• Published 28th Mar 2017
  • 1,080 Views, 31 Comments

A World Of Open Skies - NeverEatTheLemonsAlone



A disgruntled, ex-military pegasus. A sweet-talking, high-society diplomat with something to hide. A down-to-earth farmer, too proud to admit that she's in over her head. An empire fueled by magic and steam. A revival of war.

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Chapter One - Canterlot

A heavy grunt tore from Rainbow Dash's snout as she yanked on the handle of the spanner wrench, twisting into tightness the final bolt of the repaired engine before shoving the tool haphazardly back into her single saddlebag. The engine room of the Incarnadine hummed about her, thrumming and clanking and lit with the soft light of the lantern that dangled from the low ceiling above her. From the pocket of her leather work overalls, she drew a clean rag, wiping her face and normally-vibrant mane with it. It came away dirty, grimy with sweat and oil, and she sighed in the hot, close stuffiness.

Making her way past a maze of pipes and valves that gushed steam and hot air, she paused once more to wipe her face with the rag again as the condensation of the steam dripped down onto her, running down her coat before swirling away down the sloped floor and through a steel grate in front of Rainbow. She paused to look down through it, staring for a moment at the steady stream as it dripped down into the beyond, falling the five-and-some thousand meters to the landscape below. Shaking her head out of the momentary daze she had entered, she continued on to her destination: the door to the airship's deck.

As she slid it open, the sudden wind buffeted her, nearly throwing her to the floor behind her before she adjusted for it. Over the rushing roar, she heard the sounds of her crew. Shivering in the chill, biting wind, she trotted quickly to the helm, nudging the white-and-gold pegasus that gripped the steering servos. At Rainbow's brush, she jumped into the air and squawked in a most birdlike fashion before turning a baleful lilac eye on the mechanic. "How many times, Rainbow? How many times do I have to tell you to not do that while I'm trying to navigate?"

Rainbow chuckled. "Oh, come off it, Surprise. We're going in a straight line and we both know it."

Surprise grinned, irritation gone without a trace, and quickly removed a hoof from the steering, smacking Rainbow's chest with it. "Fine, fine. You get the engine fixed?"

Rainbow nodded with a smirk. "Do you know who you're talking to? Of course I fixed the engine. One of the Cadance regulators slipped the sleeve, just had to shift it back. We're good to go!"

Surprise nodded and gave a mock salute before returning her attention to the helm. "Good work. Go see 'Shy for some grub, she's got something cooking up on the exhaust."

As if on cue, Rainbow's stomach growled and Surprise chuckled, keeping her eyes on the skies ahead. Trotting carelessly again, Rainbow skidded and bounced along the deck with the wind currents until she broke her speed with the back railing. Hearing a soft laugh from the side, she turned, nearly missing the catch on the hot chunk of apple that sped towards her face.

"Nice catch," sniped Fluttershy, as she adjusted the goggles that sat upon her pink mane. “So what was wrong with the engine? Is the magic reservoir shot?"

Taking a seat on one of the stools near Fluttershy's seat, Rainbow sighed. "Nothing that bad. A C-reg slipped alignment, that's all."

"Oh, that's good then."

The two sat in companionable silence for some time as they hungrily devoured the hot vegetable stew that simmered atop the exhaust manifold. The magical engine that regulated airship altitude output an absurd amount of heat, far more than was necessary to fill the gas envelopes of the balloon above them. The excess heat from the magical reaction was shunted through a series of pipes in the engine room to the rear of the airship, where it hissed out through a large pipe. The top of the pipe on Incarnadine had been hammered flat, forming a skillet-esque surface where Fluttershy did the ship's cooking. All things considered, the food was pretty good. Better than she or Surprise could make, at any rate.

Dash was lifting the spoon to her mouth for a final bite of stew when a thunderous boom rebounded through the sky. She cocked her head quizzically for all of a second when Incarnadine lurched beneath her, throwing her food over the edge and down into the massive gulf of the sky. A rapid clanging from down below slowly came to the deck and a nearby hatch exploded open, revealing the fourth and final member of Incarnadine's crew, coughing and hacking, a white earth pony covered in smokestains and sweat.

"Double!" cried Fluttershy, jumping to his side as he flopped out onto the canted deck.

"D.D., what in Tartarus is going on?" hissed Rainbow as another boom echoed, and Incarnadine tilted even more.

Double Diamond groaned heavily, spitting out a glob of blackened saliva onto the deck and rasping, "It's an M4 Cassiopeia-Class battleship. New Harmony's found us."

At that, Rainbow took to wing, dashing to the front of the rapidly decelerating airship to catch a glimpse of their assailants. When she did, her ears folded back, mouth dropping open as her eyes shot wide. The Incarnadine was a light scout ship. Small, sleek, and lightly armed; an autogun on each side, and a single frontmounted carronade. She wasn't designed for heavy combat.

M4 Cassiopeia-Class airships most definitely were.

The behemoth in front of her dwarfed the airship she stood on. Its gunnery decks alone were nearly the size of the entire Incarnadine, and it had four of them. Rainbow's sharp eyes picked out at least four guns on each deck. She gulped. If they opened fire, the Incarnadine would be annihilated without a chance.

It was strange, though. They weren't firing anymore. They had crippled the engines, rendering the airship immobile. So where were the explosions? Unless...

A thumping and a hissing sound echoed through the air, and a series of small dark projectiles hummed their way into the hull and balloon of the Incarnadine. The heavy cables attached to the harpoons pulled taut, and the Incarnadine slowly began to inch its way towards the enormous silver ship that dominated the sky.

"Surprise!" shouted Rainbow, bolting for the front of the ship, "we have to get...out..."

She trailed off at the pool of red that coated the deck near the helm. Surprise's head was caved in, a sickeningly visible dent left in her forehead by the steering controls. It seemed that she'd died in the initial assault. Rainbow's eyes glazed, and instinct took over. She darted to the back, screaming Fluttershy's name at the top of her lungs.

