Chapter 5
Nova strained under the weight of the boiler, his horn glowing so brightly that he could have seen its yellow flare through his eyelids.
“Alright!” Sky Bolt called over the thumping electronic music as the massive boiler assembly floated up towards the open side of The Hummingbird. “Just keep it coming, nice and e—hold it! More to your left!” Nova complied, gritting his teeth as magic surged through his body and out of his horn.
“How … heavy … are these things?” he managed to ask as sweat began to run down his brow.
“Just over half a ton each,” Sky Bolt called back. “You ready? I’m going to guide it into place now.”
“Ready!” Nova said, increasing the amount of magic that was running through his horn and lightening some of the pressure he’d left on his horn. A few feet away, Sky Bolt took to the air and began slowly pushing against the telekinetic field he’d wrapped around her superboiler. Nova adjusted his magic field slightly, taking care not to drop the massive cylindrical structure as he let Sky Bolt’s hooves guide it.
Sky Bolt pushed the superboiler forward into the opening she’d made earlier on The Hummingbird’s hull, and Nova took a few steps forward in suite, following the floating mass of metal. The further away an object was that was being manipulated by a unicorn's telekinetic magic, the more energy it started to take. With as much energy as he was expending lifting the large boiler and with the amount of focus it was taking to follow Sky Bolt’s small directional pushes, he wanted to keep it as close as possible.
“Alright,” Sky Bolt said as the boiler came to a stop. “Now, you’re going to need to push on the superboiler a little, it’s designed to face a little resistance and then just ‘pop’ into its housing.” She turned, pushing her mane out of her eyes with one hoof. “So when you first feel the resistance, just push it slightly up and away. When it ‘clicks’ up, let it down slowly. I’ll tell you when it’s in place. Got it?”
“Got it,” Nova said, letting a little more magic flow into his horn.
"Alright,” Sky Bolt said, pressing her hooves against the side of the boiler unit. “And up!” The grey pegasus began to flap her wings in earnest, pushing against the boiler. Nova followed suit, pushing the boiler up and forward with his magic and into the hull of The Hummingbird. There was a moment of resistance as the boiler came up against something and he increased the pressure, putting more magic through his horn. With an abrupt ‘click’ the boiler jerked forward, and Nova reduced his magic as the boiler collided with whatever was past the resistance.
“Whoah, easy there!” Sky Bolt called out as the boiler stopped with the heavy thunk of metal on metal. “Just hold it there for a second.” She vanished from his view, ducking down and under the boiler and folding her wings as she vanished into the innards of the airship. There were a few muted clanks, and then she reappeared, snapping her wings out as she resumed her previous position. “Okay,” she said. “Nothing damaged, just worried me for a bit. It’s already all lined up, so you can let ‘er down all nice and easy.”
Nova nodded without speaking and slowly began to let gravity take control once more, reducing the amount of magic and his telekinetic grip on the superboiler at the same time. The boiler began to descend, and he could feel it sliding further back against his grip as gravity took hold.
“Is it set in rails or something?” he asked as the downward slide stopped. He let go of his magic completely, the yellow glow vanishing from the boiler.
“Yup,” Sky Bolt said as she flew over to a workbench and grabbed a tool in her teeth. “It’s a bit more complicated than that, but that’s the general idea.” She flew back to the opening in the side of the airship and clamped the wrench down on something he couldn’t see, pulling the handle back with one hoof. “Now that I’ve got it set in place,” she said, skillfully manipulating the wrench with her front hooves. “I can just tighten it down and connect everything.”
“Why the rails then?” Nova asked, trotting over to the opening and looking up at the mass of piping he’d just helped install some ten or twelve feet above him.
“Ease and modularity,” Sky Bolt said, wiping her forehead with a hoof and leaving a track of grease across it. “Plus, if needed, it should make it easier to fix this thing in the field. The boiler will just pop in and out. All you have to do—” she said, letting out a grunt as she gave the wrench a kick with her rear legs. “Is remove the clamps holding it in place and it’ll come out just as easy as it went in. Pass me those locking bolts, would you?” she asked, pointing at a pile of thick, heavy bolts scattered on a nearby desk. Nova complied, lifting them with his magic and floating them over to the grey pegasus, who plucked one in her teeth and vanished behind the boiler.
