, my eyebrow raised at her as I rewrapped my mane into a tight bun. Topknots would have to wait until our first stop. “Why are you so locked into that thing?” Minuette jumped and nearly dropped the ‘Waystone.’ She blushed and glanced back at me, biting her lip. “You startled me.” “Sorry,” I replied flatly, rolling my eyes. “Now, what’s the deal?” Minuette’s eyes fell back on the orb. “Well… I mean, it just… it’s… like a puzzle right?” I thought about the basic properties of an actual Waystone artifact. “Yes, more or less.” “I like puzzles. And… I like the idea of a little adventure.” “Minuette, I didn’t get this ship for an adventure. I got this ship to escape the world. Not to go on some silly treasure hunt. And I’d like to point out that despite Keel’s words, I really doubt that thing’s real.” “I’m not saying you have to go on a treasure hunt!” she protested as she stood up and floated the orb next to her. “But wouldn’t it be awesome if it was real? And if you could?” I shrugged. Despite my words earlier, I honestly hadn’t given it much thought. These kinds of things cropped up all the time in the Stack Vaults of the RCA. Some ancient artifact that supposedly holds secrets from the past or long lost treasures from forgotten kingdoms. They usually just held recipes for fruitbread. Like, an absurd amount of ancient cultures were obsessed with fruitbread. If this was a real Waystone, it probably just led to more fruitbread. “Come on, Moony,” she begged. “Just consider the possibility?” Her eyes got huge in a way I’d almost forgotten. Which wasn’t fair. At all. I facehoofed again and shook my head. “I’ll consider it. Okay? That’s all I’m promising. I’ve already made some pretty big changes just by taking you on, Minuette!” The last few words came out harsher than I intended and Minuette recoiled a little. I took a deep breath. Smooth, Moondancer. Real smooth.  “Look, I’m sorry,” I said, forcing my voice to be even. “I just… don’t do well with unexpected changes to plans I’ve had in place for years. Even if they weren’t… firm plans. They were at least solo plans. Anyway, I said you can come as far as Whinnyapolis, and I meant it. Just… remember why I’m taking this trip? Okay?” Minuette nodded, looking somewhat mollified. “Okay… uh… you’ll need to stash that before we leave the docks. There’s a safe on one of the bookshelves near the sofa. Can you find it? I need to get her ready for departure.” “I can probably manage that,” Minuette said with a smile. At least it was closer to her normal smile. Seeing her without her trademark grin was eerie. “Back in a jiffy.” With that, she scampered below and for the first time, I was on the deck of the Wandering Blossom alone. It felt good. A fresh wind from the sea was coming in. It smelled of the unknown and of finally being able to chart my own course. I took the moment to walk the length of the ship.  The Wandering Blossom was one of the bigger classes of personal airships, based on the Bright Bow 7S Design. A great deal of that original design remained after Even Keel’s personal touch, but there was no doubt it was still mine. My new home was a full seventy feet in length from bow to stern and I made sure to walk every foot of her. She was beautiful in a way I’d never seen before. The moment I stepped hoof on her deck, I’d felt at home. Like we’d been together for years. I ran a hoof along the railings and smiled to myself. “It’s going to be hard to be anywhere else…” “What’s that, Moony?” My trance broke and I spun to see Minuette there, her full-powered smile back on her face. For some odd reason, that made me feel better. Something about seeing Minuette as down or even outright sad just seemed… well, wrong.  In reality, I didn’t have a clue what it would be like to have her on board Wandering Blossom’s maiden voyage. Who knows? It might actually be fun. Operative word here being ‘might.’ “Moony?” “Nothing, sorry,” I said. She smiled a little wider in response and I ignored her. “Okay, so, before we get underway, I need to know something, Minuette.” She cocked her head to the side. “What’s that?” I suspected I knew the answer, but I had to give her the benefit of a doubt. “Do you know anything about airship sailing?” Minuette flushed slightly, her ears going back. “Um… does sailing those cute little model boats count?” I blinked and considered it. “Only… a little.” “Then… only a little?” Minuette said though she sounded hopeful it might be enough. “Yeah, I was pretty sure that was going to be the answer.” I sighed.  I’d spent the last year taking courses, including clocking in over fifty hours of hooves-on airsailing out of Canterlot. I’d even taken a seven-day crash course in nautical sailing out of Baltimare last summer. And the year before, I’d been reading everything I could get my hooves on about engines, knots, wind patterns, and crystal cores.  