Then she saw the smoke. The exhaust manifold had been jostled by the jolt from the explosions, and a few moments afterward, it had ignited the wooden deck in a gout of bloody light, fire licking up into the sky.

And then...she saw her friend.

"Fluttershy!"

The anguished scream, loud enough to render her throat raw, was drowned out before even leaving her lips. The world around her had careened into a hellish mass of fire and blood, the roaring of her heartbeat in her ears blotting out everything else. Even so, the overwhelming chaos faded away, her entire perception focusing down to a knife's edge as she stood in shock at the yellow pegasus, and at the enormous, gore-stained hole punched through the gasping filly by the massive grappling harpoon. Fluttershy's mouth worked soundlessly, eyes twitching and darting back and forth with panic before settling on Rainbow.

Rainbow still couldn't move.

Fluttershy reached out a trembling hoof, desperately stretching out towards her friend. As the light in her eyes faded, she mouthed one final phrase:

Help me, Rainbow.

Double Diamond was nowhere to be found. From the shredded clump of white mane caught in the rigging at the back of the ship, his fate seemed evident.

The flames licked higher. Rainbow, shellshocked at how quickly the situation had deteriorated, only barely noticed how close they were getting to the punctured gas envelopes. Until it was too late.

Incarnadine exploded, the shockwave instantly knocking Rainbow off of the deck and sending her spinning off into space as the craft folded in on itself. The harpoons dislodged, their anchorage disintegrating into fragments of wood and metal falling in an apocalyptic shower to the ground far below. Her wings refused to move. Her mind was still locked in shock, replaying the scene of Fluttershy's and Surprise’s deaths in her mind over and over ad nauseam.

Only when she began to hear the sound of the fragments of Incarnadine crashing to the ground below did she remember how far she had fallen, and how quickly she was moving. Her wings snapped out of their own volition, but it wasn't enough. She didn't have quite enough strength to stop her descent. As the ground beneath snapped into focus, she closed her eyes, letting her wings go limp.

---

"Haaauuughhhhh!"

Rainbow Dash bolted upright with a gasp, feeling her left wing flare out instinctively. Her face was coated in a sheen of sweat and her somewhat shaggy, unkempt coat was sodden with it. Her eyes were wide, staring out, disbelieving, at the benign darkness before her. Patting herself down, she found the mangled remains of her right wing with her hooves, and only then did she allow herself to relax.

"Just a dream..." she murmured, feeling her body shaking as tears ran down her face. She let her head fall into her hooves, quietly crying into them for a few minutes before her ragged breathing stabilized. Acknowledging the futility of attempting to return to sleep, she shoved out her hoof blindly until she found the firestarter on her nightstand, grouping about until she found the wick of the oil lamp.

Though it took a moment to light, the welcoming glow of the little flame did much to dispel the pain of her nightmare. She stared down at her ragged, scarred hooves, remembering when they were young and fresh, and moreover, when she could still fly.

It had been years since the last, ill-fated flight of Incarnadine, and the world had changed dramatically. No longer was it the Equestria that she remembered from her fillyhood. New Harmony was another beast altogether. Since the disappearance of the Celestial Diarchy, the Lady Steward Twilight Sparkle had turned the relatively small, benign country into a vast, expansionist empire, arms stretching out for thousands upon thousands of kilometers in any given direction.

Though there had originally been many in opposition to the armed expansion enforced by the Lady Steward, they were now few and far between. Many of the dissenters had been silenced in one way or another. At the thought, Rainbow curled her lip up into a disgusting snarl. "Who does she think she is?" she growled, stalking her way over to the small, rust-rimmed window in her spartan living quarters. In the distance, far up upon the mountain, lay the shining alabaster of Old Canterlot. Wealth, fame, influence; those were the currencies of OC. Far down below, all around Rainbow, were the slums of New Canterlot. Oil lamps and dirty smoke were the most ubiquitous truth, only barely edging out corruption.

Rainbow stayed by that small porthole-esque window for hours, simply staring out at the horizon and remembering what it was like to fly, whether under one's own power, or on an airship. She'd not experienced either for well over a decade. That fresh-faced Alliance recruit had come a long way to turn into the Rainbow of today. As the sun began to rise over the horizon and the airdocks of OC began to fill with new airships ready for top-notch, high-class servicing, Rainbow sighed, turning away and stepping into the same worn pair of leather overalls. The spanner that she slid into a belt loop, however, was different, as were the numerous other tools that she carried with her.

As a mechanic, she'd assumed the same role upon taking up residence in the slums of OC. Though her specialty was airships, she didn't get many chances to work on them anymore. The few captains in New Canterlot were content either to service their ships themselves, or to get them repaired in other cities. And so, Rainbow Dash, mechanical prodigy, was left stewing in her own resentment as she repaired dysfunctional heaters and scissor lifts with busted joints. She hadn't seen an airship's engine for years.


Sitting idle after fixing the mechanism for an automatic grindstone and collecting her paltry bits from the client, she closed her eyes, letting her mind wander again back to the day the Incarnadine had fallen.

The crunching sound of her right wing snapping backwards echoed in her own ears, and she rubbed the stumpy, twisted appendage with the memory. Perhaps if the Alliance had won the civil war against New Harmony, she'd be wearing one of those fancy new prosthetic rigs. She ached for the open sky. But with New Harmony's strict monitoring of rebellion and the registry requirements for every airship legally in the sky, and with her own poverty, she would have to register with the Ministry to get anywhere near a deck, and it wouldn't go well for them to find out that there were any Alliance supporters still alive.

After the war, and the Alliance's surrender, the Lady Steward had enacted a series of bloody purges, systematically obliterating any who openly professed association with the faction. Known colloquially as the Harmony Killings, they marked a chapter in the history of the country that the Lady Steward and her staff had been happy to wipe out of the history books. The standards of living in New Harmony, with the exception of a few slum towns such as New Canterlot, had skyrocketed. The overwhelming majority of the populace, while they may or may not have originally supported the coup that brought New Harmony’s administration to power, now concurred: life now was better than it had ever been before.

