//------------------------------// // T-00:18:00 // Story: Maiden Voyage // by Reviewfilly //------------------------------// It felt like she was sinking forever. The cold that was once so pleasant became harsher and harsher. She was freezing in the dark, and something wasn't right. This wasn't natural. That snug blanket became heavier and heavier, filling her nostrils and mouth. Her limbs and wings were bound tightly against her body as she suffocated. Suddenly an awful feeling of nausea washed over her. She couldn’t die here. Her ponies were counting on her. She had to stay alive for them, and for Her. The darkness receded with a disappointed snarl. Celestia retched as her eyes snapped open. Despite her screaming head and twisting stomach, she slowly clambered onto her hooves.  "No," she snarled. "I am not your plaything!" The laughter of several inaudible, mocking voices filled the gondola in return. Too late, they whispered. Her gaze snapped towards the controls just as Sky bucked with his hindlegs, ruining the machinery. "We're down, fillies!" he laughed maniacally. At that moment a dull explosion could be heard from above and a huge shockwave passed through the ship from the aft. A moment later the wave reached the room, shaking it violently and causing furniture and trinkets to fly everywhere. Sky tumbled forward, smashing against the window. Already brittle from the cold, it shattered under the impact. Rain and wind howled into the room, silencing the captain's screams who quickly disappeared into the darkness, followed by the controls and many of the instruments at the helm. Steady who was standing a bit further back looked into the hole in a daze. "Is that the exit?" she asked Celestia flatly, her voice hardly audible through the thunder. She took a step towards the gaping abyss. "No, Steady, stay where you are!" Celestia screamed, but Steady lumbered forwards undisturbed, stepping into the ice cold puddle that began to gather on the floor. Celestia gathered her magic, ignoring the painful jolt surging through her horn, and grabbed Steady as best she was able. "Listen to me! Sky is gone!" "What? Where is he?" Steady asked, her eyes suddenly regaining their colour. "Sweet Harmony!" she screamed at the roiling clouds in front of her. "What is going on? Where's Sky?" "I'm... sorry," Celestia said quietly as she pulled Steady in, setting her safely on the ground. "He fell." Steady stared at her with uncomprehending eyes. "Y-you're lying," she muttered, before her voice suddenly rose in pitch. "You're lying! He can't have fallen! He's the best captain in Equestria! It's not possible!" She sobbed. The ship groaned and the room began to slightly tilt forwards. Steady screamed as she drifted forwards, only to be caught in Celestia's magic.  "It's not safe here, we must go!" Celestia yelled through the thunder. Steady gave her a weak nod, her eyes darting around in a panic. Celestia began to pull her in, when the ship tumbled again, throwing them both forwards. Her hoof slipped in the puddle, but she remained standing and continued to pull.  But it was all for naught. With little chance to notice it, let alone react, a piece of debris flew into the room, dragged inside by the roaring thunder, and smashed against her horn. As if struck by lightning, her mind was filled by a brilliant pain and her magic faltered. Steady screamed out as she tumbled towards the hole, her voice silenced by the screaming wind that dragged her outside. She disappeared after her captain into the void before Celestia could grab her again. All that Celestia could do was silently stare after her for a few seconds. No tears came to her eyes. Silently, she got to her hooves and climbed the stairs. She ignored the chaos coming from down the corridor from the direction of the main hall, squeezing her eyes together to shut out the mental image of screaming and begging ponies, running left and right, and holding onto each other. Without a working engine, she couldn't do anything for them by staying. T-00:15:00 The engineering deck was mostly silent, aside from the muffled echoes of the panic below and the rhythmic thumping of a million raindrops on the envelope. Celestia galloped towards the aft, her way illuminated by the crystal lamps. As she ran, the air became colder and colder, and the lamps' steady light began to shift and wobble, casting swirling shadows onto her. A gust of freezing wind flew past her, bringing chiming laughter. A scream rang out from the direction of the engine room. Too late. Celestia rushed even faster, crashing through the door separating her from the source without slowing. As she entered the room, she came to a sudden, skidding halt, as she nearly lost her balance, the floor suddenly becoming slippery underneath her. She could barely see a step or two in front of her, the previous warmth of the room having turned into a thick fog in the cold. Moments later the frost began to mar her own coat, but the princess's internal magic was stronger. With a flash of her horn the ice liquified and dripped off her. She began to move deeper inside, much more slowly and carefully this time. With each step the frozen floor cracked and groaned below her from the pressure. As she stepped forward into the silence of the room, she saw the lonely silhouette of a pony in front of her, illuminated by the ghost-light of the flickering flame from a lamp carried in their hooves.  Celestia gently approached, "Hello? Are you alright?"  