I knew I was ready. There was no doubt in my mind. Minuette though? Not so much. So, I could either have her as a full passenger where she did nothing, or teach her a few things and get some help. Maybe. “I’m really good at picking up anything to do with engineering, especially fine mechanics,” Minuette offered, her ears perking up. “But when it comes to the rest…” I lifted a hoof to quiet her down. “Okay, let’s… worry about that later. But right now, you need to agree to one thing, Minuette. If you don’t, you need to leave my ship.” “What?” Minuette frowned.  I really wish she would stop frowning. “If I tell you to do something on this ship, by Celestia, you need to do it.” I walked up to her and got right in her face. I narrowed my eyes. I tried to make my face as stiff as granite. She had to get this one. “Especially if things are getting rough, you understand?” “Oh, is that all?” Minuette sat down and popped off a perfect little salute. “Aye-aye, Captain Moony!” I blinked a few times. So much for my stoic command face. “Second, don’t call me Captain Moony,” I grumbled. “Aww.” “Third, stop pouting!” I shouted. Her smirk was all the answer I got for that one. So much for rule three. And I somehow doubted I could get her to follow rule two, either. Ugh. “Okay, let’s get this show on the road,” I announced, ignoring her smirk. “Minuette, there are three ropes set into seals on the deck on the bow. Release the seals by putting your hoof down on each seal and pushing down hard, then just say the name of the ship and the word ‘unmoor.’ They should automatically spring back into the Skydocks.” “Um… which way is the bow?” Minuette asked, rubbing her head and looking embarrassed. I pointed at the front of the ship with a sigh.  “Got it!” She immediately scampered off.  I shook my head and turned around, heading for the wheelhouse standing tall above the deck of the Wandering Blossom. I climbed the starboard stairwell and stepped up into a small word of dials, yokes, levers, and throttles.  Both of the pilot seats in the wheelhouse could control the ship and there was enough space behind the chairs for three ponies to stand side-by-side comfortably. My second favorite part of the wheelhouse was the automated shutters that could lock down the aft section—currently open—and protect ponies from the elements. It even had a Spellsinger’s Sight charm to let me see through the slats! Facing forward, however, was even more exciting, because I’d purchased a brand new contraption that I couldn’t wait to try out. The forward-facing view of the wheelhouse did have a slatted curtain with a Spellsinger’s Sight built-in. But it also had a translucent shield generator built into the bottom of the wheelhouse’s structure. With that, I could bring up the equivalent of a magical window at any time. I could even superimpose the Spellsinger’s Sight over that and remove the sight of the mainsail from my view of the horizon! After making sure Minuette was looking away, I squealed a little and did a little dance in the wheelhouse, then quickly jumped into the starboard pilot’s chair. I took a deep breath and triggered the crystal core with a flick of a switch. And just like that, the Wandering Blossom purred to life. The hum of its rear turbines barely sent a rumble through the ship’s structure. The mainsail gleamed as it began to absorb what little sunlight slipped through the stormclouds above, while the jib sail just fluttered in the wind, as if eager to send us off. I saw Minuette release the last of the lines mooring us to the Skydocks and grinned. I couldn’t help myself. I reached up and turned a dial, adjusting the onboard transmitter. This was another splurge, but a magical radio just seemed too convenient not to go for. I lit up my horn and cast the necessary spell. Somewhere in the Skydocks Air Traffic Control Tower to starboard, another unicorn would be getting my hail. “Vanhoover Skydocks ATC,” replied a somewhat-overworked sounding pony over a small speaker above my head. “Please stand by.” The speaker gave a little hiss while Minuette climbed up into the wheelhouse. She looked about ready to say something, but I shook my head and pointed at the other seat. Then I quietly disabled the port-side steering controls, just in case. She looked around curiously while I waited for the ATC to get back to me. “Vanhoover Skydocks ATC,” said the other unicorn again. “ID, homeport?” “This is Wandering Blossom, homeport Canterlot. Requesting departure clearance, ATC,” I announced, watching as a team of four pegasi led out an enormous pleasure yacht three times the size of the Blossom. According to the hull, its name was To Dream in Colour. Talk about your pretentious names. Yeesh.  