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// T-17:00:00 
// Story: Maiden Voyage 
// by Reviewfilly 
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It never ceased to amuse Celestia how easy it was to gather extra dignitaries beyond the core crew who were actually necessary to broker peace. But then, it was hard to blame them. A fully-paid luxury trip to a foreign country, a chance to rub shoulders with the princess herself, and save Equestria without actually doing anything? What noble wouldn't do anything shy of throwing themselves off Mount Canterlot for an opportunity like that?

Celestia didn't bother to read the names she was presented with, approving the list as-is. She was known for scrutiny, but in this case she knew the choices ultimately didn't matter much and her mind was entirely occupied with the details of the peace plan. While the Lux Aeterna might cow the griffons temporarily upon her arrival, she still needed something more binding than a verbal agreement that the two countries would not unleash Tartarus on each other. A war would've been suicidal, especially when She would return within only a couple decades.

Days passed in a blur and she soon found herself on the steps leading into the cabins, shaking hooves with the names she hadn’t bothered to check. Truth be told, she found herself reassured; whilst she knew who each individual pony was, she also realised she didn't miss too much on not personally following up on them. As much as she cared about them, in this mission they were set dressing and mostly unimportant. The only ponies her eyes and hooves gained a measure of glint and enthusiasm for were the ministers she had personally picked.

She was about to greet one of them, when another pony butted in front with such ease as if cutting in line were his prerogative. "Greetings, Your Majesty!" the snow-white stallion addressed her without missing a beat. Celestia answered his perfect, charming smile with a polite and slightly cold nod of her head. In return he glanced proudly towards a mare and a small colt next to him, causing his immaculate, hay-coloured locks to flutter in the wind. "These are my wife and colt, they shall be accompanying me on the journey."

"I welcome you, Count Blueblood," Celestia answered mechanically. "Countess, and little?"

"Prince Blueblood!" the colt answered with a fierce smile. "One day I'll rule Equestria!"

Celestia was about to forget the count's insolence and pet the little ‘prince’ on his head, when his father's smile froze on his lips and he quickly ushered his family inside with a grim look on his face. Celestia automatically tuned out the myriad of apologies he muttered with an imperceptible roll of her eyes as the Bluebloods quickly disappeared into the woodwork. Though she was ageless, seeing her ponies act like sycophants who couldn't even imagine her as anything but a perfect, humourless figurehead that couldn't find a colt like him amusing made her feel centuries older than she really was.

The rest of the reception was uneventful and, soon enough, everything was ready. It took the nearly-hundred crewponies almost eight hours to pack all of the cargo. In the meantime Celestia climbed down into the gondola, where the captain was already waiting for her. The gondola was a surprisingly spacious room compared to what she was used to, but then everything about the Lux Aeterna was far greater than what could be found on any airship before. The farthest wall from the door was a massive curved pane of glass, allowing the crew to see outside. Various gauges and instruments lined the other walls, measuring various things from air humidity to magical background radiation that could interfere with the engines.

As she entered the room the six ponies posted in front of the various devices neatly threw salutes towards her, but only one of them made his way towards her whilst the rest immediately returned to their stations. The old stallion gave Celestia a light bow whilst taking his beaten naval cap off, before gesturing for her to move deeper inside the room. In the olden days the mark of a red balloon on his navy blue coat had made him assume he would be best at creating balloon animals, until he once rode in a balloon and everything suddenly clicked. Since then he'd slowly climbed the ranks until he was known as Blue Sky, First Captain of the Royal Guard's aeronautical branch.

"Your Highness, we are almost ready to depart..." he began, though before he could continue the door flew open and an orange unicorn mare—Sky's long-time crewmate and steerspony, Steady Hooves—hurried down into the room, carrying a bunch of papers in her magic.

"Oh! Your Highness,"—she addressed Celestia with a haphazard bow, before immediately turning back to Blue Sky and passing over the papers to him—"Captain, I have finished gathering the reports," she said with such speed that it made Celestia wonder how she didn't trip up on her own tongue.

Blue Sky placed his hat back on his head. "Well then, Steady, what's our status?"

"All passengers and cargo on board. Crew's at their stations, awaiting orders." Steady suddenly stopped and nervously cleared her throat, glancing towards Celestia. Her tail twitched. "Engineering reports that the ship is over-encumbered. They cannot guarantee a safe takeoff like this."

Blue Sky sighed and raised his eyes towards the ceiling. "Heavy Wrench swore on the Sun and the Moon that the ship would still be within limits, even if all cargo magically became twice as heavy as accounted for, but apparently that was just a wishful estimate," he said drily, whilst massaging his temple with a hoof. A few seconds of silence later he shrugged and looked at the mare again. "Tell the crew to start throwing out cargo from the front until we're buoyant enough."

"But Captain, this is nobility—"

Celestia raised a hoof to silence her. "It's fine, Steady. The Crown will insure all packages left behind. The ship should still have more than enough supplies for everypony, isn't that right, Sky?"

He nodded. "Yes, Highness, we have stockpiled two and a half times as much food as strictly necessary, as per your instructions."

"Excellent," Celestia said with a smile. "It is up to your more than capable hooves, then, Steady."

"R-right! At once, Highness!" Steady yelped, darting out of the room just as quickly as she'd entered.

Sky smiled and shook his head. "Feisty that one," he said with a chuckle. "But I couldn't ask for a better coxswain." He then cleared his throat and the smile washed off his face. "Forgive my imprudence, Highness, but I would like to ask you to return back to the deck now. As soon as we have solved our little... weight-problem, we shall be taking off and that requires utmost concentration from everypony in this room."

Celestia nodded. "Don't apologise for wanting to do a good job, Sky. I place myself in your care."