//------------------------------// // Aloft // Story: Siren Song // by TheDarkStarCzar //------------------------------// Pinkie Pie was a frenetic ball of energy. One would think it would have waned in the time it took to close the gap between us and the griffon ships, but that was not the case. She was barking orders the entire way. Disturbingly her orders were heeded and the Captain made little attempt to intercede. "Helmsman? Helmsman? Do we not have a helmsman? Oh, the navigator does double duty? I see. That's weird, are you all sure that's how you're supposed to fly an airship? Navigator! Flank speed! Put us right between their two hulls! Gunners, be ready to drop the hatches open and fire as she bears!" Pinkie shouted from the bow of the ship, her hoof still planted jauntily on her cannon. She was gesturing wildly with her saber. The engines hum became a tortured scream as the airscrews pushed us towards the interlopers. I should say that one can see a long way in the air so we were many miles away from the griffons ships and it would be several minutes before we reached them even at top speed. It's rather anticlimactic in that way. Pinkie was communicating via the speaking tubes or her voice would not have been heard at all and by this point and everypony but her had gotten off the deck. Rainbow was below, presumably on the gundeck, and the rest of us were crowded on the bridge. "Captain?" Twilight Sparkle asked the actual Captain, "Shouldn't we have the rest of the troops prepare to repel boarders or something?" "Ship hull or not, this isn't a sea battle and they're not likely to try and take the ship, it's too risky when they could just sink it instead." The Captain admitted, "No, our best bet, if they really are hostile, is to attack them full force right from the get go, in which case it's just as well for the crew to remain on the gundeck where they may be of some use and are shielded a bit." "B...but how do we know they're hostile?" Fluttershy asked, I had the same question, they could just as easily be escorts sent to see us safely in. "Moreover," Rarity interjected, "Are you certain it's wise to let Pinkie Pie play pirate at such a time as this?" The captain rubbed the bridge of his nose with a hoof and sighed, "Normally I'd say no, it's not wise to trust in your pink friend out there. Ship's captains, contrary to what you might read in trashy novels and see in the movies, tend to be fairly conservative, to put the safety of the ship and crew above everything else. In this case, however, I've been told by Princess Luna herself to defer to you six mares should any situation such as this arise. She was actually quite adamant about it." "If...no, no, my hooves are tied. There's nothing for it unless you mean to talk her down, but if the griffons were friendly they should have signaled by now, instead they're coming at us just as fast as we're coming at them. I must admit I really haven't dealt with the griffons myself, but they're still bound by trade pacts to follow protocol. Then again, so are we." He motioned to one of the navigators, the one who wasn't busy piloting, "Give the standard greeting and demand that they make their intentions known immediately. Maybe we can cut this off at the knees before it gets out of hoof." The door flew open with a gust of air and was quickly forced shut by the combined magic of three unicorns after Spike stumbled through, "You guys! Where's the ballast regulator?" The navigator was busy with the helm and didn't speak, but kicked a control panel to his left to indicate it. Spike immediately went over to it, studied it's layout and started twisting valves. "Spike! No!" Twilight slapped his claws away, "What are you doing?" "Pinkie told me I have to release ten percent of our ballast as soon as our bow passes theirs." Spike pointed to the oncoming griffon airships. They were looming larger ahead of us, holding their course side by side with each other. They weren't as large as our ship, but there were two of them and I figured that put the odds against us. "She does seem to have a solid grasp of tactics." The Captain said approvingly, "She wants to lift just as we come between their ships so their cannonfire will pass under us while ours will spray their deck and rigging. They may even hit each other. Very bold. Very brutal. Does anypony know what's in that custom load she was talking about?" No one did, but we were all beginning to feel very apprehensive. None of us were certain whether Pinkie was doing the right thing or had gone insane. The latter seemed the more likely of the two to me, but her friends were surprisingly hesitant to second guess her. Applejack unstoppered a speaking tube to the gundeck, "Rainbow? What in tarnation is this custom load number seven you've got loaded up anyhow?" "Dunno." Was Rainbow Dash's reply, "Something awesome, I'm sure." "But..If'n you