Meanwhile, Minuette let out a whistle at the thing. “Blossom, ATC,” the pony replied with the sound of rustling paper. “Flight plan shows north to Twinkle Town, then northeast to Whinnyapolis, confirm?” “ATC, Blossom,” I said, trying to sound professional and not so giddy I might start squealing like I really wanted to. “Flight plan confirmed.” “Blossom, ATC. Be aware: reports of stray frozen north storms along projected flight path. Cloudsdale teams en route, but advise caution. Storms met along your path are wild, repeat wild.” “ATC, Blossom. Wild storm warning acknowledged,” I replied. I wasn’t concerned. I handled a few storms during my training and read enough about them to probably dance through them. I ignored the worried look Minuette gave me and took another breath. “Thank you, ATC.” “Blossom, ATC.” The unicorn on the other side must have had this ‘conversation’ with a dozen other ships today alone. “You are clear for departure. Wait for Sky Guide Red to wave you out.” “ATC, Blossom,” I said. My hooves were positively shaking with anticipation. “Acknowledge Sky Guide Red.” “Blossom, happy winds and clear skies,” the operator droned. “ATC, calm winds and clear skies,” I replied, completing the old airship exchange. It had been one of the first things I’d learned when I first came up with this crazy scheme. And now… I was about to live out that scheme. It was getting harder to contain the squeal. “ATC out.”  The line went dead and I turned the radio into passive mode. Not a lot of ponies could use radios, even among unicorns. Even airships usually used semaphore towers or just a pony waving flags. But one never knew when one might get a warning. A seldom-used line of communication was better than no line of communication. At least, that’s what I’d read. “So we’re ready?” Minuette chirped, clapping her hooves together from her seat.  I strapped down my seatbelt and Minuette did the same. “Yes, we are.” Minuette began to bounce in her seat a little. I tried to hide my smile behind a hoof, but I couldn’t keep it hidden for long. Within a few minutes, a pegasus in a red uniform flew up to the starboard side of the ship. A moment later, a second one flew up to the port side. Both of them looked at me and I nodded. They nodded in reply—I couldn’t tell if they were stallions or mares—and used glowing batons to wave us forward with a measured pace. I swallowed hard and put my hoof on the throttle. Minuette made a little squealing noise. I could have told her to stop, but I wanted to squee too, so I didn’t. I just smiled wider.  I took one final deep breath and pushed the throttle to one quarter.  The Blossom immediately shuddered as the rear engines spun up and the ship began to slowly inch forward, away from the gangplank and the slip. For a second, I thought I saw Even Keel in the crowd again, chatting with some vaguely-familiar looking amber unicorn, but then they were gone. Then I forced my attention back to my center and peripherals. The pegasi carefully guided us away from the Skydocks, having me alter course due north until the Skydocks were directly astern. It took a little over five minutes for us to clear the rest of the traffic, but thankfully, the staff and crew of the Vanhoover Skydocks knew their stuff. At no point did anypony get too close or things get dicey. I kept an even speed at one-quarter until we cleared Skydocks’s central airspace. With that, the starboard pegasus gave me a jaunty little salute and they both darted back toward the Vanhoover Skydocks. “Okay, that was awesome!” Minuette squealed peering around at the view far beneath us.  “That?” I laughed. “That was nothing. That was just getting clear. This is where it actually gets fun.” “There was a time you didn’t even know the meaning of the word,” Minuette pointed out with a cheeky little smirk. “They grow up so fast.” “I can still turn this thing around!” I threatened, but I was smiling as I did it. “How about you show me the fun part instead?” Minuette batted her eyelashes at me. I snickered. “Does that ever work?” “It worked once on Lemon Hearts. I think.” I rolled my eyes… then I closed them. For just a moment, I just sat there, buckled into my seat like I was a part of the Blossom herself. I could feel her engines, her crystal core, the mainsail’s magical energy, the stabilizing fins to her sides, every bolt, every rivet, every plank of wood, and every shard of glass. This ship wasn’t just my new home for now. This ship was part of me. And I was a part of her. I had spent so long working with Even Keel to make her perfect… and she was. She was everything I wanted and more.  And maybe, that would finally be enough. A wide, broad smile stretched over my face as I opened my eyes again to see Minuette looking at me curiously. “You okay, Moony?” “Better than ever.” I adjusted our course to send us due north. We would pass over the tail end of Vanhoover and then head into the dense farmlands outside the city that lead right into the expansive northern forests and verdant green fields beyond. Two days with nothing but forests beneath us and ocean beside us, the next stop would be the small spot on the map known as Twinkle Town. Then we’d head inland for Whinnyapolis.  