“Yeah, I wanted something that could be repaired or replaced if it needed to be,” Sky Bolt said, her voice echoing out of the airship's innards. There was a muted metallic ping and a few moments later she slid around the boiler once more, grabbing three bolts before ducking back inside. “It’s also modular with other boilers of my design,” she said. “So if we needed more steam, we can connect them to each other with only a little bit of modification, and we’ve got ourselves a bigger boiler.”
Nova frowned as he thought about it. “Well aren’t these superboilers of yours pretty powerful? Why would we need to make them bigger?”
Sky Bolt stuck her head out from under the boiler. “I have no idea,” she said, grinning. “But if we need to, we can! More bolts!” Nova complied, sending another few of the heavy metal rods floating towards her. “‘Anths,” she said through the bolts, her head vanishing back into the ship.
“So what about pressure problems?” Nova asked, looking up at the cylindrical array of piping. “I’m not an engineer, but wouldn’t hooking a few of these together be hard on them?”
“It wouldn’t be a pressure problem,” Sky Bolt said, grabbing the last few bolts and then flapping her way along the side of the boiler, dropping them into place. “Here, shove those in if you could, would you?” she asked as the last bolt dropped into place. “But in regards to your question, these babies are made of enchanted steel. They can take twice the pressure that they’ll handle at recommended top output.” She rapped a hoof on the steel piping for emphasis. “These babies are pretty much superior to a normal boiler in every way but one.”
“And what’s that one?” Nova asked, grabbing one of the bolts in his magic and pushing it down until the far end poked out.
Sky Bolt gave an exaggerated sigh. “They’re super expensive. I mean really expensive.” She motioned towards the other superboiler where it was sitting pointed skyward near the front of the ship. “Even working at Canterlot Cloudrunners, I had to pour way too much of my own money into building it. For the price of that boiler, you could get, oh,” she paused, hoof under her chin. “Say maybe twenty or thirty regular sized boilers.” Nova’s eyes widened at the number. “Yeah,” she said with a laugh. “And you really only get about two or three times as much power out of it, so while it’s smaller, it’s not nearly as cost-effective.”
“So why not just use regular boilers for Hummingbird then?” Nova asked as Sky Bolt gestured to a pile of locking nuts that were sitting on the desk near where the bolts had been. He cupped his magic under them and lifted them over, grabbing one in a separate field and following Sky Bolt’s lead as she tightened it onto one of the bolts.
“Space constraints, mainly.” Sky Bolt said as she finished tightening a bolt. “I wanted an airship that was light and fast, nothing like the slow sky-whales ponies are building nowadays. The Alicorn was a step in the right direction,” she said as he floated another nut up to her and onto the bolt she was moving to. “Thanks. But yeah, step in the right direction, but not nearly enough. I wanted something that could show my parents what it really meant to fly!” she said, pulling on her wrench so hard the last word was almost a grunt. She flapped back and gave her forehead another wipe of her hoof.
“Airships are great, but they can’t do what I can do,” she said, waving a hoof at the structure of The Hummingbird. “I built The Hummingbird to be fast, light and maneuverable. Even with some of the new systems I’ve come up with, I don’t think it will be close to what I’m hoping for, but it will at least come a bit closer to letting my parents know exactly what life is like for me. If nothing else, the Captain is going to be happy to have the fastest, most maneuverable airship ever built under his command.”
“Is this thing really going to be that much better?” Nova asked, stepping back and looking at the vaguely triangular shape of the hull.
“Of course!” Sky Bolt said with a nod. “It’s years ahead of anything else.” She flapped back and pointed towards a strange looking depression on the side of the hull. “Do you know what that’s for?” Nova shook his head. “It’s a depression designed to improve the forward speed of The Hummingbird. It works off of a pressure principle to make the ship pull itself forward as it moves. There’s a matching one on the other side.”
“Huh,” Nova said, feeling genuinely impressed. “So although it looks like it’d drag, it actually makes the ship move faster?”
Sky Bolt nodded. “Same principle as a golf ball.” Nova frowned and she rolled her eyes. “Trust me, it makes sense,” she said, popping her wrench onto another nut and giving it a final twist. “What I’d really like to do is find a way to reduce the envelope size and shape,” she said, looking up at the top of the hull where the airship's envelope was going to be attached. “Currently it’s just too big and unwieldy to get any really good sort of maneuverability or speed.” She looked down at the wrench, giving it a final jerk. “Ah well, back to work. This side's done for now, are you rested enough to move that other boiler?” she asked with a gesture towards the remaining mass of pipe.
