“If you’re seeing this here message, means either that clouds-for-brains Admiral Fairweather gunned us down, or you’re a thief, may the Egg curse your blackened soul!” The blurry image of a griffon spat before coughing several times. “But unlike the rest of those birdbrains, I ain’t the type to be spiteful. Somegriff should get to enjoy our trinkets. Looks like it’d be you.”
The griffon burst into another set of hacking coughs. If I knew my medicine, it sounded like early-onset pneumonia. I stared at the figure, but he was too out-of-focus to make out any details, save for his general shape. Definitely a griffon and, from the sound of his voice, probably past middle age.
I glanced at Minuette, but she seemed enraptured by the figure in glowing yellow light. I could even see the griffon’s reflection in her wide eyes.
“Ain’t even sure if this damn thing works. Silver Tides swears by it though, and I trust that crazy old mare. Made a pact. Hopefully this is you, Silver. Though if it is, why you need a damn map in the first place? You were there!”
Another bout of coughing, then almost a full minute of deep wheezing. The image faded in and out a little. I caught sight of a black cuirass with a brown sash and a head full of blazing orange feathers streaked with grey.
“Enough babbling. This here be the record of the Cloudshark, best damn ship to fly the skies! Whoever ya are, ya best know that we gave as good as we got, but fates weren’t with us last night. Starboard cargo pod got blasted clean off by the Valiant Sunrise. We’d been making for the Phantom, hoping to hide in the fog beside her, but Fairweather caught up to us before we could settle in. Captain managed to spiral us up into the rain, but not before we lost the pod and took damage to the starboard side.”
The griffon seemed to reach out and steady something, maybe the Waystone itself.
“Best guess is the pod smashed on the west side of the ridge. Probably spilled most of our haul halfway down the mountainside. Ain’t gonna get time to get it for a while, but I reckon this thing should serve us right well when the heat’s died down. Ain’t never lost a score yet!”
Suddenly, alarm bells sounded and the griffon looked around in panic. Indistinct shouting came from somewhere. I had to stop myself from looking around the wheelhouse.
“Black skies, ain’t one thing, it’s another. Fairweather’s found us again and this time she brought Armada friends! Well, ain’t gonna lose more. Cloudshark’s too good for—”
There was suddenly an explosion to the griffon’s right, and the image vanished in a blinding flash.
Minuette and I just sat there, staring at the Waystone as it slowly settled down between the two helm stations. The rest of the lights went out, leaving only the blue lightning arcing over the six-pointed crystal.
I didn’t have a clue what to say. Even if I did, I couldn’t find it in me to break the sudden silence that descended on the wheelhouse. It was only then when I realized I was holding my breath. I forced myself to let it out in a slow, unsteady rhythm, just as Minuette did the same thing.
Finally, after what felt like hours, Minuette turned to me. Her eyes were as big as ever, her mouth still gaping.
“D-did that… that just happen?” she whispered.
“You… you mean…” I licked my suddenly dry lips and met her eyes. “You mean the projection of some old griffon talking about…”
I couldn’t finish the sentence. This couldn’t be real. This kind of thing didn’t actually happen. Well, it didn’t happen to anypony except for the Princess and the Protectors. I’m sure it happened to them all the time.
“He said the Cloudshark, Moony.” Minuette’s voice was still a whisper. “The Cloudshark!”
“Can’t be… that ship… it’s a myth…” I didn’t exactly sound convincing. Not even to myself. “There’s just no way…”
“Then what about the other names? Admiral Fairweather?” Minuette bounced up and down in her seat. “The Valiant Sunrise?”
Those were names I knew. I didn’t especially want to admit it since I didn’t want to fuel Minuette’s false hopes about the reality of this madness. But, I couldn’t exactly lie. I swallowed and adjusted my glasses. Then adjusted them again for good measure.
“The Valiant Sunrise was Admiral Fairweather’s flagship. She was one of Equestria’s only Mare-of-War airships back in the late 400s,” I said woodenly. “Despite her work with the Wonderbolts, Fairweather was one of the best airship commanders of her day, an important thing since the airships had only really been around for a century or so.”
