• Published 21st Feb 2017
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The Skyla Pseudonym - iisaw



Young Flurry Heart has no interest at all in being a prim and proper princess, and would much rather have wild and dangerous adventures like her Aunt Twilight.

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4 This Isn't What I Had in Mind

Chapter Four

This Isn't What I Had in Mind

I was actually pretty impressed by the thoroughness of Flurry Heart's planning, once she had admitted the extent of her little escapade. She had magically scrubbed all the text except my signature from some of my letters to make the phony release order for Nebula and the orders for Mayor Buzzy. She "borrowed"—her word, not mine—the core nexus from Sunburst's scrying mirror to get around the three-alicorn lock on our home dimension. She even employed a suitable disguise and nom de guerre to avoid any chance of recriminations reflecting back on her parents or the Empire, though the name itself...

"What was that name you chose, again?" I asked her. I knew full well what it was; I just wanted to hear her say it.

"Captain Skyla…" She hesitated before coming out with the complete name, and I do believe that there was the faintest hint of a blush on her cheeks. "Skyla Windsong of Shadows Dancing."

"Mmn," I said. Nothing more, but it was the way that I said it.

Flurry scowled. "Aunt Luna said that in your junior year at the academy, you called yourself Darkness Nightshade and wore black—"

"And the crew," I rushed on, my self-indulgent smugness evaporating.[1] "How did you manage to find ponies that were willing to steal a princess's airship and fly to another world?"
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[1] I made a mental note to have a word with dear Luna about sharing pillow-talk.
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She shrugged. "They're mostly friends. Fencing partners and some crew from Mother's yacht."

That explained their less than stellar performance in the face of… well, me. All stallions, too, I couldn't help but notice. I was thankful that Flurry hadn't yet consciously realized (and weaponized) the effect she had on the opposite sex.

"I didn't really steal Nebula," she continued. "I was going to return her after I'd had a little adventure. I thought you understood! I thought you'd be on my side! But no, you agreed with Mother and didn't even consider—"

"I am on your side, Flurry," I said, quietly enough that she had to derail her incipient rant to hear me. "I would gladly have taken you on a little clandestine jaunt to Zebrica or Neighsia. But I knew that it was an argument I couldn't win with Cadance. All it would have led to was hurt feelings and resentment."

Flurry sighed and hung her head. "Instead it led to this! Why does everything always have to go wrong for me?"

I had enough of a grasp of the workings of the teenage mind to realize how useless it would be to point out that nearly everything imaginable had gone right for her. Flurry was one of the most beautiful and powerful mares in existence, she was heir to an Empire, and her impulsive High Crime of air-piracy was likely to be punished by no more than losing her desserts for a week.

"When we get back, I think it would be a good idea to have a serious talk with your parents and Celestia," I said. "I'll keep my horn out of it, because I'm sure to do more harm than good, but I will make it understood that I think you'll truly benefit from… an apprenticeship, shall we say. Nothing dangerous, just some foreign travel and experience not being a princess."

Flurry sniffed and forced a smile. "Thanks, I guess. But how are we going—" She looked up at me then, and grimaced and broke off. "Sorry, but it's going to take a while to get used to… Aunt Darkness Nightshade."

"Captain Skyla Windsong was a bit of a shock for me, as well," I said dryly.

She gave me another sheepish grin, and in that instant I forgave her for everything. "So… the gate closed behind us. That wasn't supposed to happen. How are we going to get out of here?" She gave me a thoughtful look. "I bet you've got a plan, right?"

"Yes," I said, being careful not to grin. "The plan is to wait here until we're rescued."

"What? You don't have some clever way to get the gate back open or something? Don't you have one of your famous mechanisms, or—"

"I have only what I left in my travelling kit from my last voyage, I'm afraid. I might be able to work something out, but in three days, when I don't return, Celestia is bound to send out patrols to look for me. And that's only if Baroness Buzzy hasn't sent off a message already. They'll figure out what happened and easily open the gate from the other side. All we have to do is stay near the arch and wait."

"That doesn't sound like a lot of fun."

I bit my tongue. Metaphorically. With the teeth I was sporting at the time, to do so literally would have involved rather a lot of blood. What I am saying is that it took an effort to refrain from mentioning that my cabin had a very well-stocked little library. "Well, maybe in the meanwhile, we can have some flying lessons? I'm pretty sure I can get Nebula's engines working properly again."

"I've piloted the imperial yacht several times," she said with a sigh.

After another metaphorical chomp, I casually said, "Did they ever let you do high speed evasive maneuvers?"

Her eyes went wide. "Really? Oh, you're the best, Auntie Darkness!"

I made up my mind right then that my darling niece was going to experience the worst air sickness of her life, or my name wasn't Twilight Sparkle.

The engines were a simple but inelegant fix. The telegraph itself was purely mechanical and would have worked on a completely non-magic world. The engines had purpose-built waveguides coupled with highly charged ruby crystals and a simple valve that fed mana directly into the engraved matrix on each driveshaft. They depended on their own power source and weren't affected by the meager supply of the world itself. They, too, would have worked on any world where only the usual laws of physics held sway. It was the magical linkages from the telegraph to the engines that were crippled by the lack of mana flow.