“Ready and set,” Nova said, trotting over to the boiler. “Just give me the go. Same as before, right?”
“Yep,” Sky Bolt said as she flew over the top of the hull rather than around it. “Top end faces towards the back, bottom towards the front. Rotate as needed, push in.”
“Alright,” Nova said, lighting his horn and letting a wave of magic pulse out of him and wrap around the array of twisted pipes. “I’m bringing it over now.” He pushed more magic through his horn, the boiler lifting from the ground.
“Sweet,” Sky Bolt said, tapping her hoof against the hull in time with the thumping electric beats from the workshop's speakers. “Let's get this done and then we can get cracking on that armor.”
* * *
“This is, you understand, most distressing,” the Princess said, looking down at the note. “And you say that your lieutenant received it with one of the reports from the Royal Guard?”
Steel nodded, understanding her seriousness completely. Even if Captain Armor’s reaction to the note hadn’t been what it was, the fact that merely showing the note to the Princess had been enough for her to call the Day Court to a halt, dismissing everypony but the Guard, was testament enough.
“Yes, your highness,” he said, bowing his head. “He didn’t think much of it at the time, and neither did I.” He looked over at Captain Armor, who was still taking deep breaths from the run to the throne room. “But I see that the signature is cause for alarm.”
“It is, Captain Song,” Celestia said, rising from her throne. “Most ponies are not even aware that someone simply known as the Violet Heart exists. The Royal and Night Guard had only heard rumors until recently. Then the Violet Heart made themselves known to us in a most alarming manner.”
“What did he—or she—do?” Steel asked, looking at Captain Armor. The stallion's face had become an impassive mask.
“He or she, assuming that the Violet Heart can be classified as such, warned us of the Changeling invasion,” Princess Celestia said in a calm, clear tone.
Steel’s eyes grew wide at the revelation. “Wait, you mean that’s how the Guard knew to put up a dome? And why everypony was on high alert?”
“It was,” Captain Armor said, his voice sounding drained. “The note didn’t tell us who, what, or how. It simply gave the magnitude of the threat: an invading army that would attempt to ambush us by surprise, already infiltrating Canterlot,” he let out a sigh. “All that preparation and we nearly fell to them anyway.”
“It was not your fault, Shining,” the Princess said, her voice stern. “You did everything in your power. Even I was fooled by Queen Chrysalis, remember that. You cannot hold any blame for what happened. Besides,” she said, her voice growing soft. “You and Cadance were the ones who saved all of us.”
“So this note didn’t even tell you that you were facing changelings, is that correct?” Steel asked. Princess Celestia turned towards him in surprise, almost as if she’d forgotten he was there.
“No,” she said after taking a second to regain her serene composure. “It did not. And yet it was all we had to warn us of what could have been the complete and utter ruin of Canterlot.”
“So why be so vague?” Steel asked, focusing his eyes on the note still floating in front of the Princess.
“We don’t know,” Captain Armor said. “The Guard had heard of the Violet Heart before, but always only in rumor. In fact, quite a few of us considered it nothing more than a myth being used to keep our investigations running in circles.”
“What were the rumors?” Steel asked, his eyes still fixed on the note.
Captain Armor shrugged. “They were almost unbelievable, really. Faint whispers of an information service that knew almost everything, trading information across Equestria and even in other nations. We even arrested a smuggler who claimed to have bought information from them, but he couldn’t even give us a description. Most of us just figured it was a rumor, something that could be a wild goose chase to keep the Guard from doing more important work.”
“Who didn’t think that?” Steel asked.
“Well,” Captain Armor said, looking surprised at the question. “I didn’t for one. Everypony’s stories clicked together too nicely for it to be something that could be a hoax. Too many disconnected elements that had collaborating ideas, similar situations, even when they didn’t have contact with others who shared the same story. Then, there was the information that these ponies were getting. Treaty documentation, royal court decisions, stuff that they shouldn’t have been able to access so quickly.”
“That sounds like a pretty good evidence case right there,” Steel pointed out. “Why didn’t anypony take that and run with it?”
