The airship was big. As big as a large modern day jetliner, but fatter. Which honestly was kind of expected, it was a airship after all.
While it did have the expected gondola beneath it, it also had rooms through it. I could only put that up to magic.
Which was also how it moved, a magically turning propeller at the rear.
“Captain Stellarite,” I said as I walked the gangplank onto the ship.
“Lord Page,” He answered with a smile, “Welcome onboard.”
He was a unicorn with dark grey coat and darker mane.
“Thank you. But you didn’t need to come meet me, I’m sure you have more important things to do.”
He grinned briefly, “Protocol, sir. But you’re also right, this is a rather busy time. If you’d excuse me, I’ll have somepony direct you to your quarters?”
“Please.”
He nodded and motioned to a pegasus mare with pale pink coat and blonde mane in a similar uniform but with less bling and without the hat, “ Crewmare Steel Night here will be assigned to you while onboard, sir. She’ll show you where your quarters are.”
I smiled, “Hello,” and then thanked him, letting him get back to the much more important matter of actually being Captain.
“Hello sir, and welcome onboard the Honeydew,” she said with a cheerful smile, “If you’d please follow me?”
“Of course,” I agreed and then followed her through the corridors. Didn’t take long to get to where we were going,
“Here you go, sir,” she said and opened the door before following me inside.
It reminded me more of a full on hotel suite than anything on a ship. Seriously, place was larger than Luna’s and my primary rooms in the castle!
“Bathroom through here, sir,” Steel Night said cheerfully, “Full bath included. Through here is your bedroom,” she continued before trotting over to a rope by the door, “If you pull this, it summon a maid or myself if you require any sort of assistance.”
I nodded with a smile as I looked around, “Thank you, this is great.”
She bowed and then trotted out with a smile, “I’ll go see what happened to your luggage, sir.”
Nodding, I then looked around as I trotted over to jump onto the bed. Wow this place was amazing.
That’s it, this is how I travel from now on.
Fuck flying chariots and trains. Airship is where it’s at!
“Seriously! You get this place!?” A very familiar voice called out from the main sitting room, “Are you kidding!?”
“What?” I asked and jumped off the bed to move out to join Sunset, “You don’t?”
“Mine is a shoebox!” she complained before trotting up to peer into the bathroom, “It’s smaller than your bathroom!”
I grinned, “Sucks to be you, doesn’t it?”
Well, make sense I suppose, space would be a premium.
She rolled her eyes, “Well, that’s not happening. I’m moving in here.”
“My, my, how forward. What would ponies think?”
Sunset stuck her tongue out at me, “Oh please, half the castle already thinks we’re together. It wouldn’t change a thing.”
“Eh, good point,” I agreed, “Fine. But the bed is mine.”
She fluttered her eyelashes at me, “You would leave me sleeping on the couch?”
“Damn right.”
She snorted and then grinned, “Still better than my so called ‘bed’. So how soon do we leave?”
“Not completely sure, should be any minute. As I understand it, they were basically waiting for us to get onboard.”
Sunset nodded, “The Legion is already onboard, I talked to Bright Glow before coming here, everyone seems to be ready.”
“Been on one of these before?”
Sunset nodded again, “Once when I was a little filly, Princess Celestia gave me a tour once. Oh, we should head onto the top deck for departure, it’s the best view.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I agreed and motioned towards the door, “Lead the way.”
“Should be able to remember how to get there,” She said and trotted towards the door.
It didn’t take long to find our way there. Basically, we just looked for stairs leading up and asking a couple of ponies on the way.
We emerged into the cool winter air just in time to see the large propeller at the back of the airship start to slowly turn.
Sunset looked around and put her hooves on the railing. I moved to stand next to her, watching Canterlot start to slowly pull away.
Shifting my wings, the air tugging at my feathers and mane before I looked at Sunset again as we started to rise among the clouds.
She was clearly freezing.
“Come on, let’s head back inside. Find something warm to drink.”
“S-sounds good.”
Update... yaye!
One of these days those two will wake up sweaty and satisfied, it won't be a "it's now what you're thinking!" moment and the universal reaction will be "fucking FINALLY!!!"
But that day is not today, so good friends they still be
9135137
Fixed that for you.