I could have created physical linkages if I had my usual strength, or laboriously cobbled them together out of spare parts, but the quickest solution was to assign a pony to each engine and have them watch the telegraph needles, then manually cant the engine and turn the valves as indicated. It was exactly the system that was used on old steam-powered craft.

I would not have liked to depend on such an inaccurate method in actual combat, but for practice, it was good enough.

"Ready?" I asked Flurry as I joined her on the quarterdeck after instructing the ponies at the engine pods.

She nodded with a comically determined look on her face.

"Alright then." I grinned. "Imagine we are being pursued by two ships when a third suddenly appears from behind a cloud, close on our starboard beam. Ordinarily, Nebula can't turn fast enough to avoid being rammed, but if we reverse both larboard engine pods…"

I deliberately picked the most abrupt and violent maneuvers to perform. Flurry set her hooves wide and used her earth pony magic instinctively in an attempt to weld them to the deck. It only made things worse for her. She grimly held onto the wheel as we jittered all over the sky, and didn't ask to stop even when she had to throw up. She just turned her head to one side,[2] did what was necessary, and went back to concentrating on the maneuver.
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[2] To leeward, bless her. She might have been inexperienced, but she had the instincts of a good aeronaut.
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My resolve to enjoy her suffering didn't last long. "Lift your wings a little bit, Flurry," I told her. "Just enough to feel the airflow under them."

"How's that… eugh... going to help?"

I did have the slightest impulse to let her go on enjoying the fruits of stubbornness, but the stronger impulse to teach won out. "Do you get sick when flying yourself? Of course not. That's because your pegasus magic is active while you're in the air. Get some wind through your feathers and it'll kick in."

Once she took my advice, she began to enjoy herself again. The crew ponies stationed at each of the engines to respond to the orders relayed through the telegraph did not enjoy themselves. Neither did they do their jobs very well. I called a halt to the exercises too soon for my niece's taste and much too late for most of her followers.

"Those three were Pole Stars?"[3] I asked, incredulously.
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[3] Aeronautical tradition has it that an airship's crew members should be called after the name of the vessel they serve. Therefore, a pony serving aboard Pole Star, the Crystal Empress's yacht, would be called a Pole Star, and more than one would be called Pole Stars. Nebula's crew were called Nebulas even though the correct plural would be Nebulae, and that's always been a bit of a sore spot with me. But there's only so far a captain's authority can stretch, and it certainly isn't far enough to overrule tradition or ignorance of Proto-Equuish plurals.
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"Pole Star's controls are all autothaumic! They're not used to old-time stuff like this!" Flurry said, sweeping a hoof at the main deck. "Besides, Cream Puff was in the Stewards Department."

"I don't suppose any of them have actually sailed an airship?" I asked, knowing full well what the answer would be. I was less than impressed that they hadn't properly prepared Nebula for the journey. The engine crystals were only three-quarters charged and they hadn't topped up the ballast tanks. The galley was certainly well-stocked though.

"Pole Star doesn't even have sails, Twilight!"

"Alright," I said, steering away from a potential argument. "Why don't we take a break while your crew anchors and cleans the deck. I'd like to take a closer look at the stone arch."

She gave me an odd look for some reason, but nodded and gave the orders to her ponies.

Ao had been observing us from the top of a hoodoo while we flew around like madponies, not caring to be aboard for such antics. She joined Flurry and I as we flew down into the canyon.

"Majesty," she said to me as she approached. I'd tried to get her to call me simply by name for years, but authority had lost to her internal tradition time after time. "This one saw five burros to the south. They bore heavy packs and paused in their journey to watch Nebula as she flew."

"Just a normal caravan?" I asked.

"This one believes so, Majesty. But this is a strange world and what things appear to be, they may not be in fact."

"It's a close analog," I replied. "No bald monkeys or squid-people, but you're right to be cautious. We've already had one unpleasant surprise."

"This one would have gone to examine them more closely, but here this one cannot use the magics of disguise, and flying is more tiring than this one is accustomed to."

Being a kirin, Ao didn't have wings, and her channeling of flight magic was less efficient than that of an average pegasus pony. The effect of the world's limited magic flow was significant and noticeable when I took to the air. It had to be even worse for her.

"You've actually been to a world where the people are squids?" Flurry asked me as we approached the arch.

"Squid-like, yes," I told her. "Such worlds are more common than you might expect."

"Ewwww!" Her muzzle wrinkled in distaste.

"Oh, you'd be surprised how quickly one gets used to having tentacles and slime glands," I said casually.

"Ewwww, ewwww, ewww! Just no!" Flurry responded exactly as I'd hoped, and I felt a little guilty about teasing her, but she really should have known that squids don't have slime glands. She huffed and tossed her head. "That's why I made sure to pick a world where the people were ponies. I didn't want to be something creepy like a squid or a monkey!"

I considered telling her that the Sunset Shimmer she knew had grown up as a monkey or rather, a "human," but I'd teased her enough... and we had arrived at the arch.