The pony didn't react. As she moved closer, she noticed that the pony's coat was sparkling like fresh snow. At that moment the temperature in the room shifted and the fog dropped to the floor, causing Celestia to shrink back from the nightmarish sight. The pony was a frozen statue, her face stuck in an eternal scream. Tears like gemstones twinkled over her eyes. Her oil lamp was still clenched in her hoof, its flimsy flame unable to fight off the encroaching frost. A shimmering puddle spread out below her, hardly visible from the fog which clung to the floor, which snaked back all the way behind the now-dull crystals. The machine itself laid in ruin, its pieces strewn across the partially-destroyed crystal-rows. "Wrench," Celestia muttered in disbelief as she stepped closer. "Not you too..." Focusing her magic on the pony, she still felt an inkling of warmth and life in her. Celestia gasped and quickly called upon her connection to the Sun. Throwing caution to the side, she raised her wings and allowed her magic to swell. Drops of water began to form and fall from the ceiling as the entire room started to warm. Wrench's hoof soon twitched and she moaned, as a drop of liquid fell on her face. "S-so cold," she grunted heavily. Her eyes slowly focused and raised until they met Celestia's. "H-Highness?" "Shh," Celestia cooed. "It's okay, I'm here now. Just preserve your strength." "No, Highness," Wrench whispered weakly. More drops began to fall from her body as she continued thawing. "Save yourself." Celestia did not relent. "I will not let any more of my ponies die." "You don't understand... They've tricked me..." Wrench groaned from pain, falling silent as her body slowly warmed. The drops turned into a trickle. "It's alright, this is not your fault. Let me just warm you up." Her magic grew even stronger. It had been centuries since she'd last needed to thaw magical ice like this and, just like then, the malignant cold easily contended with her own inner heat. However, as she continued to grit her teeth and press on, slowly and unwillingly the cold began to lose its grip and shrink back from her. Still, whilst she was taking care of Wrench, something definitely felt wrong. Celestia's ears flicked rhythmically with the drops of water hitting the floor. The rational part of her brain couldn’t stop nagging her that she was missing something. Something crucial. Celestia's eyes slowly wandered over to Wrench’s thawing body, the lamp held in her hoof, and the slick of ice underneath her slowly melting that led across the room towards the barrels. Then the lamp slipped from Wrench’s grasp. Celestia’s instincts screamed. It’s oil! T-00:12:00 It took less than a moment for the puddle under Wrench to ignite, quickly climbing the mare’s legs and covering her in flames. For a few brief and seemingly endless moments, her entire body was engulfed. Celestia screamed at the mass of fire covering Wrench, and without hesitation she rushed forwards to drape her wings over her. Ignoring the pain and noisome stench of her burning coat and feathers, she didn't stop until the fire finally suffocated in her embrace. Blackened feathers fell to the floor. Mercifully, Wrench took a ragged breath in. Frostbitten and burnt, but still alive, she looked up at her saviour with endlessly grateful eyes through her obvious pain. Meanwhile the rest of the flames snaked their way back to the barrels which stood in the back of the room, where the fire made its way into the vessels. Mere seconds later the pressure became too great from the sudden shift in temperature. Celestia looked up from her hold over Wrench to watch with alarm as they exploded one after the other with deafening blasts. Immediately, the freezing cold was replaced by extreme heat as the room burst into a hellish inferno. With a moderate flash, Celestia's horn ignited as she instinctively covered the two of them in a powerful shield each whilst the blast from the barrels washed over them with great force, drowning out all other sounds. Holding strong, the shields shimmered as they braced against the incoming firestorm that twisted over their protection. Short, painful breaths filled Celestia's lungs as the raging blaze receded and she stared into the hellscape in front of her. She shivered and grunted whilst her body slowly regenerated the damage she'd sustained. New feathers grew from her skin, forcing out the charred remains of old ones, covering her burns which would take a little longer to heal. Celestia glanced over Wrench with concern, though she hadn't come under any further harm. The gusts brought by the swirling fires rang with whispering and cackling laughter. Warmed her up, they taunted. Celestia grit her teeth as tears began to fall from her eyes in earnest, wanting nothing more than to unleash the power of a thousand suns to vanquish these monsters without mercy. Currently, she just growled in frustration as there was nothing she could do right then at that second. Strong magic could destabilise the already-weakened crystals, and letting in the rain from outside would just sink the ship even faster. To defeat the Windigos in this moment she would have to pay with her ponies' lives as collateral, and that was unthinkable. She stared into the flames for a few more seconds, before realising that Wrench was still in front of her. Celestia quickly forced a bit of composure upon herself. “Are you able to run?” she asked Wrench, who after trying her limbs gave a weak nod in return. “We must gather everypony and figure something out. This ship will not stay in the air much longer in this state.” The two mares rushed through and ahead of the inferno, leaving the burning engine room behind. The catwalk in front of them was illuminated by the fire which lazily followed after them. Smoke was filtering out into the hollow between the balloons. Time was of the essence, they had to get back to the main hall and… and then they would figure it out. T-00:08:00 The catwalks swayed left and right as the ship continued to be thrown around by the thunderstorm outside. The path occasionally plunged into near-darkness where the crystal lamps had cracked or fallen and the firelight had not yet reached. The duo didn’t stop, galloping on with a single purpose: They had to reach the hall. They were almost at the stairs when the ship then harshly tumbled to the left, throwing them off balance. Surrounded by a choir of screams from below, Celestia threw her legs under herself, grabbing Wrench in her magic and using her wings to glide the remaining distance. The cabin deck was dark, the weak flames imbued in