“And did Fairweather serve in the Equestrian Northwest?” Minuette asked slowly, the edges of her mouth twitching. She already knew the answer.
“She served all over!” I protested, then caved almost immediately. “But yes, her primary area of jurisdiction was the North Equestria, operating out of Canterlot. Admiral Rolling Thunder captained the HMS Eternal Sun and her territory was Southern Equestria.”
“So everything that griffon said could be true!” Minuette’s smile was growing by the second. Then, it suddenly fell. “But… it doesn’t say anything about where it happened. Just something about a ridge and a… what did he say?”
Pieces started to click into place. While I’d never been to Canter Basin Lake, I had always wanted to visit. And I always did plenty of research on any place I considered visiting. I felt my heart start to thrum as I realized I knew exactly where the old griffon had been talking about.
“Phantom,” I breathed. “He had to be talking about the Phantom Ship of Canter Basin Lake!”
“The what?” Minuette cocked her head to the side.
I ignored the question, popped open the navigation console, and yanked out a bundle of topographical maps. It took me a good minute to locate the map I wanted and another thirty seconds to find Canter Basin Lake. I immediately highlighted it in my magic and pointed it out.
“Canter Basin Lake is actually a collapsed volcano,” I said quickly. “It’s been long dormant. Now, there are two islands. One’s called Isle of the Witch—used to be a coven of unicorns there—and the second is a tiny little speck in the southeast called ‘The Phantom!’ It’s called that because, at night, the rock formation looks a lot like a ship!”
“Moony,” Minuette said quickly as she stared at the map. “Do you realize what this means?”
I rocked back in my seat and stared out at the endless pines and rolling hills. I shook my head. Not because I didn’t know, but because I couldn’t believe it. Had Even Keel actually…
No, no, no! I wasn’t about to buy into this!
“You have to admit it all fits!” Minuette cried, still bouncing up and down. “Moony, that griffon just told us exactly where one of the cargo pods of the Cloudshark landed! And we’re already heading there!”
“Even if that was telling the truth, there’s no way to know if anything’s left! He just said the west side of the ridge!” I shot back. I highlighted the western side of the crater-like lake in my magic. “Canter Basin Lake is huge, Minuette! It’s about six miles long and five miles wide! Do you really want to go digging up and down a mountainside for six miles?”
“There has to be some sign!” Minuette insisted. “Broken trees, a rockslide, something! You can’t just say no to this, Moony! Anyway, you promised!”
“Celestia on a pogo stick,” I muttered under my breath.
I had promised. Not only that, but I’d also terrified her multiple times and nearly froze her to death last night. Like it or not, I owed her one. At least one.
I took a long, deep breath and put away all of the maps save for the one showing Canter Basin Lake. Then, I adjusted our heading—again. By that time, I had calmed down enough to look her in the eye.
Minuette was still bouncing in her seat, her eyebrows raised, waiting for my response.
“Okay, here’s the deal,” I announced. “I will do a flyby of the western ridge if we get there with enough sunlight. You’ll be responsible for looking for any signs of this cargo pod. If you do—and don’t hold your breath—I’ll mark it on the map and we can go there tomorrow while the ship’s being repaired.”
Of course, that was assuming they had a mechanic who could fix the Blossom. And the parts.
“After this though, we’re even!” I finished. “This is all I’m promising, Minuette!”
“Deal!” She reached out a hoof and I bumped it reluctantly.
“Just don’t get too disappointed when we don’t find anything,” I warned her as I put a little more thrust into the turbines. I wanted this over with as soon as possible. “If that recording was real, it was made over six hundred years ago. Entire forests can grow in that time. Even if it was there, it might be long-buried or long gone.”
“Don’t be such a downer, Moony!” Minuette laughed as she turned to face forward, still bouncing. “Lighten up and have some fun! This is fun!”
“I’m not a downer, I’m a realist.”
“Realist my flank. You’re just grumpy.”
“I am not grumpy!” I cried.
“See? Totally something a grumpy person would say!”
“That’s… that’s circular logic!”
“A grumpy librarian, too.”
I decided to quit while I was behind.