A knock at the door of Rainbow’s workshop brought her out of her reminiscence and she stood, plodding tiredly to the door and tossing it carelessly open. In all likelihood, it was another mundane project; another broken, antiquated autogun, salvaged from the trashpiles of OC in a desperate attempt to sell it and make enough money to move to a more affluent city.

The pony that walked in was covered in a black cloak. In the stuffy, hot environment that was the slums in late summer, that was odd in and of itself. But the strangest part wasn’t so much what they were wearing, but what they were bearing: dragging behind them in a cart was an engine. Rainbows eyes lit up like the sun and her posture changed suddenly from boredom to interest.

After a few seconds of silence from the pony, Rainbow coughed awkwardly before speaking in her raspy voice, “So...you bring that here to get it fixed?”

A nod.

“...Any deadlines?”

A nod.

“...Would you care to tell me what they are?”

For the first time, the pony spoke, revealed by the voice to be a mare, soft-spoken and dulcet. “I need to have this fixed within the next week. Can you manage that?”

Rainbow nodded sharply. “Ha, I guess you’ve never seen me work. I’ll have it done in three days, tops. Two,” she added with a shaky, disused grin, “if you pay in advance. A hundred bits, plus another twenty for parts and expenses. If you can’t pay that much, you can pay me back over a few…months…”

She trailed off. Having lived in the slums for years, she was unaccustomed now to seeing any amount of money in one place. Thus, when the mare poured a pouch of gleaming golden bits onto the counter, far more than a hundred in value, she simply stared at it for a good five seconds before shooting her gaze up to the silent customer, eyebrows furrowed.

“...You don’t live here. Nobody who does has that much money to throw around on fixing an engine all at once. Who are you?”

The mare chuckled. “Now, now. What would be the fun if I told you that?” Leaving the cart and engine in the middle of the disorganized workshop, she began to trot out.

“Hang on!” called Rainbow, voice carrying a slightly accusatory tone, “If I’m fixing your stuff, you have to at least tell me your name!”

The mare turned, the hood of the cloak shadowing all of her face but the gleaming white teeth of her smile. “Just call me Bell.” With that, she turned to the door. A field of sparkling magic enveloped the knob turned it, easing the door open as she slipped out.

For a moment, Rainbow just sat there, dumbfounded by what had just happened, and by the enormous pile of money that sat on her grimy counter. Blowing the grayish-rainbow mane hair, color leached from lack of care and from the oil and ash that caked it, away from her eyes with a huff of breath, she let a smile crawl across her face as she tossed the spanner into the air, letting it spin a few times before deftly catching it.

“Well then,” she crowed, excitement in her voice that had been missing for a long time, “let’s get to work!”

---

A few kilometers away, hours later, and seeming to soar among the clouds, the gleaming white city of Old Canterlot opened before the black-cloaked pony. Careful to avoid any sight, she slipped the stained garment off, revealing the gleaming white coat and perfectly-styled indigo mane beneath. Staring up at the moon and stars that hung in the sky, she sighed lightly, her voice returning to its natural cadence from the tone it had taken when talking to that brutish mechanic. “Eughh…stepping into that horrid city makes me feel dirty…”

She jumped suddenly, yelping before covering her her own muzzle, as a voice filtered out from the shadow beside her: “Ah, Miss, you've returned?”

Pressing a hoof to her chest, she shakily exhaled a long breath. “Please, Butterball, don't frighten me like that. You know I don't want ponies to find out about my...excursions.” As an afterthought, she added, “and please, how many times have I told you to just call me Rarity?”

Her chunky yellow-orange stallion assistant chuckled, thick muzzle curled into a grin. “Well, Miss, forgive me for not referring to you by name when you've just come back from New Canterlot.”

“Well,” Rarity muttered to herself, “that's fair…” Smiling with a mixture of gratitude and apology, she placed a hoof on his shoulder. “Thank you, Butter. That's very good of you.”

He reciprocated the shoulder hoof, returning the smile with one of his own. “Come on, Miss Belle. Let's return home, hmm?”

Nodding, she slid past him, silently picking her way back towards the Belle manor.

---

The great symmetrical mass of the Belle manor soared above them as Butterball held open the ornate wrought-iron gate for Rarity. Nodding courteously, she stepped through, entering the silent gardens that had been faithfully tended by her mother for decades prior. Now, with her death and the subsequent hole opened in Rarity’s heart thereby, they had spiraled out of control, plants running rampant upon each other and vines bearing exotic flowers sprawling meters from their allotments, perfuming the air with their heady, sickly-sweet scent.

The explosive growth seemed to not bother her, her eyes never crossing it as she daintily flourished along the elaborately carved stone walk that led to the entrance. A great white colonnade lined by fluted marble columns in the Bucephalonion style led to an immense door of rich dark oak wood, graven with a grand image of the sun inlaid in platinum and gold. Pausing for a few moments to allow Butterball to catch up with her, she wrapped the door’s handles in a brilliant blue glow of magic and pulled gently.

The oiled hinges slid open without a whisper and she stepped inside, pausing to admit Butterball before the door once again glowed blue, closing behind them in eerie silence.

She dismissed her aide with a single nod before trotting onwards, brushing through the immaculately-kept mansion’s many rooms without a second thought. Finally, she arrived at a small, plain door, removed by orders of magnitude by the opulence surrounding her. Looking left and right to ensure she wasn’t being watched by any servants, she unlocked it and stealthily slid within, closing it behind her with a faint click.

---

Even further above, kilometers up, and the next morning, a great maroon airship pushed through the sky, the gentle thrum of the props and the hissing of the wind the only sounds to be heard on deck. From beneath came animated conversation from what seemed a great number of ponies. Beyond all of those sounds, sitting deep down in the furthest cabin, hat pulled down over her face to keep from looking out of the porthole windows, an orange earth pony fought to control her airsickness. Face tinted a shade of green, she groaned every so often, feeling as though her stomach was ripping itself inside out.

