//------------------------------//
// Cptn. D. Design, 01-21-1005, II 
// Story: The Gilderoy Expedition 
// by PaulAsaran 
//------------------------------//



From the private logbook of Decadent Design, Captain HRH Aurora Dawn.



As predicted, returning to sleep is impossible with all this torrential shaking. I would go to the bridge, but I left Chief Mate Coxswain in charge and would hate to relieve her so soon. She is relatively new to her position, being a transfer from the Equestrian Navy – that is to say the sea vessels, not the airships – to help shore up the Crystal Empire’s admittedly flagging ranks, and still finds the act of commanding from an airship bridge a novel and enjoyable experience. I think doing so under these malevolent weather conditions would make a good experience for her, as it was for me in my own early days.

Sleep being ever-elusive and my command voluntarily relinquished, I have turned my attention to the details of our mission. I confess to having only skimmed the information packet before, having intended to go into further reading in the morning when near the glacier. But now I peruse the data, which came in quite a large package delivered by a kindly old pegasus gentlemare – another transfer from Equestria, no doubt. What I have found is, frankly, worthy of my utmost disdain.

It would appear this Gilderoy fellow is, to utilize his own terminology, an archaeological pariah. Though he has been on at least a dozen individual expeditions, none of them found anything that the archaeological or scientific communities have ever considered of note. In his writings he claims to have uncovered evidence for something he referred to as – and this term is as baffling to me as it was apparently absurd to his peers – “the place between places”. His most recent writings state that he was on the hunt for a great treasure vault created by some ancient cult, itself nearly forgotten to history. No wonder the griffon was a laughingstock and had to fund the vast majority of his expeditions out of his own pockets! There are even suggestions among his peers that he forged or faked much of his so-called “evidence”.

The current expedition, which we have been sent to find and potentially rescue, has far more mundane purposes. It is merely a scientific survey of ice cores taken from the Mighty Matti in hopes of uncovering some geological clues as to the glacier’s ancient and mysterious history. The Matti Ths Aioniotitas is said to have existed since before the Great Winter and has remained relatively unchanged in all these centuries. Given its utter lack of motion due to typical physical and magical phenomenon, there has actually been a great question as to whether it is affected by some unknowable magical effect. It would appear that Lord Gilderoy volunteered, unsolicited, to lead the expedition in an attempt to smooth over strains in his relationship with the greater scientific minds at his university, thereby preserving his very much endangered career.

Nothing other than disgust can describe my feelings on this matter. That the resources of Her Royal Highness’s air navy must be wasted on a degenerate con artist such as this is frankly insulting. Still, I suppose I cannot rightly leave to certain frigid death his crew – who most certainly can be accused of naught but scientific curiosity and seeking a good work’s fee – over a single irresponsible and possibly mad griffon. And who am I, once made pathetic and helpless under the yoke of that blight upon equinity whose name I dare not utter even in these writings, to refuse Her Highness, Princess Cadance, who rescued my race from said blight?

I only hope Lord Gilderoy has left his madness behind on this more grounded expedition, and so has not sent such a diverse and brave crew to their deaths in this terrible terrain.