The Marerainian Affair

by Uncle Knot

Sunset Shimmer's Airship

Aboard the airship, Captain Shimmer welcomed Octavia and ‘Uncle’ Knot with a smile, and immediately began giving orders to her new crew mate – Jorge - to stow their gear below decks in the cabins. Shimmer gave orders to power up the crystals that pushed the air through the turbines. It was a new and highly experimental type of engine, but the ship’s ‘mechanic’, as Gilda was calling herself, tended the engine lovingly. The air ship moved faster than any sail ship on the best of seas. Shimmer kept her crew busy, and Jorge soon learned that once a task was done, either to find a new task for himself or be assigned another by the vigilant Shimmer. Jorge was fascinated by Gilda; he had never met a griffin before.

“Take a picture, it will last longer” said Gilda

“What?” asked Jorge

“Stop staring, it’s annoying”

“Sorry, it’s just that you are the first griffin I’ve ever seen”

“Okay, so now you’ve seen one, get over it dweeb”

The tiny airship sped through the skies. Jorge quickly visited every part of the ship. The upper deck, with rope railings, seemed backwards. The helm was at the wrong end. There was no wheel, as on a ship, rather a pair of sticks and hoof pedals.

“Hey Dusty, show the dweeb how to fly”

“First look over the side” commanded Dusty

“I’d rather not” answered Jorge

“Do it, I need you to see something” said Dusty

“Wow, we are high up” commented Jorge

“Do you see that small wing on the bow?” asked Dusty

“Yes”

“That is called a canard. I use these front pedals to control them”

“I see”

“The back pedals control the flaps on the rear wings over the engines. We call them ducks. This stick here controls them all. We call it the joy stick. These controls adjust pitch and roll”

“Pitch and roll?” asked Jorge

“Pitch, roll and yawl, the three vectors of moving through the air”

“Yawl?”

“Think of pitch as moving your nose up or down”

“But we didn’t just point the ship up and go, did we?” asked Jorge

“No, we used lift to do that. Above us isn’t just a bag of air. It is a special type of air; in fact, there is a bag inside a bag above us. The inner bag we fill or empty with these nobs. That creates lift, as we suck the special air out of the inner bag with vacuum pumps we lose lift, the airship increases in relative weight and we drop out of the sky. We put the special air back in compressed gas cylinders so we can use it again.”

“Do I need to learn that to fly?”

“No, for now just stand on the pedals and move the stick with your mouth”

“Wow, when I tip the stick to the right, the deck tips to the left”

“Correct, tipping the ship to the right, tips the deck to the left, and by tipping the ship you turn the ship”

“So why have these foot pedals?”

“Because sometimes the wind is pushing the ship in a direction you do not want to go, so we change the way the wind moves over
the ship with our ducks and canards”

“So what’s my heading?”

“Do you see those purple mountains straight ahead?”

“Yes”

“You have great eyes for an earth pony." said Dusty "On the other side of those mountains is Equestria, we should be in Ponyville before the sun rises, which is good for us”

“That quickly? It took my aunt and uncle about a month to get to Equestria” commented Jorge

“So you are going to visit family?” asked Dusty

“No, they just returned and suggested I go to see the sights”

“So you did something naughty and are going to hide in Ponyville until things cool down?” asked Dusty

“No, just sightseeing”

“No way, Gilda bet me that you need a place to hide, I bet that you and Octavia are eloping”

“I guess you both lose your bets” said Jorge

“Maybe, Octavia does glance in your direction while she pretends to practice”

“I’m flattered by her attention”

“She must like your fancy talk too, no need for that with me. You got great eyes”

“Thanks”

“I need to stretch my wings. You seem to be handling the controls well. If you need help, just yell for Captain Shimmer, Gilda, or Uncle Knot. You can even ask for Octavia’s, she knows how to handle a joy stick” With that tag, Lightning Dust opened her wings and allowed her wing tip to gently pet Jorge’s ears and mane, before grabbing the air and flying over the side of the ship.

Even at their speed, Lightning Dust could fly circles around the airship, and she did. Sometimes she would fold her wings in, and drop like a rock directly in front of the airship, then open her wings, circle around and glide parallel to the craft. Jorge had begun to suspect she was showing off just for him, when she sprinted ahead, in a blazing dash, to those purple mountains. Octavia’s practice session took on a more mellow tone.

Captain Shimmer’s voice chirped in “I’ll take over if you’re tired mate.”

“No thank you, this is the most fun I’ve had in ages” answered Jorge

“Glad to hear it. You’d make a great crew. We would like to keep you, but Uncle Knot says you got an appointment to keep”

“What else does he say?”

“You got three days, see your sights in Ponyville, with or without Octavia, and then we whisk you back to Marerainia”

“Thanks Captain, that should be plenty of time”

“Make sure it is. This could turn into a nightmare if Rainbow Dash notices us.”

“Rainbow Dash?”

“Rainbow Dash, an old friend of Gilda’s, and the reason Dusty signed on with us”

“May I ask why?”

“Why what? Why old friends don’t always remain friends or why Dusty likes being here with us?”

“I understand about Gilda, but tell me about Dusty”

“Haven’t you noticed, Dusty is a bit reckless, that got her kicked out of the Wonderbolts, and Rainbow Dash is the reason she got kicked. That’s all I am going to tell you. You are relieved, go hit the hay. You’ll be getting off at O’ dark thirty, good luck with your sightseeing”

Below decks Jorge decided to get some hay, before hitting the hay. In the tiny galley, Uncle Knot made Jorge some food, and briefed him about Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Jorge wanted to know more, but Knot said knowing too much would be suspicious and some things are best found out for oneself.