don't know, are you sure you ought to trust it?" Applejack fretted. "Look, Pinkie Pie loaded these herself and I'd trust Pinkie Pie with my life any day of the week, even if she is a nut, so that's the way it is." Rainbow was aggravated and it carried through the tinny garbling of her voice, "I think you all need to trust Pinkie too, it'll all be fine. Gundeck, out." Rainbow stoppered the tube on her end, abruptly cutting off the conversation. The griffon airships were close enough now that they could clearly see we were aiming for them and had started to pull away from each other, though they had yet to return our signals. At this rate we would just fit between their silver gasbags as we passed through. The first and second officer were frantic with various attitude controls and terse orders over the speaking tubes, trying to keep the chaos at bay. One of our navigators was giving full concentration to threading the needle with our behemoth airship while the other started a countdown. "Intercept in...fifteen, fourteen, thirteen...they're signaling." Talk fast, I thought as the navigator continued the countdown. Growing up in a lighthouse I knew semaphore like the back of my hoof and I translated as fast as the signal came, "Escort, do not fire! They're an escort! We've got to...!" It was far too late. With the gundeck's speaking tube plugged it would take too long to relay the message and Pinkie was steadfast in her perch on the prow. Orders rattled through the bridge as our bows came even. Spike flipped a valve as he'd been ordered, it sprayed out a measure of ballast water from the tanks. We abruptly rose a couple yards bringing our guns level with the two ship's decks. The hatches dropped with a series of clunks, exposing the muzzles of our cannon. Most of the griffon crew seemed to be on deck in various states of unpreparedness. There was a look of naked horror on every face and I took in each one as time seemed to slow to a crawl. Beaks hung agape, feathers fluffed out in panic, some griffons had hunched down, cowering against the coming onslaught. A tragedy was about to occur and there was nothing I could do to prevent it. Why did they wait so long to signal? They could have saved themselves if only they had followed the proper protocols, but it was far too late now. "Fire!" Pinkie Pie's voice echoed over the tubes. Rarity instantly broke down in a ghastly sob as the guns barked in unison sending their barrage of deadly... "Confetti? Oh and streamers! Good shot too! It's all draped from their rigging and falling on their decks. Boy, those griffons look surprised. I don't know if I'd really go with brutal, but it's pretty good." Spike had propped himself up on the controls and was following the festivities as we passed between the hulls and quickly drew beyond them. "Pinkie!" An enraged Twilight screamed, but as she looked to the prow where the pink party pony stood she found the muzzle of the pink and blue cannon swiveled around and aimed their way, "Down! Down! Everypony down!" She swept Spike off the control stand and held him close as the small cannon fired. I was the only one left standing, not by merit bravery but rather by being slow to react and dumbstruck, so got to see the fireworks arc over the wheelhouse and burst past our stern. Looking out the the window I saw that we were trailing a banner from our rudder. It was tough to make out from my position, but it seemed to be in greeting to our griffon escorts. "Well...That was exciting." I said, and broke down in mad, nervous giggles. That was quite possibly the scariest thing that I've ever been through, which is kind of saying something in my case, and it turned out to be a prank. "Excitin'? I thought we was all gonna die! Or start up a war with Eagleland!" Applejack fumed, "It just might be that we have, they cain't be too all fired happy about that little stunt." With a shaking hoof the Captain reached over the navigator's shoulder and brought the engine controls to full stop, "We need to signal our regrets to the griffon Captains and apologize." "No!" Pinkie exclaimed, bursting through the door, "You can't apologize now! They'll take it as a sign of weakness and all of this will have been for nothing! Just wait for them to catch up and let them fall into formation behind us. Don't let them pass us or try to lead, we're playing the big bad alpha here and we're going to want to sell it!" "Pinkie!" Applejack yelled, "You've done crossed the line this time! What in blazes were you thinkin'?" "That was horrid, utterly horrid! How could you put us through such a thing for a mere prank?" Rarity berated Pinkie, backing her into the corner where she crouched down into a ball. "That was insane! You endangered the whole crew of not only our ship but theirs as well! You could have started an international incident and then where would we be? What got into you?" Twilight