The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Tragically Deposed

Gerardo stood uneasily near the door to the airship's deck, watching as Mobius earnestly piloted toward the blown-out dam and his secretary Hestia hovered nearby, resting her horn and constantly frowning.

"It is snowing," he remarked, having finally acknowledged that protesting was futile against Mobius' stubbornness. "And rather hard, I might add."

"Only more reason we must find her quickly," Mobius growled, his face glued to the windshield as fat white flurries blew in and refused to stick. "Secretary, shine a spotlight on the valley. I can't see a thing through this weather, and she could be down there!"

Hestia sniffed, nudging her nose with a hoof. "I don't know what this ship is equipped with, and the snow will soon be thick enough that we won't be able to see the ground from this far up."

"Then use your horn!" Mobius barked. "And that's exactly why we need to do it now. That's an order. What are you waiting for?"

With unhappy resignation, the short wine-red mare sighed and pushed past Gerardo, sliding open the door. A frigid wind instantly invaded the bridge; now that the storm had begun to dump its payload, it wasn't going to hold back. Teeth chattering already, she slipped out, making to close it behind her.

Gerardo caught it with a talon, propping it open and following her into the white. The passive-aggressive part of him left it open, willing to let Mobius freeze if he was going to bestow the same on his assistant, not to mention hijacking an airship. He itched toward the sword at his side, the urge to use it against an unarmed opponent building.

The deck was somehow clean, the pink majesty of the energy comet the ship hung from reducing every flake that touched down to runoff. It didn't feel hot, though, and Gerardo couldn't help but notice how steady the airship kept its course despite the building winds. It was as if the ship was simply unaffected by the weather, though as a product of some futuristic stabilization technology or the mystical energies empowering it, he couldn't tell.

The same couldn't be said for its occupants. Hestia staggered once from a gust, then bit the railing and held it in her teeth for support, wincing from the cold as she aimed her head downward and illuminated. The cone of directed light glowed off the falling flakes, failing to make it to the dark valley below.

"I gather that your boss has little idea of what he's doing," Gerardo said above the winds, moving so that the smaller unicorn was in his lee. Gripping the railing for stability himself, he stared at the crumbling black form of the dam silhouetted through the flakes, a chasm of white splitting through where the top should be. "Perhaps you should simply usurp him and teleport him away?"

"S-Sorry..." Hestia shivered harder, casting an illumination beam again to the same effect. "My oath of office forbids it. I would be out of my job for certain. My position as a Sosan was already hard enough won..."

Gerardo drummed his talons. "Forgive me for saying it, but from where I'm standing, your position is already extinct. Sosa is something of a lake right now, and should this storm turn into rain below the wind barrier, that may only get worse."

That wasn't the right thing to say, apparently, as Hestia gritted her teeth and tried fruitlessly to light the landscape a third time. Gerardo very nearly picked her up and carried her back into the cabin, but then, he didn't think she would count that as a favor. Again, he contemplated immobilizing Mobius and flying off in search of his friends himself.

Suddenly, a blinding beam of light fell across the deck, and he yelped, covering his smarting eyes. Shielding them with a talon, he carefully looked, realizing that it was a point source, coming from something high up, to the right of the dam. The northern lighthouse? He had seen it before at night, guiding incoming and outgoing air traffic and acting as a high-up beacon for Ironridge, but there it had spun aimlessly, not targeted a single ship. Was someone up there controlling it?

Before he could voice his concerns, there was a thud from the far end of the deck, a badly-battered pegasus crashing against the wood and skidding all the way to the far railing, impacting it but not being flung off the side. Gerardo raced to him, noting the tattered Defense Force regalia, Hestia following carefully. The wind continued to blow.

"Ow..." The pegasus groaned, slumping near the entrance to the cargo bay. His eyes opened, and fixed on Gerardo. "Survivors!" he gasped, trying to get himself upright. "Twenty-two of us, in the lighthouse... Some Sosans, too. We were trying to climb down, but the storm came out of nowhere and we went back for shelter, and..."

"Intriguing," Gerardo remarked, giving a determined glance to the bridge. "Secretary, please see to this stallion; there are rooms down below. I'm going to have a talk with your ornery boss."

---

"Shut the door when you leave," Mobius growled, not looking away from the windshield as he hovered the airship around the ruins of the dam. "I need to concentrate on finding-!"

He instantly trailed off, eyes wide, a fast flicker of metal vanishing in front of him. Just before he could topple from the chair, he was steadied by a griffon, gently removed and placed on the floor.

"My sword talon was twitching," Gerardo explained, sheathing his sword. "Sorry about that, but I borrowed this airship first. There's also apparently a selection of Sosans and Defense Force who survived the battle, holed up in the lighthouse and are managing not to kill each other, which I very much wish to investigate but didn't imagine you'd take kindly to. For now, you'll just have to settle for being tragically deposed."