To my surprise, the natural-looking stone arch was anything but. Close up, the marks made by the tools that had shaped it were visible, and the inside had a cut channel that carried an inset bronze cable. The three deep markings at the apex of the arch were faceted and symmetrical, and I could make out bronze contact pads at the back of the depressions.

The greenish patina of corrosion on the contact points suggested they hadn't been used in a fairly long time. I pushed a pitiful little pulse of magic into the system to confirm my suspicion, but the purpose of the construct was immediately obvious to me.

"What is this thing?" Flurry asked.

Ao turned to look at me. "Portal, Majesty?"

I nodded. "Yup. Portal."

"Portal magic takes a huge amount of energy!" Flurry protested. "If this is a low magic world—"

"Gems," I said.

Ao nodded. "This one agrees, Majesty."

I reached out and tapped one of the depressions with a hoof. "Three high-quality, fully-charged crystals set in these holes could power the gate mechanism easily enough. From the cross-connections, I think they were designed to harmonize with each other to amplify the power output. Very nice magical engineering, in fact."

"So…" Flurry frowned. "This isn't just a passive congruent point?"

"No… and that may be why… oh, let's go back to Nebula; I'm getting tired of hovering here." I didn't want to tell her what my magic pulse had revealed. At least not until I'd had some time to think over the situation.

The deck was sparkling clean when we returned. I could have rubbed a white cloth in the scuppers and it would have come away spotless. It seemed Flurry's crew had some merit, after all. Cream Puff had made a pie.[4]
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[4] He'd intended to serve it à la mode, but the cooling spell on the cold locker had failed and the ice cream had melted. Seasoned adventurers take such misfortunes in their stride.
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Watching a creature with emphatically carnivorous teeth eat—even something as innocuous as a cherry pie—is a sight that disturbs most ponies, so I took my slice all the way forward to stand beside the bowsprit on the fo'c's'le deck where I could survey the landscape while enjoying the treat. The twisting sandstone canyon was quite beautiful in the golden light of the afternoon sun.

"Majesty?"

I sighed. "I really wish you would just call me Twilight, Ao. There, I've said it for the umpteeumpth time, and for the umpteeumpth time, you'll refuse. What's up?"

"This one is concerned about the gate…" She tried, she really did, but it was just as necessary to her as breathing. "...Majesty."

I gave her a sour grin. "Yes, I thought you'd spot it. I would have thought less of myself as a teacher if you hadn't."

"You did not tell the young one."

"No… no, I don't think it's a good idea. She's feeling guilty and defensive, and if she knew how well and truly stuck we are, I don't think she would react well."

"What is to be done, Ma… ah, this one cannot abandon the habit of a lifetime, Majesty."

"It's alright, Ao. I know you don't really mean it."

The snakey-bodied kirin almost tied herself into a knot before convincing herself I was teasing her. Which I was.

"Ah! Truly, you are a dark and evil goddess, Most Exalted Divinity!"

Teasing could go both ways, it seemed. I laughed and said, "That I am, Ao, that I am." Then I pegged a goopy cherry at her, which she snapped out of the air. She had some pretty impressive teeth herself.

We sat together in silence for a while, simply taking in the spectacular view.

"Even though the feedback from this gate mechanism collapsed the portal and hardened the veil between worlds," I said, thinking aloud, "its presence indicates a civilization capable of overcoming the limits of a low-magic universe."

Ao nodded, watching me closely.

"I'm betting that somepony made off with the gems that once powered it. They'd be too valuable as mana storage to cut up, particularly on this world. They'd be big and showy… not easy to disguise.

"You think it would be possible to locate them, Majesty?"

"Yes, and I think finding them would be the quickest way to get back to Equestria. Based on my little probe, at a rough estimate, the veil won't be permeable from beyond for a couple of years… and when it is, a portal from Equestria would just collapse again within minutes of opening. So my original plan isn't workable. We really need to open the gate from this side."

Ao got all twisty again. "It is as this one feared. They who hold the gems will not part with them for less than a fortune. What have we to offer?"

Dark and evil goddess, huh? I grinned. "Well, the ponies who have them now obviously stole them from the gate, so I think we'd be justified in stealing them back."

"Ah," Ao said. "This one begins to grasp your intent, Majesty."

"Feathering right you do!" I said, standing up and brushing crumbs of pie crust off my chest and forelegs. "I'm going aft and telling Flurry that I've decided it's too boring to hang around here, and that we're going to rescue ourselves and have some fun in the process. Go down to the flag locker and see if you can find a Jolly Roger, would you, please?"

Just because we were being forced into an adventure didn't mean we couldn't enjoy it.

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Author's Note:

Nebula's Jolly Roger, known and feared wherever pugnacious rapscallions can be found.

Twilight's goth phase and the name Darkness Nightshade is mentioned in Eakin's brilliant story Hard Reset, and (since I can't improve on perfection) that perfect geek-goth name is used here with his kind permission.

Thanks to Bleakness Abyss (Fana Farouche), Raven Bloodtear (Jordanis), and Anguished Soulcry (Present Perfect) for pre-reading and editing!

Oh, also:

My Little Squid: Ink Clouds are Magic