piled on and the three of them harried the curled up pony until she was racked with ragged sobbing. Fluttershy stood stock still, frozen in abject terror and insensate to the world around her. Though I didn't know her well I nuzzled up against her and tried my best to whisper comforting things, "Hey, it's okay now. It's all over, we're all fine, the griffons are fine, it's all okay now..." Still she shied away from me. Rainbow Dash burst in the door, "Oh man, Pinkie! When they started asking what was in those canisters I got worried it was molasses or something! They would have had to steam clean that out of their feathers, I'm glad it was just streamers and confetti...hey, what's up? Why are you all ganging up on Pinkie like that?" "Rainbow, really, were you in on this?" Rarity demanded. Twilight and Applejack turned from the blubbering pink mass to glare at Rainbow Dash. "Well, duh!" Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, "We were ALL supposed to be in on it. When was the last time a pony fired on a griffon in anger? Last century? You didn't think that was real, did you?" "What are you talking about? Of course we did!" Rarity snarled. Spike cleared his throat and glared, effectively commanding their attention, "Well it's your own fault if you did. Didn't you read the primer on griffon etiquette that Twilight assigned to all of us?" "Well...No." Applejack admitted. "I was going to read it on the way." Rarity said. "What about you Twilight?" He asked. "I didn't have time, I just skimmed it." Twilight said sheepishly. Spike took out a slender blue book and read from it, "Chapter nine, section two and I quote, 'Should a griffon choose to ignore you and you do not rectify this situation at once it will be nearly impossible to have a meaningful interactions in the future as they will undoubtedly treat you disrespectfully from that moment on. The best remedy is a witty insult, practical joke or prank. Outright violence must be avoided as it may be reciprocated.'" "We were distracted by that whale, but griffons are known for their eyesight so we can take as given if we could see them they could see us. They weren't signaling a greeting, they were purposely ignoring us, so Pinkie Pie did just what she was meant to do, what all of you would have done if you had read the book like you were supposed to've." Rainbow Dash had leaned down to nuzzle up to Pinkie, "Hey, it's okay, they didn't know, they were just scared you'd gone crazy." "Even so, I think that was a bit extreme for a prank, but we're sorry, Pinkie, we should have trusted you, we just thought..." Rarity trailed off. By this time Fluttershy had regained her composure as well and moved to nestle up against Pinkie on the floor. Pinkie stopped her sniffling and relaxed, a broken chortle fought it's way out, "Oh, wow, I'm sorry guys, I thought you knew. If you didn't you really should have stopped me. I mean you should know by now that I'm all about bringing ponies together, not blowing them apart." "If you want to endear yourself to griffons, though, you have to humiliate them a little first and make friends after." "Because that worked SO well with Gilda." Rainbow said sarcastically. "Well...There's that, I guess. Maybe my timing was off with her." Pinkie shrugged. "That's a possibility, I suppose," Mused Rarity, "Yet I feel it is much more likely that Gilda secretly harbored romantic feelings towards Rainbow Dash and her reaction was one of jealousy." "What?!" Rainbow Dash choked, "Gilda is my oldest friend, it's not like that, it... just isn't!" Pinkie ignored her weak defense, "Oh, when you put it like that it totally makes sense! No wonder she was acting so possessive. I didn't even realize Dashie felt that way about me. Normally I'm not one to miss things like that and I feel silly because it's so obvious in retrospect." "Isn't it though?" Rarity confirmed smugly. The rest of the little clique Twilight and Fluttershy murmured their agreement while Applejack just raised an eyebrow. Spike chuckled, "That's ridiculous! They're both mares! How would that even work?" Twilight shared a knowing look with Rarity and one of sympathy from Fluttershy, "We'll, um, talk about that later, when we have more time." Twilight said, "For now let's just drop it and focus on the Griffons, I just hope they're not mad. That was pretty over the top, so far as pranks go." Dash had long since colored crimson and was well past the point of trying to defend herself, she just growled, "I hate you all." Pinkie, not one to let an opportunity for awkwardness pass, nuzzled Rainbow Dash and snickered. Rainbow was relieved when the first officer spoke up, "They're signaling, and apparently your prank was a resounding success. Captain Grizelda says her first officer dropped a clutch of eggs. I think she means figuratively, but who knows. She wants to congratulate the prankster face to face