*patiently watches Page and Sunset grow closer*
Excellent.
and the ship is literaly sailing
Why are these so short now? Am I missing something or...?
Still no word from hiver on whether he's read the comments on the previous chapters. Seems like someone is afraid to admit they didn't meet expectations
9135306
I do read all comments. I also answered to one on the last chapter.
9133793
The problem is you're not showing, only telling. As such it creates a dissonance with the reader to have "she's a brilliant chessmaster and combatant" be nothing more than an Informed Attribute. Not to mention the really wimpy way Blank Page lost. Him losing isn't the issue, after all, it's the way he went out; with a whimper. Again, because of Celestia's Informed Attribute that she'd just be able to overpower/defeat him, instead of showing us by actually having him be outsmarted and overpowered. Even more so precisely because you have been showing us Page's progression in training and skill with illusions, setting up for a payoff that never came.
As executed it comes off as a ham-handed Author Fiat rather than an organic occurrence of character interaction and it disrupts the suspension of disbelief. It entirely feels like you needed to have Page lose just so he'd have to do Celly's little diplomatic mission, instead of him losing and thus going on the mission because of that loss. It's not enough to completely break the story, but it's extremely jarring and trying to pass it off as "it wasn't an accident she was there" without showing us why that is, is, frankly, a cop-out.
I understand this is mostly a limited third-person perspective story with us only seeing what Blank Page is seeing, but that doesn't mean you can't have scenes or lines that show us action rather than giving us a lame excuse that 'she's just that good' or something like that. Because frankly, she's not. Nightmare Moon, Discord, Tirek, all of these she was pretty much helpless in front of in canon, and in your story timeline Blank Page expressly took out Tirek in place of her or the Elements/Mane 6. What we have seen does not match up with what we have been told.
And having both Celestia and Luna be smugly patronizing to Blank Page about it is like salt in the wound. A protagonist we like being beaten by Informed Attribute offscreen, then patronized for it, is incredibly grating whether you intended it or not. All in all this comes off as very poor writing that could have been fixed by adding just a bit more work, and it's disappointing that the choice was instead to have the characters be insufferable. Given the rest of your work it's incredibly shocking to see such a lapse and what appears to be a complete lack of awareness about it.
You fool! Put your wing over her!
“Icecloud dead ahead!”
Yes.....best-est of friends......
9135399
This point in particular is causing the story to become unpleasant to read for me.
Honeydew... yeah, the secret date idea is getting traction.
definitely getting traction.
All according to plan...
Did anyone else think for a moment that they were going to go to the front of the airship and pull a Titanic scene?
9135450
I mean, it's okay, and actually kinda good for that to happen every once in a while. They have done similar things in previous entries in the series, and it was kinda funny then. But it's happening way too often now, and sorta ruining the joke. Page no longer gets any victories, and I don't just mean "getting back at Celestia."
And let's not forget the rest of Equestria... Cadance (probably)... many others and us readers, while we know you aren't together some of us hope that you get together at some point
9135488
..... oh my gods your right
9135488
Well, Celestia is the chessmaster, isn't she?
I could see her having arranged all of this with that goal in mind if Luna asked her to.
9135701
What? No...no...
(Her room was small.)
9135236
They've always been this short.
9135306
9136386
No like, in the previous fics they were all a good length
9136621
It's not the length of your chapter, it's how you use it.
9137394
Wow!
9137394
True but...
PB: *pulls Sunset closer with a wing* "There is still a way you can sleep in the bed if you still want."
Sunset: *looks up at Page with a blush* "Really?"
BP: "Yep."
S: "How?"
BP: "Simple. Just sleep during the day. Whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop." *scurries away real fast taking the warmth with him*
Just thought I’d point this out. Better to use the term “an” when identifying an object.
Close space travel? Time for snuggels Amber will probably be the only one not caring for the tight travel...
10969328
I think amber will actually like the cramped conditions instead of not minding
I wonder if there are Changelings in the Griffon community? Better yet, will they contact Blank Page?
Since he is openly supporting Changelings.
11437258
Good point, wonder how well Amer will be sneaking around Blank Page surrounded by Griffons.
Can't believe nobody has made a Muppets joke yet.
i.imgflip.com/wh2iv.jpg