Placing himself back in the pilot's chair where he belonged, Gerardo adjusted a throttle, lifting the ship higher and angling it toward the lighthouse with a rush of pink. Snow flurried around it, bending into a wake as it began to move forward.

Hestia shortly re-entered the cockpit, gasping at Mobius' condition. "Sir, are you all right!?" She rushed to him, shaking his limp frame.

"He's merely taking a nap," Gerardo assured as the stallion glared daggers at him. "Quite tiring, teleporting around the Earth District is, isn't it? It took only a little encouragement on my behalf, and don't worry, he'll be right as rain before too long. In the meantime, I find myself having this ship back!"

Hestia almost glared at Gerardo... then looked at Mobius and sighed. "If he did something, it's your own fault," she informed him. "Sky District regulations do nothing to prevent ships from fighting against unsanctioned takeovers, and since we're not sanctioned by the Sky District, all this was breaking the law..."

"Speaking of acts righteous and unrighteous," Gerardo interrupted, reaching the lighthouse's snowy base. Several unicorns were diligently keeping the door clear from drifts, breaking from their work and looking up at the nearing ship with undiluted hope. "There are quite a few ponies down there I'd very much like to talk to and presumably save, and I cannot both hold this airship in place and assist them on board simultaneously. Unless you fancy yourself a skilled pilot, can you nip over to the cargo hold and open the bay door? I think it will be a lot more feasible than trying to get out a bridge to the deck in this weather."

For a moment, Hestia stared, open-mouthed... and then nodded and ran off, much to the already-mad Mobius' chagrin.

"Very well, then. Let's see..." Pleased, Gerardo turned back to the terminal with its user manual, searching for bay door controls. Eventually, he backed out, looked at the terminal's other functions... Door control. Bingo.

The door turned out to have a physical switch, unlatching a portion of the ship's flat stern and folding it out like a drawbridge, but what the terminal had to offer was even better: one of the windshield panels flashed opaque, transforming itself into a high-definition video feed of a camera focused on the ship's rear. It gave him a perfect view of the rocky mountaintop he was backing towards, maneuvering the airship with precision controls and its remarkable wind resistance until the end of the ramp was touching the snow drifts. He watched eagerly as the stranded ponies wasted no time in coming aboard, eyebrows raising at the sight of both Sosans and Defense Force in the mix.

"Hmm. Fascinating..." he mused, leaning into the screen. The two groups stuck to their own kind, eyeing each other warily... but not with open hostility. Indeed, they appeared to have wholeheartedly put aside their differences in the name of survival. Still, Gerardo reminded himself, appearances were only appearances, and he very much wanted to get whoever was in charge up to the bridge for questions. Lifelong mortal enemies didn't just suddenly begin getting along.

The stream of ponies slowed, then stopped, Gerardo tallying twenty-one of them. That would be all, then, assuming the first pegasus had counted himself. He started the door closing and lifted back into the sky, Hestia quickly re-entering the room.

"Sir," she reported, "there are a lot of ponies, some of whom are the ones who bombed-"

"Stop!" Gerardo interrupted her with a talon. "Herman was the destructor of Sosa, no more and no less. I, for one, am in a position where I can afford to pass judgement only where it is due, and would very much like to hear the whole story before getting too far ahead of myself. I don't suppose you're familiar with the art of captaining ships?"

She stared blankly at him, blinking.

"Well, no matter." Gerardo shook his head. "If those lot haven't taken up all the cabins below, you might want to move Mobius somewhere more comfortable as well, assuming you don't decide to do the personally smart thing and take him and flee to the Earth District. But first, would you mind terribly telling our new guests I'd appreciate speaking with their leaders?"

Hestia hesitated, nodded, took Mobius and vanished belowdecks in a slightly fitful burst of violet magic.

Comments

[alamais]

o shi-
Gerardo's actually being useful!

[Czar_Yoshi]

8800927 Aww, don't talk about poor Birdo like that. He helps all the time! Remember at the battle on the bridge, he... got knocked into the lake before he could land a single blow, fine. But before that, when they fought the mercenaries! He managed to... distract one? For a few minutes? And still lost?

He, uh, carried Starlight without dropping her in the Flame District? Managed not to get arrested in Copsewood? Delivered Starlight and Jamjars to Karma Industries (and promptly lost them)?

Wow, wasn't arrested for doing nothing as a resume high point is kind of unfortunate.

[alamais]

8800951
He's also actually managed to hold onto his sword for more than 10 minutes AND put it to good use! ...Against a distracted old dude, sure, but still!