and to meet the Elements of Harmony besides. She extends a supper invitation to you six on her ship in an hour." Pinkie wasn't one to hold grudges nor to say I told you so, so the whole matter was quickly put behind us. The lot of us were politely put off the bridge by the Captain who'd had enough of their antics for one day so we headed below to ready ourselves to dine on one of the escort vessels with this Captain Grizelda. The two ships came alongside, held slightly behind the Morningstar, as Pinkie had prescribed, and we got underway towards Eagleland. Twilight watched the griffon ship out a porthole in fascination as Rarity dug into her densely packed trunks. "Please do tell me one of you thought to bring formalware for an occasion such as this?" Rarity was greeted with head shaking from all but Pinkie who indicated her gaudy pirate outfit, "It's just as well that I planned ahead and took the liberty of including certain ensembles for just such a contingency. They're not ideal, but they should do in a pinch." From her trunks, wrapped in tissue paper, she produced six simple but stunning gowns. They were stylized and modern, not at all Rarity's usual fare from what I'd heard, but I must suppose that was to reduce their bulk for transport. Only her own dress was adorned with gemstones, a trio of fine large sapphires at the collar. She distributed the gowns to their intended recipients along with a brief summary of their attributes and influences. Pinkie balked at first, but was eventually made to replace her buccaneer look for something with a bit more elegance and lace. I preferred the former, myself, but this, I suppose, was not the time. Then Rarity turned on me, "As for you, darling, I was uncertain of your measurements and personal style, but I have some pieces we may combine into a pleasingly suave little number in a variety of ways." "Oh no, they invited the Elements of Harmony, saviors of Equestria, not little old dishwater me." I backed away, "Don't get the wrong idea, I appreciate the gesture, I really do, but I'd just be a seventh wheel." "Eighth." Rainbow Dash pointed to Spike who scowled unappreciatively. She chuckled to show that she meant it as a joke. I'm not sure if Spike bought it. "Oh, but you simply must come with us! You and Rainbow Dash are the only ones of us who've had long dealings with the griffons." Rarity goaded, but I was having none of it until Fluttershy spoke up. "If it's all the same to you, I um...I'd rather not go." Fluttershy said, "She can have my place. It's been such a taxing day and I just don't have it in me to have dinner with the griffons after all that." "But, darling, why ever not? It's not their culinary appetites is it? I've seen you feed fish to animals yourself, so it can't be that disturbing." Rarity was crestfallen. "She's talonshy." Rainbow Dash clarified, "Always has been ever since flight camp." "Now... now, that's not true...not exactly..." Fluttershy stammered. "Oh, I see." Rarity gave her a serious look, "We'll all be right there with you, though and you know we won't let anything bad happen." "Maybe she's still a little touchy 'cuz a' what happened with Gilda." Applejack ventured. "Fluttershy," Twilight gently chastised, "I thought you were going to try to be more assertive?" "Yes, but that's not..." "Really darling, you mustn't judge a whole race by the boorish actions of one of it's members." Rarity said, "I'm certain this Captain Grizelda is a a good and civilized host prepared to show us a grand welcome." "It's just that..." "Yeah! We'll have a great time!" Pinkie exclaimed with a reassuring smile. Fluttershy stamped her hoof, hard, finally silencing her friends and gaining their undivided attention, "If you must know, I've been airsick since we took off. If you make me go to a dinner party with all those birds snapping up dead, smelly fish I'm going to vomit all over Rarity's beautiful work and put everyone off their dinner. In fact, thinking about it has been a bit much, you'll have to excuse me." With that Fluttershy whipped off her frock, staggered into the head and promptly expelled her lunch. "So Fluttershy's not going." Rarity stated flatly and looked to me, "Maybe you could try on her gown?" Even though Fluttershy's dress didn't suit my color if fit tolerably well and it's a good thing they did force me to go. Their knowledge of griffons was so limited that they didn't even know that it was strictest tradition to bring a gift to such a gathering. Namely liquor. It's an all purpose gift, really. I hardly know anyone who it doesn't work for. Now the truth is that a case of wine or, if I had my way, champagne, would be the first choice. It needs to be enough to share around, but no one had thought to furnish the ship's stores with anything of the sort, so I had to use some ingenuity. "I asked the ship's carpenter. He has a goodly amount of ethyl alcohol for