“It sounds better than it really was,” Captain Armor said with a shake of his head. “That was information we collected over six years. The case file for the Violet Heart to this day consists of four reports, collected over that entire six year period, and the note we received before the invasion.”
“And now this,” Princess Celestia said, looking at the note. “There must be more to these thefts then we know, for an individual like the Violet Heart to get involved. Captain Armor?”
“Yes, your highness?” he asked, snapping to attention at the formal use of his title.
“I need to you to give copies of everything that you have on the Violet Heart to Captain Song. Captain Song?” She turned towards Steel, the note floating over and hanging in the air in front of him where he could easily pluck it from her magical grasp. She then stepped forward, staring down at him with a stern visage that made part of him want to shiver and back away. There was an ageless power that seemed to surround her, radiating from her body.
“Yes, your highness?” he asked, bowing his head slightly.
“I know your team has made great strides in getting to the root of these robberies.” the Princess said, her voice warm. “You’ve discovered several startling connections as well, from the thefts in the Crystal Caverns to the way that the railways were being robbed. Now I have only one thing to ask of you.” She bent down, coming eye to eye with him. “Find whoever is behind this, and discover why the Violet Heart sees them as a threat to Equestria.”
* * *
“Alright, that’s that!” Sky Bolt said, flipping her body backwards as she pushed away from the side of The Hummingbird, spreading her wings. Nova watched as the grey pegasus spun herself in the air, twisting her body and gliding down towards the floor to land on all four hooves. She looked at him and smirked. “Enjoying the show?”
“What? No! I mean—not?” His protests were cut off as she busted up with laughter, going airborne and clutching her sides. “Too easy!” she managed to stammer between laughs. “Way too easy!”
Nova rolled his eyes. “I was thinking about how nice it would have been to have had wings back in the day,” he said, turning away from Sky Bolt with a groan and heading towards a stack of massive crystal slabs at the far end of the workshop
“Hey yeah,” Sky Bolt said, appearing next to him with a grin on her face. “I’ll bet that would be useful. Did you ever meet any pegasus thieves?”
“A few times,” Nova said, thinking back. “There was one pair I really remember though. Sisters, real braggarts. I think both of them got caught after a few years though.”
“Really?” Sky Bolt asked, surprise evident on her face. “How’d that happen?”
Nova shrugged. “Same way most thieves get caught. Overconfidence.” Sky Bolt darted ahead, settling down behind a workbench that was cluttered with bits and pieces of crystal as well as quite a few things he couldn’t even begin to identify. What appeared to be a helmet constructed entirely of crystal was the center of the workbench, the tools and other paraphernalia all orbiting around it.
“Taking too big a haul?” Sky Bolt asked as she settled behind the desk, examining the crystal helmet while talking.
Nova shook his head. “No, more like stupidity really. They were using their wings to get into odd crawl spaces and entryways that most ponies wouldn’t think to secure, but they kept hitting bigger and bigger targets.”
“Oh, I gotcha,” Sky Bolt said, plucking the helmet from the bench. “They didn’t stop to think that eventually they’d hit a house where somepony had planned for that.”
Nova nodded and clicked his tongue as Sky bolt wandered up to him, the helmet gripped in her teeth. “You got it. Those two morons got so overconfident they tried to hit up the richest part of Las Pegasus. Brought down half the Royal Guard in the city on their heads, and then tried to fight their way out.”
“Didn’t go well, huh?” Sky Bolt asked, setting the crystal helmet back on the corner of the workbench and grabbing a small tool to make a few quick adjustments to something.
“No, like I said those two never were the brightest,” Nova said as he took a closer look at Sky Bolt’s work. The helmet really wasn’t like anything he’d ever seen. The entire thing was transparent, made of very thin layers of crystal sheeting that had been affixed together in some manner he couldn’t identify. It didn’t look like a helmet either. The helmets he’d seen the Guard wear were always rounded and straightforward by design, smoothly surfaced. The helmet sitting in front of him almost reminded him of a bug. Rather than smooth edges, it was composed of angled pieces, many of which were triangular. There was a clear piece of crystal covering the eyes, and there were folded crystal triangles along the bottom of the helmet that almost looked as if they would cover a pony's chin.
“There were other, smarter pegasus thieves, though,” he said as he examined the armor. “I just remember those two because they were major braggarts and called me out. Challenged me to best them in thieving,” he explained as Sky Bolt looked up in confusion. She nodded and turned back to her helmet.