Down the hall, she heard the clanking of the door opening and the wind moaned down into her room, sending a brief shiver across her body as a golden-yellow stallion walked in, inclining his head to her.

"Just a courtesy announcement, Miss...Applejack" he said, checking a clipboard held in his magic and nodding gently. "We'll be arriving in Old Canterlot within the hour.

"Thank Celestia," muttered Applejack, irritated voice muffled by the hat over her face, "I'm about ready to hurl."

The crewmember smiled sympathetically. "Ah, land pony, hmm? Don't worry too much, first time on an airship is always the hardest." With that pithy quote, he left Applejack's quarters, closing the door behind him. The airship shuddered suddenly as it descended and the hat flew from Applejack's face, leaving her unprotected from the view.

The disorientation of seeing the clouds beneath her instead of above nearly had her vomiting instantly. However, she did manage to hold on to her small lunch of bread and apples for long enough to wrinkle her muzzle in disgust.

"Where I come from," she groused to herself, glaring down at the layer of smog that carpeted what seemed to be the poorer part of the city, "the air is clean. This is just...wrong."

Then she remembered that she felt like someone had bucked her in the stomach, and returned to staring at the wall with her hat over her face, resolving to continue doing so until they touched down and she could feel the ground beneath her hooves again.

After an hour that seemed like a century to Applejack, she felt the airship grind to a halt. Daring to don her hat properly and stand up again, she found that she no longer felt as ill, and walked to the exit. As she climbed the staircase to the deck, in line with several other ponies who'd purchased a flight to Canterlot, she tapped her heavy rear hooves impatiently against the metal plating, quickly garnering annoyed hisses from the others waiting to disembark. Finally, she stomped through the door.

Her senses were promptly assaulted with the majestic Central Airdock of Old Canterlot. White stone and gold metal twined around each other, forming a celestial architecture in which the motif of the sun featured prominently. The scent of the food being sold by vendors all around the massive open space was an amalgamation of all the glorious tastes to be imagined, and the air was sweet like honey. Through it all was the noise. AJ had spent the grand majority of her life on a farm, and while she'd not isolated herself, she'd never been anywhere quite like this. It was overwhelming; all the ponies talking to each other created a cacophony of unparalleled intensity.

All of these, though, paled in comparison to the airships.

Great and small, sleek and blocky, monochrome and vividly-painted, the variety was endless. Though a section was devoted to the uniform silver-and-gold of the Imperial Navy, much of it was open to any who paid for docking privileges, including the airship she'd just disembarked, the Ash Runner. The sheer variety boggled the mind. Especially the mind of a pony who, even in this modernized era, had never been on an airship.

AJ's knees wobbled, partially from fear and partially from awe, as she carefully crossed the gangplank connecting the Ash Runner to the skydock's platform, an immense construct made entirely of white marble and cantilevered against the cliff face in an ingenious display of engineering prowess. The stone beneath her hooves brought her a modicum of comfort and she breathed deeply upon standing firm upon it, closing her eyes and making a visible effort to calm down, meeting with middling success. Though she could still feel the nervousness boiling in her gut, she was no longer sweating bullets, and the what sickness remained from her airship sojourn quickly faded.

"Alright, AJ," she murmured to herself, taking several slow, methodical steps forward before accelerating into a normal walking pace, "jus' remember why you're here. The family's countin' on you."

As she departed the airdock, a row of mechanic shops stretched out, leading nearly to the Celestial Citadel. It teemed with ponies, many of whom wore the badges of Imperial soldiers. She gazed at them with some admiration. Though she'd been groomed from a young age to take over the family farm, she'd wished as a younger mare that she could join those keepers of order, fighting against the Alliance insurrection. It had been many years, and such fanciful dreams had faded into her work, but that didn't mean she couldn't remember them occasionally.

Before her, she caught sight of a small, scrawny pegasus with a mane that might have once been rainbow staggering out of one of the stores, an inconspicuous one labeled as 'Steam Vent's Mechanical Wonders And Sundries' in ornate script. She crouched under the immense weight of a pyramid of large brass-and-glass cylinders filled with a pale, viscous, glowing blue fluid, face set in a grimace. Though she was unsure about the other side, Applejack could see the disfigured remains of a wing and pity pulled her over to the mare. "Hey there," she approached, "you want some help with those?"

The pegasus' response was a look that chilled her. It was abjectly furious. AJ stepped back some, surprised by the clarity of the emotion more than the nature of it. Her rose eyes glittered harshly like pale fire. “I don't need your help.”

Continuing without stop, the pegasus hauled her heavy load onwards, her glare still locked to AJ’s eyes until she had to navigate the crowd. Ponies parted around her, crinkling their snouts as though she smelled bad. A few whispers from the crowd filtered into her ears, things like ugh, filthy slum dog and really, must she pollute our air with her stink? AJ paused. If that was what passed for treating those with less affluence well around here, she was glad she’d never lived in Canterlot. The more she thought about what those ponies had said about that pegasus, the more angry she became.

She continued on the road to the Celestial Citadel, any semblance of a good mood thoroughly ruined. By the time she made it to the gates she was in a high dudgeon, half-jogging as she approached the guards. Forcing herself to talk in a reasonable tone, she identified herself to them, stating that she had an appointment as audience with the Lady Steward, before entering the palace.

It had taken her an absurd amount of time and washing through kilometers of bureaucracy and red tape to get anypony important to listen to a farmer, but with endless persistence and stubbornness, along with a few well-placed bribes, she'd managed, over a period of several months, to work her way up the government's ladder enough to come into contact with Dutchess Belle, the assistant to the Lady Steward. In total contrast to all she'd heard of the Canterlot nobility, she'd been most accommodating, and from that point, it had been relatively simple to arrange an audience with the ruler of New Harmony.