the lamps extinguished by the malignant magical currents emanating from outside. Celestia used her hornlight to find her way through the rows of doors until she found the one opening into the main hall. What they found inside was utter chaos. Ponies of both the crew and passengers were huddled into groups, screaming and begging for some kind of salvation. The tables and chairs were scattered all over the marble floor, most upturned, some smashed to pieces. The great windows above had been shattered from the abnormally strong wind, coating the passengers below in shards of glass and ice cold rain, further adding to the pandemonium. Water pooled in the centre of the room, sloshing in all directions as the ship continued its violently erratic sway. Celestia's arrival was hardly even noticed. Some looked at her with hope or anguish in their eyes, but most continued to ignore her and huddle in place or wail incoherently. Celestia briefly took to the air and landed on the podium. Her horn ignited, bringing light into the room. Briefly, even the storm and the thunder seemed to falter from her presence.  "Ponies," she called out, projecting her voice far and wide to overpower the chaos and quickly quiet the room. Almost a thousand fearful eyes turned towards her. "We're in grave danger. I need all unicorns who are capable of creating shields to take as many ponies as they can and defend them. The ship is on fire and it might plunge any moment. We must help each other survive. I shall guard the room as much as I can, but I cannot save you alone." Not a single soul moved inside the room for a few seconds. "What happened?" a voice asked. T-00:04:00 "We have been attacked by Windigos," Celestia admitted. There was no point in lying anymore. "The captain is dead, the engine has been sabotaged, and a great deal of the ship is burning.” She glanced towards Wrench, who was gently nursing her wounds next to her. ”We don't have any time to spare. If you're able to help, then step up. Do it now." "Windigos... The captain is dead... The ship is burning... She expects us to shield ourselves? We're going to plunge... She can't save us..." came a myriad of fearful whispers from the crowd. Meanwhile, the rain began to pour inside even harder, a low fog starting to gather across the bottom of the floor. The whispering quickly rose in volume. "She can't save us! We're going to plunge!" the passengers screamed as one pony. "We're going to die!" What little order Celestia's words had bought swiftly crumbled as ponies began to scramble in a blind panic, stumbling over their own hooves in the gathering fog, making it swirl and swell. Like a candle being blown out in reverse, the fog rose whilst wandering blue ghost-lights ignited inside. The screaming slowly faded, replaced by the pattering of rain as the fog coalesced around the shining motes into ponylike shapes which began to circle and dance around the room. T-00:02:00 Celestia watched in horror as the ponies that the shades passed through suddenly lost all life in their eyes. They slowly began to move towards her, the closest ponies trying to claw their way up the podium or pulling off planks to make it collapse. Her head snapped up at a shrill voice crying out, piercing through the rain. Through the thick fog, Celestia saw a tiny unicorn grappling for his life. Her mind blanked as she sprang from the podium into the crowd below. Ponies from all sides threw themselves against her, but she shot in front of them, even deeper into the fog. The ghost-lights began to dance around her. Too late. T-00:01:00 As the fog parted, she saw the colt lying on the ground and realised it was the young lord, wet and muddy, his empty-eyed father standing over him with his hooves raised to crush him. "Not this time," Celestia hissed through her teeth as she ran head first into the count, smashing him out of the way, before immediately spinning around and taking the colt into her wings. T-00:00:13 "Close your eyes. It's going to be okay," she whispered to the bawling child in her grasp, before wildly glancing around. Nopony else dared to approach her. No... The fog parted and, as Celestia took a better look, she realised the other ponies weren't even looking at her. They were all staring out of the giant gaping window. She followed their eyes... T-00:00:08 And she saw green. T-00:00:07 Before any other thought could form in her mind, her body sprang into action. She jumped up and placed the young Blueblood onto her back, not forgetting Wrench as she took to the air and rocketed across the chamber to snatch her up before launching herself towards the broken window. Shooting out of the ship with as much energy she could muster, she tried to gain as much distance as possible. It felt almost hopeless, even as she achieved her maximum flight speed she knew the ship was moving too fast, she wouldn't make it. There was simply not enough ti— T-00:00:00 Behind her, the underbelly of the Lux Aeterna hit the treeline. Branches snagged and teared up the envelope, before the barren hull itself smashed into the ground. A deafening thunderclap could be heard for miles, as the sudden increase in pressure, combined with the heat from the burning engine room and the destabilised batteries resulted in a fiery explosion the size of a hamlet. Celestia and her quarry cried out as they were sharply torn from the sky by the sheer force of it, smashed downwards as if struck by a colossal hammer. She just managed to cast a shield around everypony before she ploughed into the ground like a pale star falling from the heavens. Through the blunt trauma she immediately fell unconscious, and behind her, hell followed. As the burning hull met with the earth, the forest was set ablaze, with the explosion toppling over several hundred trees. The strong current of air rushing inward invigorated the spreading flames even further, whilst elevating the dark smog of the burning ship into a ghastly cloud. The spectre of the disaster hung over the sky for several more hours, blending into the night.