“So did you?” she asked after a moment of silence.
“Well, at the time I said no,” Nova said, smiling as he thought back. “But really it was just to egg them on. I told them they weren’t worth my time. Then, after they got caught, I broke into every house on that same street. The very next night in fact.”
Sky Bolt looked up, her mouth wide. “How much did you make?”
“Make?” Nova grimaced. “That wasn’t how I operated. I only ever took what I needed. I didn’t ‘make’ anything off the job.”
“Then what did you—”
“I didn’t make anything,” he said, cutting her off. “But I definitely left an impression.” He grinned, holding his head up high. “I stole every jewel I could get my hooves on and left them in the jewelry box of the house next door. Did it to the whole block. Even made the news.” Sky Bolt was staring at him, her jaw wide open. “I take it you’re impressed,” Nova said, still grinning.
Sky Bolt shook her head. “I think it just occured to me how glad I am to have you on our side.” She looked back down at the helmet and then cocked her head to one side, eyes focused on something distant as if deep in thought. “How’d you do it?” she asked at last, her attention returning to the helmet.
“Varied from house to house,” Nova said as he dug through his memories, trying to unearth some of the specifics. “I remember that one of the places had a really complex security system, one that required everypony to wear these magic badges when they entered the house to avoid setting off the field, so I just stopped by the place that had installed the security spell and swiped myself a blank.” He chuckled as he remembered how easy it’d been to clear the place out after he’d gotten that. “Another place had a couple of dogs plus security spells, so I got the dogs to set off the alarm on the other end of the grounds and robbed them while everypony was busy.” Sky Bolt was staring at him now, eyes wide in disbelief. “What?” he asked. “You don’t believe me?”
“Actually,” Sky Bolt said, picking the helmet up from the workbench in her hooves. “I think I do, and that’s the crazy part. Anyway, you ready to test this?”
Nova shrugged. “Sure. What do I need to do?”
“For now,” Sky Bolt said, settling the helmet around his head, “just put it on.”
“Ok,” Nova said, reaching up with his good hoof and adjusting the helmet around his horn. The helmet was a loose fit, tilting back and forth as he moved his head and tapping against his horn in an annoying manner. Worse, he realized, it didn’t even have holes for his ears to escape. “You know,” he said, his voice sounding somewhat echoed to his flattened ears. “This thing's pretty uncomfortable.”
“It’s only a test model,” Sky Bolt said, her voice slightly muffled by the light crystal. “How’s the weight?”
“Light as a feather,” Nova said, putting a hoof to the side of his head. There was a strange itching sensation in the back of his mind, like something was tickling the inside of his head. “Something feels funny though, I’m not sure what it is.”
“So those two pegasi that you showed up,” Sky Bolt said, abruptly changing the topic. “How’d they take being upstaged?”
Nova started to laugh. “Oh Tartarus,” he said between chuckles. “They were mad!” He started to laugh harder. Mirth was welling up inside of him. “I’d never thought about it,” he said between laughs, “but it’s hilarious how mad they were!”
He started to laugh harder and harder, tears leaking from his eyes. A small part of him tried to say that something was wrong, that there was no way that it had been that funny, but he squashed it. What did it know? He laughed harder. The whole world was funny, why had he never noticed before? Tears were running from his eyes now, his sides aching, but he kept laughing. He was floating on laughter, he was—
Sky Bolt pulled the helmet off and the feeling vanished, the strange buzz in his head fading away. Nova stopped laughing , suddenly aware of his aching sides.
“What—” he gasped, trying to catch his breath. “What in Tartarus was that?” He sat there, panting and staring at the helmet, his euphoria giving away to fear and anger.
“A defective design apparently,” Sky Bolt said, giving the helmet a disappointed scown and tossing it on the workbench. “Drat.”
“What do you mean defective?” Nova asked, rubbing his head. The strange tingle was gone, but the memory of it wasn’t fading quite so fast. “What was that?”
“It’s why Dawn wanted you to test the armor rather than her,” Sky Bolt said, walking around behind the desk and sitting down with a disappointed sigh. "I knew I should have made a less ornate prototype,” she said batting the helmet with one hoof. She looked up at him. “You know how magic operates differently with emotions right?” Nova nodded, deciding not to tell her that he’d only learned that fact the night before.