If anything, the palace was even more gorgeous on the inside than the outside. The hushed halls had a silent splendor, red carpeting juxtaposed perfectly with the white floor and gold candelabras hanging from the ceiling. Some detached part of AJ's mind wondered how many candles they went through at this place on a single day.

As that thought concluded, she arrived at a massive door guarded by a set of eight soldiers who silently moved aside, allowing her to pass. It was an eerie phenomenon, their silent synchronicity and their decorated finery; she felt underdressed, wearing nothing but her scuffed brown Stetson.

At what seemed some unheard consent, the two doors opened, gliding inwards to the throne hall of the citadel. As AJ stepped in and looked around, she couldn't help but gasp, letting her lower jaw drop open. Though the stained-glass windows and ornately-embroidered red-gold rug were impressive, the centerpiece was by far more so: an enormous golden throne suspended on a single pole, surrounded by the rings of a great orrery. The two golden rings each held a single orb, great spheres of precious gems: polished topaz for the sun, gleaming diamond for the moon. At the center, the headpiece of the throne, a final orb was a perfect model of Equus complete with clouds, created from an elaborate mosaic of emerald, sapphire and pearl.

Less impressive at face value than these planetary models was the pony that sat at the center of them. Though she'd never seen the Lady Steward, AJ had heard stories about her, from the believable to the fantastic: that she was a prodigy of magic and other such rumors, ranging to those that stated she'd been born and raised in another plane of existence. All, however, carried the same common thread: her magical might was unparalleled, and she was perhaps the most beautiful pony to have ever been born.

Nothing she'd heard had prepared her for the truth: a relatively unremarkable lavender unicorn, face stuck in a large leatherbound tome. AJ could only stare. The uncomfortable tableau lasted for a few seconds more before a white unicorn stepped out from a side passageway, nearly dropping the stack of books in her magical grasp at seeing AJ simply standing there.

"Lady Steward!" she called, her voice clearly a product of long practice and searching for the perfect diplomacy tone, smooth and soothing, "Your audience has arrived!" Twilight Sparkle looked up from her book with a sharp movement, catching sight of AJ and smiling disarmingly.

"Ah, Applejack, was it? I’ve heard of the extents to which you’ve gone to see me today, and I must say, I’m impressed. You’ve not let anything stop you, hmm?”


AJ huffed out a breath. "That's right. If you’re going to do something, you should see it through...um, your Ladyship..." she stammered, trying her best to sound polite and ingratiating and not like she was lecturing her ruler. "Last year another tax was imposed on the sale of fresh produce. I get that you need more bits to keep growin' New Harmony, Ladyship, but there's only so much you can take from us farmers before we stop bein' able to get by. I'm here to deliver a petition to you to roll back this latest tax." Out of her plain brown saddlebag she pulled a thick sheaf of papers covered in tiny writing, a petition that must have contained several thousands of signatures at the very least. "So really, if I didn’t do this, my family wouldn’t be doin’ so well. There are some things you jus’ have to do.”

Twilight Sparkle's magical grip encased it, gently easing it from Applejack's grip as she brought it to her face to read. "I see. So, Applejack, you're asking for a 5% reduction on tax rates for fresh fruit and vegetables? Let's see, that would bring it down to what...a 23% total tax? That does seem a bit steep. Consider it changed, and thank you for bringing this to my attention. The Council occasionally makes...rash decisions." Her face shifted into a wearied smile. "Take my greatest apologies back to Ponyville with you. I spent a summer there once, quite a few years back. Give Granny Smith Apple my regards."

AJ smiled wide, eyes lighting up like the sun. "Will do, your Ladyship! Mighty good of you to remember us little folks up there on the top, and I'll be sure to say 'hi' to Granny for you!" With that, she trotted happily back to the entrance. As the doors slammed closed behind her, the Lady Steward's smile winked out and the petition, still in her magical grip, burst into flames.

"Dutchess Belle!" she barked. Rarity came out from the shadows behind the throne and wound around until she was looking up into the Lady Steward's eyes.

"What is it, Your Ladyship?"

"Don't let that pony get anywhere near the airdock. She’s not leaving Canterlot," Twilight said, eyes narrowed and staring at the door as she scattered the ashen remains of the papers to the wind. "Oh, and tell the janitors to clean the rug. I can practically see her muddy hoofprints."

"Right away, Your Ladyship." With that, Rarity slunk away, disappearing back into the side passage from whence she'd come. Her face was set in a deep frown. "Almost done," she whispered to herself, "almost done. Then I can get out of here."

---

As AJ walked towards the airdock, her buoyant mood had returned. See! Anything was possible with enough stick-to-it-iveness. She was so pleased with herself that she didn’t notice the much more subdued mood that inhabited the market street. She was only a brief distance from turning a corner into the line of sight of a guard checkpoint when a hoof rammed itself into her mouth and a second gripped her around the neck, pulling her backwards. Panicking, she lashed out instinctively with her hind legs, striking open air and succeeding only in unbalancing herself. She was pulled upright into a chokehold. No choke followed, however. Only a voice.

“Thank Celestia I was able to get to you in time!” hissed the Dutchess, sweat running down her forehead. “A few more meters and you would be beyond my help!”

Applejack’s brow furrowed. The Dutchess took that as confusion and shook her head. “This is neither the time nor the place. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but you, Applejack, are in gravest danger. As we speak, guards are combing the whole of Old Canterlot, searching for you. I’m taking you to New Canterlot. I’ve a way to get you out of the city, but it won’t quite be ready until I head down there, and it’s safer anyway. Fewer guards; they don’t like it down there. Do you understand me?”

AJ nodded and the Dutchess released her. She immediately sprang up, glaring. “Alright, Dutchess Belle. Start talkin’. What's goin' on? Gimme some proof.”

