Flight of the Harmony

by SteamPoweredStallion

Airship Carousel

Rainbow Dash struggled to control the helm. The airship was a wild beast beneath her hooves, but she knew how to tame her.
She wasn't used to driving this kind of blimp; most of her experience was on the nimble and agile Pegasi ships, and the wood and metal mastodon that she was riding was neither of those.

The Harmony had her merits, however. It was a truly majestic craft, and, like most Unicorn ships, she had a complex set of levers set around the wheel, allowing the captain almost total control over the ship's movements. In fact, that was the most complex controls of any vessel Rainbow Dash had ever seen. She understood just enough of it to maneuver the main engines, and that was enough for what she had in mind.

A few acrobatic stunts, a couple of flips and tricks, then she could land among the praise and admiration of all.

Well, unless they took this the working way. She did, technically, steal the ship, and they might have not been too forgiving of that. But after she brought the blimp back safely, they'd have to admit her skills and good intentions.

Probably.

Rainbow pushed forth the altitude lever, straining it to keep control of the helm at the same time. The ship nose-dove, losing in a fraction of a second all the altitude it had gained. Just before crashing into the roof of the factory, Rainbow dash regained asset and started going up again, while grazing a chimney. The Harmony flew through the dark smoke, clearing it away for a few moments with the strength of its propellers.
As soon as she was up again, Rainbow Dash left the wheel for a few seconds and leaned over the railing to look down. In the factory's courtyard, a crowd of laborers, guards and assorted ponies were gathering and looking up, mesmerized. Looking farther towards the city, she could see the ponies in the streets standing still and looking up.
Rainbow saluted the crowd waving her hoof; she knew only the closest of them would even be able to see that, but the few who did responded with a chorus of cheering, yelling and insults which quickly propagated to all those around them in a great and chaotic ovation.
Rainbow returned to the helm before the ship could deviate even more, with a grin going ear to ear. Now that she had their attention, she could truly start.
She turned off the left engines and diverted all power to the right, while turning the wheel in the opposite direction. If the stunt worked, the hull of the ship would've started spinning around, higher an higher, until reaching the same height of the balloon, setting she ship horizontally on its side and continuing to spin like a majestic carousel.
While the ship slowly inclined on its side, spinning faster and faster, the sound of bellowing from below filled the air; the tension of the cabling holding together the hull and the balloon became palpable; the ship rebelled, held back, and eventually yielded. Rainbow struggled to keep the beast under her control.
After a long time, she felt truly alive. In that moment, any shade of a doubt that taking the ship might have been a bad idea escaped her mind. This was what she needed. This is what she lived for: ti fight the elements and control them, to dominate the sky and to do it in full view of everyone.
The hull continued rising with each successive rotation. The deck was almost vertical by now, and Rainbow decided to leave it and spread her wings, holding to the wheel not to lose control as the ship started another spin.
"Whoo, i knew only you could do this, Rainbow Dash!"
A voice behind her called Rainbow back to reality, ending her euphoria. Mechanically she turned around and responded "That's Captain Rainbow Dash for you, m..."
She stopped when she recognized the Pegasus who had talked.
"You! What are you doing here?"
Derpy was standing on the deck, which by now was fully horizontal. Her yellow eyes were focused on something one could only assume was Rainbow dash, but there was no way to be sure.
"I just came by to, you know, take the ship back." Derpy "walked" upwards towards the controls, seemingly unfazed.
"Oh, no! No! You cost me one ship already, now STAY AWAY!"
"I said i was sorry."
"Yes, but... no... that's not the point! You're not going to lay your hooves on this ship!" Rainbow tried to move in Derpy's way while maintaining the grip on the wheel, but it as too hard to balance the two things. She couldn't allow herself to lose control- any mistake would've sent the airship crashing to the ground.
"Come on, Rainbow Dash. This ship isn't even yours."
"I'm going to bring it back." said Rainbow Dash, trying to reach the lever to slow down the engines " … unless you crash it before i do. So, just, stay, away."
Derpy continued to walk upwards, the while the wind flapped her scarf around. Rainbow Dash finally reached the power lever, holding the wheel with her frond hooves and grabbing the lever with her back hoof, sustained only by her wings.
Just as she was about to pull it back to brake the ship, she noticed Derpy going for the handbrake. Without thinking, she launched herself on the gray Pegasus, pushing the both of them against the railing.
The wheel, left by itself, rotated all the way in both directions, pushed by contrasting winds. Before either pony could stop it, the ship had stopped spinning and started going down.
Fast.