“Well,” Sky Bolt said. “The idea behind this armor is that it’s resistant and reflective to magic. That’s why I needed a certain type of crystal, one that was resistant to magic instead of easy to work with. It’ll dampen and redistribute powerful magic, and actually reflect low level spells.”
“Problem is,” she said, avoiding his eyes, “no one’s ever tried because it’ll reflect a pony's own magic back at them.”
Nova frowned. “So I started laughing, and then it reflected my own emotions back at me, which made me laugh harder, which then reflected back ...”
“Yeah,” Sky Bolt said. “You end up overwhelming yourself with your own emotions. That’s why I’m glad I had something that you at least thought was funny, because I really don’t want to see what would happen if you’d been say, angry with someone.”
Nova blanched at the thought, his ears folding back. “No wonder you wanted to test it on me,” he said, catching up with what Dawn had said earlier that day. “I’m the magical powerhouse of the group.”
“Exactly,” Sky Bolt said, confirming his theory. She clopped her hoof on the workbench. “If I can get the latticework right, the reflection outside of the armor will still work while the inside won’t.” She looked back up at Nova, a frustrated snarl on her face. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Ah well,” she said, looking down at the failed helmet. “Wanna give me a hand slicing off some crystal sheets to try and make a new one?”
“It’s that easy?” Nova asked as Sky Bolt hopped away from the desk, trotting over towards the stacked sections of crystal.
“Well,” Sky Bolt said with a shake of her head. “Not really, but if you hold this stuff I can cut it, and it’ll go a lot quicker. I could get another helmet thrown together, albeit a basic one, in maybe fifteen minutes.” She chewed on her lower lip for a second, eyes shut and darting around rapidly behind her eyelids. “Maybe if I give it an alternating layer ...” Her eyes snapped open. “Yes! That might work! Here, levitate this will you?” she asked, pointing at one of the sheets of crystal.
Nova obliged, reaching out with his magic and lifting the crystal into the air. He could feel the resistance that Sky Bolt had mentioned. The crystal felt slippery in his grip, like it was coated in oil.
“Perfect,” Sky Bolt said. “Now just bring it over this way.” She trotted over to a table-like machine, and he followed, carefully keeping hold of the slick crystal slab.
I should ask her something, try to learn a bit more about her, Nova thought as Sky Bolt guided the crystal sheet over the table and then had him lower it. It was in impressive sheet, almost twice as long as most ponies and about as wide, although less than a quarter of an inch thick. Loyalty has to start somewhere, right?
“So,” he said as Sky Bolt sat there taking measurement. “You mentioned something when we were working on the airship.”
“Uh-huh?” Sky Bolt said without looking up. She was bent over the sheet of crystal now, making a fine, thin line along one corner with a marker.
“Well, it made me curious,” Nova said. “What’s with you wanting your parents to fly?”
Sky Bolt looked back at him, one eyebrow raised. She spit the marker out of her mouth. “My parents are both earth ponies,” she said. “No wings.”
“Wait, really?” Nova asked. “How’d you end up with wings?”
Sky Bolt shrugged as she dropped from the table and pulled a drawer underneath it open. “My great grandmother on my Mom’s side was a pegasus,” she said matter of factly. “And on my Dad’s side his great granddad was a pegasus as well.” She pulled a large circular saw out of the drawer, setting it on top of the crystal sheet. “So when my parents got married and moved out to the Southwest to help found a new earth pony village and had me, well … It was a shock.”
“They’re wonderful parents,” she said, turning back from the saw to look at him. “I love them a lot. That bush over there on my sketch bench?” she pointed at a small potted plant covered in pastel blue flowers. “My mother gave that to me when I left and came out here. I never once heard them complaining about having a daughter who could move clouds instead of help plants grow. Actually,” she said with a laugh. “They loved that. That’s why I love my parents, they always supported me and helped me find out who I was.”
“So I want to pay them back,” she said, pushing one side of her mane behind her ear with a free hoof and adding another small grease track along her forehead. “When I was younger, about nine or ten years ago, my parents took me hiking and I was showing off some new tricks I’d learned. You know, barrel rolls, backflips, stuff like that. Anyway, my mom, she was just laying there in the sun, watching me, and she said she wished she knew what it was like for me to fly.”