shellac. That stuff's pretty raw so we'll have to mix in somepony's private stores." I said, "I got a big fancy crystal bottle that'll look the part once we get the dumb little ship model out of it, not that the Captain will be too pleased about that." "Raiding the private stores is a no go." Rainbow Dash shook her head, "I forbid alcohol to the troops until we were on our way back." Applejack rolled her eyes, "Yeah, like that means anythin'" She went into the crew berths and we followed. The troops that were awake eyed her warily. She ignored them and carefully studied the room, then with assured certainty, walked to the bulkhead wall, pulled a loose board and fished behind it. She came up with the dregs of a pint of whiskey. Then she looked to the beams, hooked a hoof over the top of one and came out with a tiny bottle of good rum and some tequila of questionable quality. Lastly she stepped into the head. When she came back out she had some brandy. Where precisely it was hidden I'd rather not know. "Teetotalers jest force the rest of us ta be sneakier." Applejack said, her haul lined up on a bunk like good little soldiers. Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to say something, thought better of it, and just shrugged. "Now we just mix it all up in that fancy bottle, top it off with grain alcohol and put a fancy label on it." I grinned. "But it's going to taste terrible!" Twilight protested, "You can't pass that swill off as anything fit for a gift on such an important occasion." "It should be strong enough and with enough variety of flavors as to throw them, so we just say it's some rare and highly sought after spirit and who's to say otherwise?" I said, "What we really need is just a touch of stagnant water to give it that earthy undertone. I'll check the bilge, if this ship even has a proper bilge." "That's...atrocious." Rarity gasped. "I'm sorry you think so, I was going to have you make the label." Tempted with a creative art project, Rarity put aside her disdain. With parchment, soot and tea to stain it, she made up a serviceable forgery to paste on the bottle and I acquired a cap full of bilge water which, purposely, nopony saw me dump into the mix. Then the next problem reared it's head. The only corks we had were broken. Luckily the carpenter liked the challenge of our little project and made a little hardwood knob to stick on the end of the cork and a dowel to fit through the middle. In place it looked the part of an elegant stopper. Then he mixed paraffin and beeswax, along with a red lumber crayon, for color, in a tin cup and melted it together. Dipping the end of the bottle and rolling it around he made a fairly likely looking wax seal. Then he threw dirt in it's still soft surface to simulate years of aging in a cellar somewhere. The illusion complete, we headed out on deck. Getting to the griffon ship was simpler than I thought. Twilight simply teleported the whole bunch of us in one go. Seriously, how powerful were these ponies? It boggles the mind when I compare my level of power with hers. Even Rarity outclasses me considerably despite being somewhat younger than myself. Times like these I mentally berate myself for all the time I've wasted pretending to be a writer. Oh, what I could have accomplished in this same time if I'd done something worthwhile, the type of thing in which excellence is just a matter of discipline over a long period of time. In other words, pretty much any worthwhile undertaking. Not to harp, but to dematerialize six ponies (and a baby dragon) from one ship's rolling deck and have them each rematerialize, safe and sound, on another deck that's at a different level and rolling at a different rate is astounding in and of itself. The griffon's airship, though, was smaller than ours and the deck was heavily crewed. We blinked into existence interspersed among them, me and Rarity on the raised prow. Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were on the main deck, the deck crew continuing their work unencumbered by the visitors. Simply weaving around them they continued in their efforts at some unspecified task that mostly involved bringing ropes taut and tying them off. I noticed that several were tasked with disposal of streamers and confetti, but they'd almost obliterated all signs of it already. One lion tail whipped Rainbow Dash across the face in passing and she chomped down on it, eliciting a high pitched screech, "Excuse you!" The griffon crew chortled at the pain of their comrade. Rarity cringed, but to me it seemed like just the tone prescribed by Twilight's book, or what Spike had said about it. I admit I hadn't actually read it either. Twilight herself stood on the deck by the tiller, Spike on her back, and was already greeting Captain Grizelda. I couldn't hear them from where I stood but everyone looked jovial and at ease so she must be handling it well