The Dutchess groaned. “I'd love to explain, but there's no time. You're going to have to bear with me a moment. But here's some proof. And call me Rarity.Dutchess is a role, not a name.” A sheet of paper fluttered over to AJ. Upon it was printed a picture of her face, under the word “TRAITOR” in bold black print. She gulped. How had they even printed it so quickly? How far in advance had this been planned?

“Alright. Sorry about this,” Rarity said, picking Applejack up bodily in a field of magic, swaddling her in a cloak of black fabric until there was no fur left showing and wrapping a rope around it. “Can you breathe?”

There was a muffled “mhmm” from AJ, and sighing in relief.

“Good. Get comfy, it's going to be a while until you're out of there. Be still, and be silent, and I'm sorry.”

With that, she lifted the ‘parcel’ in her magic and donned a similar black cloak. Sliding through the gaps between the buildings, she made her way through the less-crowded side streets of Old Canterlot.

Inside of the bundle, sweaty and itchy, entrapped in claustrophobic darkness. Applejack’s head was uncomfortably crushed against her hat. She wished Rarity had asked her before wrapping her up so she could've taken it off. Thinking about this was largely an attempt to not think about what was going on. Why was she being searched for? What had she done? What had she said to the Lady Steward?

After some time, during which the bundle grew even more claustrophobic, she heard Rarity’s soft hoofsteps cease. A muttering was around her on all sides, murmuring faintly. Of what, she couldn't say. After two or three minutes of anxious stillness, there was a loud sound of a steam door slamming open. The clattering of hooves began again, including Rarity’s, lasting for no more than a few moments before it ceased again. The loud shuttering sound rang out again, this time behind her, and then AJ was assaulted with a most peculiar feeling. Her stomach dropped as though she was falling, but she felt no other sensations of that sort. The claustrophobia she'd been feeling increased suddenly by orders of magnitude, and only through supreme willpower was she able to stop herself from writhing. Her breathing grew heavier, and her heart hammered in her throat. This continued for two or so minutes before it ceased.

The shutter-step-shutter sound sequence played out again, and then the noise of the crowd faded. An hour more or so passed, during which Applejack became ever more twitchy, before they came to a stop in as silent a place as AJ had heard since she'd come to Canterlot, at least past the heartbeat in her ears. The sweaty black peeled away from her face suddenly, revealing a smog-gray sky and a dirty alley. She breathed deeply and raggedly, paying no attention to the thick, near-sticky air. “Where...are...we...going...?” She gasped out, hyperventilating.

Rarity pointed at the grubby steel door set into the wall. “We're already here.” She lifted up her hoof to knock, glancing at AJ. “When we get in, let me do the talking. I don't know a whole lot about this mechanic, but I know she's prickly.”

---

Knock knock knock

Rainbow frowned, wiping oil from her face. “Yeah, come on in!”

The door tossed open and the black-cloaked client from the day before rushed in, followed by a bedraggled-looking orange earth pony. Rainbow sighed. “Ok, look, lady. I get that you might be impatient, but…” her frown deepened as she looked over the earth pony again, “Wait, hold on. Don't I know you?”

She sighed. “Yeah, you seen me before. I was up in the market a few hours back. You were carryin’ some thingers on your back, and when I offered to help, you glared me down. M’name’s AJ.”

Rainbow shrugged, vaguely apologetic. “Yeah, sorry about that, AJ. Ponies don't like NCers very much up in OC, so I just assumed you were gonna take them and drop them. It wouldn't have been the first time it's happened.”


“Anyway,” she continued, rounding on Rarity, “like I said, it's not done. Better than it was before for sure, but I wouldn't toss this into an airship for a good few hours, of work still.”

Rarity flipped back the hood, shaking her head wildly. “There's no time left. You'll have to finish it once we get there.”

Rainbow’s eyes narrowed. “Get where?”

“I can't tell you yet,” ground out Rarity, “but I guarantee to you that it's important.”

The surly pegasus leaned against the wall. “Oh, sure, as if this place wasn't dangerous enough already, now ponies are trying to drag me off to who knows where. Save it.”

Rarity ground her teeth. “Fine. You want to know why it's important? Thirty four, eighteen, five-oh-one. The sky is falling up.”

Rainbow’s eyes opened wide. “How do you know that?”

Rarity coughed out some strangled laughter, the faded ghost of a smile creeping across her face. “Come with me and I'll tell you.”

Rainbow screwed up her face, clearly torn. “Fine! But the second I see something that's not right, I'm laying you both out and getting out of there!”

Rarity nodded, chuckling faintly. “That's fine. Let's go.”

Then the clomping of a series of heavy hooves came into earshot and Rarity’s eyes widened. Gritting her teeth, she slammed her eyes shut as a fog of blue energy spilled from her horn. It crawled over the three of them, and as it covered them entirely the still-open door was filled with ponies in Imperial uniform, several holding hoofheld autoguns primed to fire. One, whose silver and gold uniform was trimmed with purple, strolled forward, brows furrowed, eyes skating over the confused duo and the straining unicorn. “Spread out!” he barked, “they may still be here!”

After a tense few minutes, the Imperials gathered at the door, discussing quietly for a few moments before the leader sighed heavily. “Alright. Move out. Let's comb the rest of NC.” With that, they filed out, closing the door behind them.

As soon as they were out of earshot the blue mist receded and Rarity collapsed to the rusted floor, wheezing and gasping as though she hadn't breathed throughout the entire time. At length, she was able to get a few words through the gasping: “I...I thought...they wouldn't come to NC that fast…”

AJ frowned. “You never told me why they're so dead-set on bringin’ me in. What's goin’ on?”

Heaving herself to her hooves, Rarity staggered slightly, breathing deeply, before steadying herself. “I'm sure even a rube like you has put this together by now,” this prompted an irritated grumble from AJ, “but the Lady Steward has no intention in lowering taxes on food. So she can't have somepony going back and sowing rumors, can she?”