“So,” she said, waving a hoof at the hull of The Hummingbird, “I set out to do just that. They were complimentary passengers on The Alicorn, but it’s just not the same, you know?” She tilted her head to the side with a shrug. “Captain Song promised me I could give them one of the first rides in The Hummingbird, so as soon as I finish building her, they’ll be here. It might not be the same, but it’ll be a taste.”
“Did you ever look into magic?” Nova asked. “I’m not well educated on spells, but there might be something out there for that.”
Sky Bolt shook her head. “There was only one unicorn in our town until he and his wife had a kid, and his speciality wasn’t anything like that. Besides,” she said, flexing one foreleg. “If I do something for my parents, I want to be the one to do it for them. I can’t do magic. Well, not unicorn magic anyway.” She spun back around and grabbed the handle of the saw in her teeth. “You might want to step back!” she yelled as her own ears folded flat against her skull. “This is really loud, and crystal dust hurts to breathe!”
She took a deep breath and clamped her jaw down on the saws trigger, bringing it to life with a high pitched whine. Nova stepped back, his own ears flat against his head as Sky Bolt guided the spinning blade into the crystal with her front hooves. The moment the thin blade made contact with the crystal a piercing shriek began to echo around the room, drowning out all sound but the lowest of the thumping bass notes coming from the workshop speakers.
A fine spray of crystalline dust began to spray out behind the saw, and Nova focused his magic, thinking back to one of the spells he’d been working on. The fine magic resistant dust would be difficult to levitate, but a simple gust of air would pick it right up. He summoned a small cyclone, gritting his teeth against the noise and simultaneously trying to cover both his ears as best as possible with his lone free hoof.
After moving the heavy superboilers and the slippery sheet of crystal, Nova had no difficulties with the small whirlwind. He guided it around behind Sky Bolt as she made her cuts, collecting sprays of crystal dust as best he was able. Then, after what felt like far too long, the saw’s whine stopped, and Nova uncovered his ears.
“Hey, cool idea.” Sky Bolt said as she stepped back from the workbench and saw the small cloud of collected crystal dust swirling in his spell.
“It’s not the most efficient way to collect it,” he said as he lowered the speed until the the swirling dust fell to the workshop floor, sparkling as it caught the overhead light. “But I got most of it.”
“Eh, I can fire up the vacuum system when we’re done,” Sky Bolt said, carefully picking up a few of the crystalline sheets she had cut and setting them on her back. “So, what about your parents?”
“My what?” Nova asked, smacking his cast in surprise and wincing.
“Your parents,” Sky Bolt said as she made her way back towards the desk where she’d had the crystal helmet. “I told you about mine, why don’t you tell me about yours? I mean, come on,” she said, sliding the crystal pieces onto the workbench. “All I know about you is that you’re a thief who mouths off at the captain from time to time.” She winced as she saw his flinch. “Sorry, that came out a little harsh.”
“No, it’s alright,” Nova said, flicking his ears back up. “I’ve—uh—kind of earned it. Don’t worry about it, ask away.”
“You’re sure?” she asked, pausing and looking him in the eyes.
“Yeah, go ahead and ask.”
“Alright, so then, who were your parents?”
Nova took a deep breath. “I don’t actually know,” he said, letting the words out in a rush.
Sky Bolt looked up from the workbench, a tube of something in her mouth. “You don’t?” she mumbled past the tube.
Nova nodded at her. “I’m an orphan. Some hikers found me in the woods outside Hollow Shades when I was just a foal. Couldn’t even talk yet. Nopony knows how I got there, although there were theories. Teleportation accident, or something. But nopony claimed me or reported me missing, and I got sent to Manehatten, put in an orphanage.”
He was vaguely aware that Sky Bolt had put the tube down and was listening intently, but he continued. “It wasn’t bad, I grew up with friends, and the caretaker at the orphanage was the sweetest pony. We loved her, and she loved us. Right up until the moment that she didn’t.” The words felt hollow leaving his mouth.
“She fell in love, and then she was gone, and we had a new caretaker. So, I ran away from home. I found her, begged her to come back, and instead she called the Guard on me and had me escorted back to the orphanage. A week later I left for good.”
His face had drifted down towards the floor without him noticing while he’d been speaking. He pulled his head up to see Sky Bolt staring at him with misty eyes.