enough. Rarity had left to make her way across the deck and join Twilight and the Captain. Upon joining them she made a curtsy and hoofed over our counterfeit spirits with some short spiel of her own devising thrown in. The ship, much like our own, was a ship's hull, which was the standard in airship design. It's balloon was of some crinkly silver fabric, unembellished with the decorative touches our own had. The whole construction was more spartan, utilitarian, but it was also of a more modern design. Where at first I thought it unarmed, lacking a gundeck, I found that there were steam fittings at regular intervals around the deck, indicating some fair quantity of steam powered gun are meant to be fitted there. Only one was in place near me at the prow. It held a magazine of inch diameter slugs with copper tips that I assume indicated explosives inside. They were probably as formidable as our own armaments, but they certainly took up less space. Staring at the weapon garnered me some questioning, though not hostile, stares from the crew and I dropped my eyes to the teakwood deck and headed over to join my party. They were interacting with the griffons while Twilight and Rarity acted as emissaries to the Captain. As I approached the knot of ponies and griffons Pinkie Pie saw me and made to introduce me to her new friends, "Gregory, Georgia, Gina, Giuseppe...any bird I missed, this is Sea Swirl, I'm her best friend and she's a really neat pony once you get to know her." "What's she the element of?" One of the griffons asked. "Contemplative silence." I said dryly. It elicited soft chuckles. "So like, brooding?" One griffon joked, "Does that mean your power comes from writing bad gothic poetry?" "Quite." I answered, even though I never write poetry. It was received with roars of boisterous laughter. "She ain't really one of the Elements." Applejack clarified unnecessarily, which begged the obvious griffon query. "If she's not one of the Elements what's she along for?" I stared at the deck and sighed in an exaggeratedly morose manner, "I'm the morale officer. It's not so much, but it beats being the Element of Honesty like Applejack here. It's long been my opinion that honesty is completely overrated anyway. Is there any liquor on this tub?" This produced further laughter and a glower from Applejack. She really just wasn't one for playing along with this sort of thing. I kill with my dry, self deprecating humor. All I have to do is say the most uncomfortable thing I can think of at any given moment, so long as I keep it short and keep a straight face. If nothing comes to mind I just fall back on the truth and that generally works just as well. It happens that this is just in line with our host's tastes in comedy. Essentially all I have to do is be a slightly exaggerated version of myself to get laughs. It had been dark when we arrived but by the time we finished the abbreviated tour (it's too cramped a ship for a full one) it was pitch black, even most of the stars blocked out by the dark cloud of a gasbag above us. For supper we had to part with the deck crew and join the Captain and a few of her officers below decks. The mess was surreal. Where the rest of the ship was cramped and spartan this was a large hall, equal to a comfortable lodge in size and style. There was even an open hearth on the stern end and I was duly impressed. In the candlelight I eventually discerned the truth. This was a multipurpose room. Bunks were stored folded against the walls, giving a look of some sort of high class paneling when in fact it was the underside of the bunks themselves. The benches and long table were actually individual pieces, probably every bit of furniture on the ship fit together for this function. Even the hearth turned out to be the orange, flickering maw of the steam boiler's firebox. It was an impressionistic grace and elegance and I felt it was my mistake for looking too close and seeing through the illusion. Captain Grizelda was clothed where her officers were bare. She wore a blue frock coat with embroidered epaulets on the shoulders and a tri-cornered hat with similarly themed embellishments. Her feathers were a creme white framing a sharp, almond colored beak. Another consequence of being in close proximity to griffons once again was the smell. Pungent and earthy it reminded me of things from my past which would make me blush should I be forced to acknowledge them. I was comfortable around griffons and I had a further advantage in that I didn't care very much what they thought of me. Rainbow Dash was comfortable, but trying too hard to impress and Pinkie Pie's humor was like a sledge hammer where a tack hammer was called for, but we all told stories. Rainbow's tales of flight camp led right into Pinkie's story of Gilda coming to Ponyville. For my part I told a trumped up version of my story about meeting Lyra ending with