But all that could wait. It was time for something much more exciting. Something that even I couldn’t be dour about even if I wanted to. “You’re buckled in, right?” “Uh… yeah?” “Good.” I flipped four switches on the control console with my magic. In an instant, the mainsail and the jib sail collapsed as magnetic charms cinched them tight. I flipped another switch and sent a surge of energy into the Blossom’s stabilizers. Just as rain began to patter on the deck in earnest, I triggered the shield spell. It grew like a wave of light blue magic across our field of vision. Minuette gasped as rain streaked down the magic field, powered by the Blossom herself. Now, we could see everything before us. The North Luna Ocean to port, the end of the deep forested mountains of the Unicorn Range to starboard. And before us… nothing but beautiful, gray stormclouds far above our heads.  “This ship is beautiful, Moony,” she whispered, almost as if she were praying. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” “Just wait and see what she can do,” I said smugly. “Hold onto something.” A few more switches, a dial or two, then, with one hoof on the steering yoke and the other on the throttle, I powered up her main turbines. First, I moved her from one-quarter to one-half. The purr turned into a soft rumble as Minuette looked at me with wide eyes. Water was streaking on the shield spell. I reached up and pulled the lever to close the rear slatted curtain and activate the Sight spell. Minuette glanced behind us to watch, but I stayed focused on the task at hand. It was a well-known fact that the Storm King’s Invasion of Canterlot some years back had advanced Equestrian airship technology considerably. A great deal of that was primarily used by the Royal Guard, but some had been allowed to go into the commercial sector. And this was the result. With what might have been a manic grin, I shoved the throttle past the three-quarters mark and slammed into all-ahead-full. The Wandering Blossom stopped wandering. Instead, she rocketed. The turbines went into a dull roar that rattled the entire ship from stem to stern. Wind whipped by us as we ripped over the last remnants of Vanhoover and streaked due north. We shot over farmlands for all of twenty seconds before we were soaring over the thick tangled North Shore forest that would stretch all the way to the icy foothills of the Frozen North. “Moony!” Minuette cried as she clutched her hoof-rests. “Is this a good idea?” “Part of a maiden voyage is seeing what she can do!” I laughed as I pushed the yoke down a little to drop some altitude.  “Moony, what are you doing?” Minuette all but screamed. “Enjoying myself!” I cried as I eyed the altimeter as we cruised down toward the treetops. “Moony!” Minuette cried as she practically crawled into a little ball. “This isn’t funny!” I couldn’t stop laughing. My airspeed indicator showed that we were just shy of seventy knots. Reckless? Maybe? But I had every faith in the Blossom. Even if this was our first time together, I knew her like she knew me. Minuette squeaked as we skimmed the very top of the vast forest. I adjusted the yoke and started to sashay Blossom across the green and pointy landscape beneath us. Nothing crazy, just enough to have some fun.  It didn’t stop Minuette from cowering like a terrified filly in her seat. I let out a long, low sigh and throttled back to one half, then picked up altitude until we were at least a thousand feet above sea level.  “Minuette?” I called as I leveled the Blossom out. “Go away.” “Minuette…” I called, glancing over at her. She was still curled up.  “Minuette is not available! Go away and try again later!” she muttered. “Preferably when you’re not being mean!” “If you’ll look out the window, you’ll see I’m not being ‘mean’ anymore.” I rolled my eyes. Teasing her was going to be fun, but I’d probably have to rein it in a little. It would be a nice change of pace to be the teaser instead of the teasee, for once. Minuette eventually came out of her self-imposed cocoon and peeked out through the forward screen. Only then did she blink a few times and take a deep breath.  “Okay, this… this I can handle.” “I never expected you to be the one who couldn’t handle something as easy as skimming some treetops,” I giggled.  “I never expected that doing something like that would be your first act behind the wheel of this thing!” Minuette shot back. “Minuette, I’ve been training for this for two years.” I rolled my eyes again. “Trust me, I know what I’m doing.” “Then for the next day, can we not do any crazy maneuvers?” Minuette said, her voice still a little bit shaky. “Twelve hours,” I replied as I checked the clock on the wall. “I can give you that.” “Why twelve hours?” she asked, still crouched and watching me with narrowed eyes and flattened ears.  “There’s a mountain pass I’ll need to cut through to make it out of the Greater Vanhoover Basin.” “Can’t you just climb over it?” Minuette whined. I shrugged as I adjusted the ship’s yaw a little. “I could, but I’ve been looking forward to getting through that pass for over a year.” Minuette thought about it, then sat up straight and crossed her forehooves over her chest. “Fine.” “Hey, you’re the one who wanted to come along,” I pointed out. “So no pouting.” “I’ll pout if I want to!” Minuette snapped back, then stuck her tongue out at me. “What are you, twelve?”  She just pouted some more.