“Oh don’t even start,” he said, waving his hoof. “It was a long time ago and I was young and stupid. I made my choices, what matters is where I’m at now.”
“But still—” Sky Bolt began to say.
“Nope, not a topic for discussion,” Nova said, turning his head to the side and raising one hoof. “Anyway, to finish the story, I was homeless and hungry. I stole some food, almost got caught, and learned for the next time. A few months later I hopped on a train to Baltimare, and from there to Canterlot, and then on to Vanhoover, and ...” he let his voice trail off, and frowned. “I thought the point was to talk while we worked, or at least while you worked,” he said, pointing at the undisturbed crystal pieces.
“What? Oh! Right! Whoops!” Sky Bolt said, giving an embarrassed laugh as she picked up one of the pieces in her hooves. “Sorry, it was just interesting. I think I get—well—you, just a little bit more now.” She picked the tube up in her mouth and bit down, squeezing something Nova couldn’t identify out of it onto the edge of the crystal.
Nova shrugged. “Just don’t … Don’t pity me for it. I know it wasn’t the best life, and I made some stupid choices, but I don’t want any pity for my mistakes.”
Sky Bolt spat the tube from her mouth and stuck the crystal sheet up against another piece, fitting them together. “But general joking and sarcasm is ok, right?”
Nova gave her a smirk and shook his head. “Yeah,” he said. “That’ll be alright.”
“What about friendship?” she asked, staring at him intently.
Nova’s mind raced. A month ago, he would have said the same thing he’d always said. No friends, just jobs. But then, that life hadn’t really been that fulfilling, had it? No, he thought. It wasn’t. Besides, wouldn’t this be the first step anyway? Actually being friends? He couldn’t remember the last time he’d called anyone a friend without a sarcastic slide to it. Why not? A small, rational part of his brain was saying. What could it hurt to finally have someone you could call a friend?
Nova looked up. Sky Bolt was still looking at him, waiting for a response. He could see she was getting nervous, one ear of hers was twitching.
I can’t say no, he thought, as Captains Song’s orders came to mind. If I can’t let her befriend me, how can I trust her, or anyone else on the team?
Sky Bolt let out held breath and sat back, a slightly surprised look on her face. “Guess no—”
“No!” Nova said, startling her. “I will! I mean … Yeah. Friends. Ok?”
Sky Bolt looked at him for a moment. “Took you long enough to answer,” she said, giving him a sceptical eye, one brow raised.
Nova let out a laugh. “Yeah, well, the whole ‘friend’ thing?” he said, making a quote with his good hoof. “It's kind of new to me.”
“Well,” Sky Bolt said, letting go of the two crystals and giving a little grin when they stayed together. “At least you’ve got a whole team to figure it out with.”
“Yeah, right...” Nova said, sitting back. “You almost done there? I’m getting bored.”
“Hold your horses,” Sky Bolt said, picking the tube of goo up in her mouth and applying a generous dollop to the crystal edge. “This stuff needs to set, unless you want a crystal sheet glued to your mane.”
“No thanks,” he muttered.
“Aw, why not?” she asked, grinning. “You could try a new look. Maybe a mohawk.”
“You mean like a certain zebra on our team that you keep eyeing?” Nova asked with a smirk. It morphed to a full grin as Sky Bolt gave an “eep” and flushed bright red. “Seriously, you stare at his flank often enough that your eyeballs could be his cutie mark.”
“You—you—” Nova started laughing as Sky Bolt stammered at him, her face flushing a bright red. “You’re gonna wind up wearing one of these helmets permanently,” she finally managed as Nova fell backwards on the floor of the shop, laughing so hard he could barely breathe for the second time that day.
“Alright, alright,” he managed to say between breaths. “I’ll drop it, I swear.”
“You’d better,” Sky Bolt said, her face still flushed red. “Or you’ll find out exactly how big a disaster I can engineer.”
“I’m good, don’t worry,” Nova said, sitting back up. “So I guess we should talk about other things then, you know.” He tapped his hoof on his chin thoughtfully. “Hey, I know, as a friend, you can help me out,” he said, leaning forward. “You see, I need to get some help with my flexibility, and I know Sabra can give me a hand. Could you tell me what his best stretches are?”
Nova ducked a second later, a tube of glue flying through the space where his head had just been.