AJ paled and took a step back as Rainbow walked up to Rarity. “Alright, so we're doing this to get AJ out? What's my part?”

A little grin touched Rarity’s face and she gestured to the engine. “How close is that to done?”

Rainbow shrugged. “Honestly, It's almost there, I just have to get the right balance of thaums going into the vaporothaumic accelerators. I won't need any more parts, just my wrench.”

Rarity nodded decisively. “Alright, then retrieve whatever you want to keep from this...residence. We're getting out.” She groaned as she sputtered a few more sparks of magic out, levitating the engine into the cart that still remained and hitching it to her shoulders. “Stay low.”

After Rainbow gathered what paltry things she considered valuable, she joined them near the door. Rarity was anxious to go. She was about to leave, having donned again the black cloak, when AJ muscled past her, dressed in an identical garment Rarity had brought with her, forcibly unhitching the cart and replacing it on her body instead. “Let me take that. You're tuckered out, Rarity, and you just saved my life twice over. ‘Least I can do is pull the cart.”

Rarity smiled tersely. “Thank you.”

AJ nodded silently and motioned for her to lead on.

They did their best to move towards the platforms to Old Canterlot without encountering anypony, and for the most part, they found success. There was a single close call that ended up with them all huddling beneath in an alley and desperately hoping they wouldn’t be noticed, but altogether, things had worked out reasonable well.

“Alright,” muttered Rarity as they arrived at the steam-powered elevator shaft that ran through the mountain, “this is going to be the dicey part. Leave the talking to me.” Coughing a few times to focus her voice, she removed the cloak, using it to carefully cover the engine, and primped her mane and tail a few times before sauntering towards the guards stationed at the entrance. “Ah, my dear stallions,” she cooed, her perfectly modulated voice immediately grabbing their attentions, “would you be so kind as to let me and the hired help pass through? We’re carrying delicate cargo that must be delivered posthaste.”

The first of the guards nodded eagerly. The second, though, didn’t seem quite as keen. “Delicate cargo, huh?” he grunted. “Let’s see it, then.”

“Oh, I’m ever so sorry, Sir, but it’s a rare species of insect from the jungle caves to the south that dies when it sees light. It must remain covered. I’m sure an intelligent pony such as you understands.”

His eyes remained narrowed for a moment longer before he sighed, dropping his heavy head. “Fine, fine. Bring it through.” Holding out a small pouch, he opened up, letting Rarity deposit several gleaming coins within.

Rainbow and AJ rounded the corner, being careful not to let the fabric slip off of the cart. Heart hammering in her chest, Rainbow occupied herself by pretending to listen to the ‘insects.’ When they passed, however, the first guard, who’d been so happy to let them pass, cocked his head at her.

“Hey...do I know you…?”

It took a moment for Rainbow to recover from the jolt of being called out, and she cleared her throat awkwardly. “Well,” she started, “I’ve lived here for a while now…”

“Ah, I got it! Spectral Blaze, right? You flew for the Empire on the Stonecutter in the war, right? My cousin’s uncle said you had a rainbow mane. He wasn’t kidding! What are you doing living down here in this dump?”

She nodded at him. “Oh, yeah, that’s me. Good old Stonecutter, hahaha. Well, life got hard after the war...” Trailing off and desperately hoping that she'd not have to answer any more questions, she walked past. They made it to the platforms with no further hassle and Rarity cranked on a large lever mounted on a steampipe running up the wall. Rainbow’s eyes trailed up it, following it into the blackness that rushed up the mountain’s smooth-carved bowels before them. Then a heart-stopping jolt rocked the platform, followed by the door ramming shut behind them.

AJ swore, running to the door, slamming her hooves against it for a moment before Rarity and Rainbow pulled her back.

“Whoa, AJ! Calm down, that’s normal!” Rainbow shouted, yanking the farmpony back to the center of the brass construct. After a few more seconds of silence, it suddenly shot skyward. AJ ended up plastered to the floor, totally unprepared for the jolt. Rainbow had only ridden the platforms up once, so she was rather unstable. Rarity was totally unaffected.

A minute or so later, the ride was at an end, and AJ peeled herself off of the polished metal. “Never...again…” she ground out, slowly shaking herself back to a resemblance of steadyness and reattaching herself to the mechanical burden. And not a moment too soon, as the door before them slammed open, revealing, in stark contrast to what they’d come out of, the gleaming, immaculate streets of Old Canterlot.

Quickly and quietly, they wound through the scenic boulevards until they reached an enormous mansion. Rarity, glancing furtively around, grabbed the cloak off of the cart once more. “From here, I need to take the engine. My magic should be recovered enough to carry it where it needs to go.” Leaving little room for discussion, she grasped it in her telekinetic grip, wincing a bit with effort but remaining firm. The three left the cart outside at Rarity’s warning: “Just leave it. It will track mud into the house, and we shan’t be needing it again anyway.”

The garden was even more chaotically spectacular in the fading crimson of the setting sun, the explosive hue highlighting the flowers brought from all over the world. Applejack stared openly at all the plant life around her, clearly at a loss for words. Rainbow did much the same as Rarity: with only a cursory glance and a brief appreciative sniff, she stared straight ahead at the colonnade, and the door at the end of it. Wrapping the handle in her magical grip, Rarity turned to them.

“Once we’re inside, we’re quiet, we’re quick, and we talk to nobody. You’ll know when we get where we need to go.” With that, she slid the door open, darting inside and carrying the cumbersome metal-and-magic lump behind her as gracefully as possible.

Rainbow and AJ shared a brief glance and a nod before plunging after, entering a world none had ever seen. The rich mahogany flooring and perfect carpeting, along with the venerably smooth stone walls and myriad paintings and golden ornaments, had them staring like the inexperienced visitors to this opulent world that they were. Rarity, by contrast, had clearly lived in this environment for years. She spared no glance, rushing through room after lush room and leaving no time for discussion. Eventually she stopped, sparing only a brief moment to unlock a small, somewhat out-of-place door, hurrying the others inside.