"...and another 700 bits for the window repairs, plus 1000 to fish the pieces of the Town Hall from the lake, which brings to a total of... 10450 bits."
A squad of police ponies were barely keeping at bay the crowd surrounding the crashed airship.
Well, not exactly crashed. Despite having hit the ground, the Harmony had survived almost unscathed. It might have had something to do with the fact that the Town Hall had broken it fall, a noble if involuntary sacrifice which resulted in the building being reduced to rubble spread around half of the city.
Rainbow Dash and Derpy Hooves were standing in front of the wreck, surrounded by police and looking around uncomfortably.
"Your fault."
"I was just trying to help."
"Silence, you two. Anything you say will be used against you."
Rainbow Dash continued to silently scowl at Derpy, who kept looking around, apparently unfazed by the crash or the arrest.
The crowd continued to cheer, boo and bellow anything that went through their minds. Suddenly, the crowd parted to allow the passage of a steam-powered, gilded vehicle, a sort of land-ship on treads.
The vehicle parked right in front of the two Pegasi, completely ignoring the police- not that they could do much to stop it anyway.
A hatch opened in the front of the land-ship and a red carpet started to unroll itself pulled by small wheels. A white unicorn in an elaborate purple dress walked out of the land-ship, quickly followed by a purple unicorn in a lab-coat and a bouncing, pink earth pony in a top hat and monocle.
The purple one ran immediately towards the ship, while the other two walked (and bounced) towards Rainbow and Derpy.
Rarity looked at them up and down, with a calm and controlled demeanor, before closing her eyes and yelling:
"WHAT-HAVE-YOU-DONE-TO-MY-SHIP!"
"I can explain!" answered Rainbow Dash.
"What were you thinking? How... why..."
"THAT WE THE MOST AWESOME THING I'VE EVER SEEN!" The pink pony yelled at the top of her lungs, leaving the whole crowd in silence for a few seconds.
"Pinkie, darling, can you save that for after I'm done verbally chastising these two?"
"But it was great! I didn't even know it could DO that! I mean, wow, how cool was that? You are amazing! You..."
"Pinkie. Please."
"...and the way you flew up, like, like flying up in a spiral and..."
"Well, yeah, that was a neat trick, wasn't it." admitted Rainbow Dash.
"What- no, Pinkie, just let me finish and..."
"...and then- and then you fly all the way down like a cannon ball! WHOOOO!"
Rarity decided there was no way to hold back Pinkie and instead went towards Twilight, who was busy examining the hull.
In the meantime the police seemed to have quietly accepted that since Rarity's Land-Ship had rolled in, they had lost any claim to authority and were just trying to contain the crowd as best as they could.
"So...?" asked Rarity, hopeful.
"Well, you may not believe it, but there's no structural damage. The hull is barely scratched and it's still at full functionality from what i can tell."
"Another testament to the majesty of our craft. We still need to move it back to the testing ground."
"In theory... it would be conceivable to just drive it there. It's definitely in conditions to fly... although i'd have to double-check the engines... and the controls. And the hull. And..."
"And we need someone to fly it. I wouldn't want to move it without an experienced pilot."
"I... i don't think you'd like those two to take the wheel again, would you?"
"Ha ha ha... you're joking, right?"
"I... i don't know. I mean, i had no idea the ship could do that. And i designed it. Think of the possibilities!"
"They almost destroyed it! Surely you don't want them to... to lay their hooves again on this amazing beauty!"Rarity leaned towards the ship, trying to hug the hull with her front hooves.
"They might still deserve a chance. Under strict control, of course."
Pinkie and Rainbow Dash were still discussing the amazing result of Rainbow's stunts. Derpy stood there, silently.
"Well, they do have to pay off a lot of damage, don't they?" asked Rarity.
"10.450 bits to be exact, m'lady" answered one of the police stallions.
"Well. 10.450. I guess they'll have to work it off with... let's see... about twenty-four months without pay."
"Twenty four?"
"It should've been twenty five, but i rounded it down."
"How... generous."