//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Tailspin // by michaelb958 //------------------------------// "-and then I said, 'Oatmeal? Are you crazy-?'" Equestria's most effective crowd-control mechanism stopped working as she realised that everypony else was staring at something in shock, and promptly copied them. Fleetfoot felt like she was in the Dizzitron all over again, just with more non-rotational movement. In the seat in front, Scott fought to control the suddenly-unresponsive Thunderbird 1 as it cartwheeled away from Cloudsdale. "Rrrrgh, come on!" "Scott, I can't help!" Alan unhelpfully contributed over the radio. "You're moving away too fast! I can't catch you!" Scott was already 'in the zone' and heard none of it. What's happening? No thrust on the port side - okay, engines surging, airflow must have been interrupted somehow. Wings stalling. Got to regain control! Need thrust. Afterburners on starboard exhaust. Decrease port power to clear stall. Thrust imbalance causing port yaw; rudders to full starboard. Not enough. Can't decrease power yet. Port engine stall clear, throttle up. Aerofoil stall cleared. Altitude warning? VTOLs on. Yaw cleared. Flight stable; afterburners off, reset rudders. Full stop, need to get my bearings. Within about eight seconds, he'd regained control of Thunderbird 1 - no mean feat from a one-per-second spin, and all the more impressive to Fleetfoot when she looked down through the canopy and saw the ground right there. He'd do well on the Dizzitron. "It's only getting worse up there." Alan, having been left with the pod's instruments, provided situation updates as Scott employed the inertial navigation system to get him back to Cloudsdale. "I don't think you'll be able to try that again - the winds are just too fierce now." "And if I'm reading this right," pitched in Wild Fire, "even the worsening is worsening." "Looks that way from here." Scott could now see Cloudsdale again. He wouldn't have said it was possible for the situation to look worse than when he was last outside, but look worse it somehow did. "How long do you think we have?" Fleetfoot's professional opinion was "about fifteen minutes". "In case you hadn't noticed, big bro, we're all out of plans." "Again... I knew we couldn't keep our record this clean forever, but I would have liked to start on a better note with a whole new planet... Still, I don't see anything else we can do." "Yeah, we'd need a princess to save us now..." Scott had the flash of inspiration this time. "...Wild Fire, was that hyperbole, or would a princess actually be able to stop this?" "There's no hyperbole with the Princesses. One of them could. If they were here - but they aren't, and we can't tell them in time!" "Don't be so sure. You said they were busy with diplomatic events - where's the closest one, and how fast could they get here if they found out?" "Um, the closest would be Princess Luna in Griffonstone. She could teleport back here instantly, but we're still at least an overnight train away from there." "We're International Rescue. We can do better than trains. Get in here, and give me a precise compass bearing!" Wild Fire darted in and took the other jumpseat, as Alan passed on "Bearing nine-six degrees, almost due east; I say again, nine-six degrees." Scott glanced at the clock. If the train traveled at about eighty kilometres per hour, then overnight was at least eight hundred kilometres. He had at least eight hundred kilometres to go in less than thirteen minutes. Easy as pie at Thunderbird 1's full speed (24000 km/h was 4000 km in ten minutes), but it just wasn't safe to go anywhere that fast, not with the skies full of pegasi and griffons and who knew what else. I know this thing's fast, but this is still gonna be close! The trip east was comprised of the longest few minutes of Scott's life. He was relying on his piloting skill to make a fairly low-speed trip not take too long, for the sake of dozens of lives. His two passengers arguably had it worse, forced to sit and wait in jumpseats arguably not designed for them as the landscape below sailed past and the situation at Cloudsdale threatened to boil over. About three minutes in, Alan checked in. "Repair pod to Thunderbird 1. The cyclone's behaving as we predicted - you still have ten minutes to get our help here." "My navigator tells me we're passing over Manehatten, which means we're making good ground. ETA to Griffonstone, another four minutes." Scott put the figurative mic down. "I thought you said it'd be slower...?" Wild Fire muttered something about the labyrinthine railroad layout. Fleetfoot clarified that "We estimated correctly - for a train. I didn't think of it at the time, which is silly because I have wings, but we don't need to follow the train line, so we can take a direct route." "Everyone freezes up a bit their first time on a danger zone. First time Scotty took his 'bird out for real, he landed so hard the landing struts buckled!" "Quiet Alan, or I'll tell them about your first supply run to Five." Alan was quiet. four minutes later Scott pulled the main throttles back and brought Thunderbird 1 to a stop above Griffonstone (possibly a bit too close, but these were acceptable corners to cut on a rescue) and opened the recovery bay for good measure. "All right, both of you, out the door! We have six minutes left - find Princess Luna!" "GREAT BEAST OF FIRE AND METAL, EXPLAIN THYSELF!" Wild Fire managed to beat Alan's record for sheer unhelpfulness with a simple "Found her." Fleetfoot took the more productive approach and dived out to avert Luna's wrath. Scott felt it best to back off a bit in order to appear less provocative. Both remaining occupants of the rocket plane watched anxiously as a fairly spirited discussion began between princess and Wonderbolt. "Princess Luna has always been paranoid about mind control and so on," Wild Fire explained. "It makes sense after the Nightmare Moon thing." Scott, still marvelling a bit at how, well, princessly the princess appeared, made a mental note to ask what that 'thing' was. Fairly soon, Fleetfoot darted back and called out "Don't wait for us!" before she and Luna disappeared in a flash of light. "Okay..." Scott's mind raced. "That looked a lot like the phenomenon that brought us here." "I guess we head back. The princess will probably stay at Cloudsdale a while to coordinate cleanup." "If she can stop the disaster." Thunderbird 1 turned around and headed back for Cloudsdale. Princess Luna flashed back into existence at the stricken city of Cloudsdale and got to work. While her shout of "INFORM US OF THY PREDICAMENT!" was certainly disruptive, it was also effective at both rallying the crowd (who were reaching despair by this point) and providing her with the information she needed (Fleetfoot bringing her up to speed quickly). "This, We can handle." Her horn started glowing. For an alicorn-mage of Princess Luna's power and skill, it was a simple matter to take the machine apart in such a way that anything dangerous vented straight downwards onto empty ground, aided greatly by having seen a basic diagram of precisely this machine on her desk the day before. Perhaps this is what is truly meant by 'serendipity'. Thunderbird 1 had just crossed the Equestrian east coast when Alan got on the radio again (although nearly drowned out by celebratory sounds). "Scott! It worked! Whoever you sent did it! ...And more importantly, there are streamers everywhere!" "Well, Alan, I'm told these ...Equestrians are a party-happy lot, and this sounds like an occasion for one." "You don't understand, I just blinked and they were everywhere! I have so many questions!" "So do I. But given that everyone's out of danger for the moment, I think we should hand over to the GDF and head back. You've been on duty too long, and that pod needs repair work." "You broke the pod, and don't you forget it!" "Thunderbird 1 to Thunderbird 5, mission complete. No further damage to any equipment, and Alan says the locals have the situation in hand." "Acknowledged, Thunderbird 1. Now get back here on the double. Brains is itching to talk to you, and I think Colonel Casey has some apologies to make."