As she latched the door behind them once again, she exhaled heavily. “Thank Celestia we made it through that without any questions.”

From then on, descending a narrow, roughly-hewn stone staircase, she proceeded at a much more leisurely pace. The extended use of magic on such a delicate, heavy object was clearly taking a toll on her, but she continued, despite Applejack offering to carry it. Finally, they reached the end of the staircase, passing through a small vestibule that ended in a pair of plate-steel doors. Only then did she let the engine float gently to the ground, a faint smile hovering on her face.

“I’ve been preparing for something like this for years, and this,” she prodded the engine, “is the last part I’ve needed.” With that, she threw the doors open, revealing the scene inside.

It was a tremendously large hangar-space carved out of the mountain itself, the last wall carpeted with a series of suspiciously-glowing objects. Across the walls were a series of workbenches which, in stark contrast to Rainbow’s workshop, had hundreds of different tools, some incomprehensible to AJ, fastidiously arranged upon them. Off to the side, discarded, lay a pile of old Cadance regulator skeletons. They were dark, the magical essence in them poured carefully into a pair of large glass tanks hooked by hose up to a metalfusor. The air was suffused with the metallic tang of copper and brass, and the faint burnt-bread smell of concentrated aether. AJ shivered in the cold of the mountain.

By far the most dominant element, though, was the skeletal airship that lay in the center.

Carpeted by weld scars showing where it had been pieced together from hundreds of different components, it was mostly complete. A single hatch was open in the side, showing a single ugly blank space: where the final main engine would sit.

Rarity carefully levitated the part in question the last seventy or so meters, letting it come to rest by the opening, and nodded to the mechanic. “I've had to buy the parts to this off of a huge amount of vendors, and I've gotten pieces fixed at almost every mechanic in Old Canterlot. They ask fewer questions. Rainbow, if you would?”

Rainbow was startled out of her momentary daze. It had been well over a decade since she’d seen an airship this close, and her face was covered in a giddy smile that she’d not shown for nearly as long. She saluted. “Right away, Cap!”

Rarity laughed to herself as the pegasus dove into her work. “Hey, Rares,” the pegasus called, “can you lift this up for me?”

“Don't call me Rares,” she responded, the laugh still in her voice, as she levitated the engine into its place.

Rainbow was too distracted to be upset by the request as she dove into the airship’s guts. “Just...connect this right here, and…” she indistinctly muttered as she worked. AJ chuckled right beside Rarity. Only a few minutes later, Rainbow popped out, breathing heavily. “We’re good to go!”

Rarity started forwards eagerly, but AJ stepped in front, holding her back with a frown. “Hold your ponies, Rainbow. I thought you said the engine didn' work right yet.”

Rainbow shrugged, supremely uncaring. “I mean, yeah, there are a few kinks to work out, but it's not like we'll get anywhere without turning it on first.” Ignoring AJ’s warnings, she clambered aboard the airship and cranked the ignition on the helm. AJ ducked, pulling Rarity down with her and bracing herself for an explosion.

There was a gentle thrumming.

Slowly, she uncovered her face and took her hoof from the indignant Rarity’s neck, the only loud sound being the exultant whooping that came from the helm. "Haha! Even after all these years, I've still got it!" The limp cloth pouch holding the gas envelopes began to swell, slowly coming to swollen attention above the craft. Rainbow hopped down from the helm, vibrating with excitement, and sprinted towards them. "She's purring like a kitten!"

There was a loud, slow knock at the metal doors. All three ponies froze.

A brief time passed in total silence before the knocking came again, faster and more insistent. "Dutchess Rarity Belle, we know you're in there!"

Rarity began to trot uncertainly towards the door, motioning silently for the others to get on the airship. "Tell Rainbow to get her spinning up," she whispered to AJ. "Yes, what is it?" she called loudly to the door.

The response was immediate and uncompromising. "You have been accused and convicted of harboring a traitor to New Harmony. Turn yourself, the traitor, who goes by the name of 'Applejack,' and any accomplices in, or we will be compelled to use force."

Rarity gulped, feeling the gulf of the unknown that loomed before her. All she had to do was turn AJ and Rainbow in, and her political standing would take a slight hit, but remain largely intact. As the Lady Steward’s aide, she had enough clout and contacts to assure her of that. All she had to do was open the door.

"I'm terribly sorry, officer," she began, feeling blood beginning to boil in her brain at the decision that was now hurtling out of her control down the tracks of her mind like a runaway train, "but I'm afraid I'm going to have to tell you to kiss my plot!"

With that, she lifted a glass cover on a blood-red button on the wall, slamming her hoof into it. The totally illegal objects on the far wall flashed twice in quick succession, then exploded in a coruscating halo of cyan light, ripping an opening in the wall to the light of the sky outside. It's waiting for me. She ran towards the airship, shrieking "Go! Go!" as loudly as she could. As she climbed aboard, she could feel its thrumming increase to a deep-throated roar, and it began to inch forward, quickly accelerating as it nosed towards the clouds ahead.

She heard the voice on the other side of the door give a muffled order and the door was blasted inwards, the Imperial guard dashing after the small airship. It had already picked up too much speed, though, and they were left in the slipstream as it flew. A few fruitless firearm rounds zipped past it, but it soared through the maw in the mountainside largely unimpeded. Rainbow strained against the speed, feeling it go faster than Incarnadine ever had, and her face was set in a huge grin as she looked ahead, once more feeling the wind abrading her face. She whooped with fierce, savage joy, and pushed the throttle lever as fast as it could go, relishing the engine's vibrations that she could feel through the deck.

"Can you see me now, guys?" She howled, still grinning as tears streamed down her face. She flew on, towards the setting sun, flying west into the fading, dusky horizon. Let New Harmony pursue if they would, it mattered not. The future waited.

A World Of Open Skies

Author's Note:

And so it begins.