the glitter bombing incident. It went over well enough, I guess. The fare was moderately fancy thistle soup in distinctly not-fancy pressed tin bowls with a crusty black bread. The griffons had fish soup in place of the thistle and if nopony had been looking I would have tried a bowl of that myself, just for a change of pace. Finally somebird thought to break out the spirits and our gifted bottle reemerged. "Moonshine from the Princess of moonshine herself's cellars. It's no Don Peregrine, I'll admit, but I think you'll enjoy it." I heard Rarity saying as the bottle was uncorked and shots were poured into tin cups and passed around. The heart of deception is confidence, even the poorest wine, when tagged with a livery of sufficient note, is much improved so long as no hint is given at it's suspicious characteristics. I tasted it appraisingly before we clattered our cups together in a toast and gulped down the improvised concoction. I rather liked it and felt we had hit the mark. Rarity grimaced, Twilight sipped it like bad medicine she'd rather not take, Rainbow Dash swigged it, then coughed uncontrollably. Pinkie Pie and Applejack downed it as cheerfully as I had. It might be their earth pony constitutions, or maybe they'd worked up a tolerance the good old fashion way. Hard to tell. Grizelda had taken a double shot, then a pull straight from the bottle. Tolerance or not, I knew that to be a bad idea. Griffons look large and menacing, but if they were plucked and shaved one would find them to be surprisingly scrawny. Considering the high proof and the lack of mass to absorb it the Captain was going to have considerable trouble shortly. I made my way to one of the griffon officers, Georgia, I believe, and quietly told her of my concerns. I should have known better. "Captain! This little pony seems to have some doubt of your abilities." Georgia hollered as I blushed, "Thinks you can't handle your liquor." "That's not what I said." I stated, but it was too late. Laughing, the officers hauled me over to the bench beside the Captain, roughly sat me down and supplied a tin cup dosed with our offering. Now I'd gone and done it and here I was in a drinking contest with Captain Grizelda, "I don't want to do this." I stated with irritation. Grizelda downed her cup of spirits only to have it refilled instantly, "Come, little pony. Drink and be merry!" No way out of it I suppose. "Well, as Pinkie Pie says, Candy's dandy but liquor's quicker." I said and slugged down the rough grain alcohol, then they refilled it and I did it again.... and again. I knew it was a mistake but didn't realize how much so until I awoke later, the night past that moment a blur, with a vicious pounding in my head. Sunlight streamed through the portholes illuminating the wreckage of pony and griffon alike, only Twilight Sparkle, with Spike on her back seemed in a composed position rather than sprawled out where they'd fallen. Grizelda was not present, implying that she beat me after all. The pounding in my head had taken on an irregular rhythm and I eventually figured out that it was partially external. The steam engine pounded away with a fast but predictable beat, not the source of the noise. I looked out the porthole and realized what it was, then quickly shook Twilight Sparkle awake, "Twilight, get up. The Morningstar and the other griffon ship are trading fire!" That woke most of the crew and Elements right there and we all scrambled to the deck, unprepared on either side to act as enemies. As we watched from the deck the griffon ship's explosive bolts tore through the stern of the Morningstar, glittering splinters of brightly enameled wood tumbling to the sea so far below. The Morningstar turned broadside to the smaller griffon ship and let loose a fusilade which damaged the rigging and left the hull of the griffon ship hanging at an awkward angle. They broke away from each other, the griffon ship running towards us, and the Morningstar away just long enough to bring their crossbows and harpoons on deck. Once they were mounted they resumed pursuit of the listing vessel and at the earliest opportunity shot several harpoons into the griffon's balloon. It's a misconception that the gasbags of airships are especially vulnerable. They are massive to the point that any leak must be equally massive to cause a rapid loss in buoyancy. It is also the case that they are self sealing, so any shot that passes straight through will not cause any appreciably damage. If the projectile trails a rope, like a harpoon does, that rope will keep the tear from sealing properly. "Signal them to abandon ship and regroup here!" Captain Grizelda yelled and a young bird set to work on a beacon to flash out the message. As a small flock of griffons boiled from the doomed airship Grizelda looked to us and harshly demanded, "Explain." It was not a thing which we were capable of doing.