Silver Lining

by Amber Spark

By Luna's Light

“She’s supposed to be brilliant.”

“Yeah, that got thrown overboard when the Icarus got turned into charcoal. When that marefriend of hers bit the big one, something just snapped.”

“You know, Tensile, that makes me wonder.”

“Wonder what?”

“Maybe that marefriend of hers was the real brains behind their little operation.”

“Hm. Never thought of it that way.”

“Considering how Bee’s been since we set out? You should have.”

Only then did Blue Venture feel their stares. They probably thought the sounds of the Silver Lining’s engine compartment would mask their moronic gossip. After all, she was on the other side, recalibrating the port-side lateral power cable and they were by the primary crystal core cage. And gossip was an airship tradition.

Once upon a time, there had been somepony to help her in situations like these. Once upon a time, she had assistance in dealing with ‘difficult’ ponies. Once upon a time, she’d had a friend… and more.

Then, once upon a time, that pony and her had worked two different ships going to the same place.

Once upon a time had stopped that day.

She had worked on the Silver Lining for eight months. She’d built half of the ship with her own hooves. She’d supervised the ship’s transformation from an it to a her.

Nopony cared.

Once upon a time, that hadn’t mattered anyone but one.

Once upon a time.

And those ponies on the other side of engineering were now claiming Blue Venture was a fraud and Lunar Skysong had done all the work. A common theme with many others she’d been forced to work with.

Lune would have punted them overboard for that. She would have told Blue to stand up for herself. She… would have done a lot of things.

Blue wasn’t Lunar Skysong.

Blue would—and could—never be Lunar Skysong.

But Blue could still stand up for herself.

She sealed the cable she was working on—being surrounded by idiots was no excuse for shoddy workmanship on her part. She put her tools back into her kit and her electromagnetic bracer on her left forehoof. She paused for a moment, staring at the device. It might make an effective object lesson. After all the ‘recovery time’ she’d been forced to endure, Golden Aura would be proud of her for using basic psychology to educate the fools. Her sister always did like when Blue followed through in her therapy lessons.

With her equipment stowed, she crossed the compartment, marching directly toward glassy-eyed Engineer Cogstrut and his simpering trainee, Tensile. She ducked under the two-feet-thick central power conduit that ran between the secondary and primary cage.

That’s when Cogstrut noticed her. A unicorn with a dirty blonde coat and a buzzcut, he didn’t even have the decency to have any cage grease on him or his fancy pressed overalls. It was pathetic. The sight made her blood boil. Tensile just wore a crew jumper, but at least it had a few stains on it. Still, his bright red hair looked like he’d just come out of a salon.

Any engineer who didn’t have a stain or two on them at the end of a shift hadn’t done their job. Lunar had taught her that.

Blue blew one of her bangs out of her face as she focused on Cogstrut. The coward had already been looking at the hatch to the cargo deck, but Blue didn’t give him a chance. She strode up to him in her best attempt at a confidant stride and stopped right in his face.

“I have excellent hearing,” she said flatly.

Cogstrut glanced at Tensile for a moment, almost like he was confused or something.

“Should I draw a schematic?” Blue demanded. “Oh no, why would I do that? It’s not like either of you can read them. I’ve picked up so much slack over the last three weeks that I should be charging triple my normal fee.”

Finally, she saw some spark of… something in Cogstrut’s eyes. Maybe it was intelligence. She didn’t know. She didn’t care.

“Lunar Skysong,” she glowered at them, even if she was over a foot shorter than either of the stallions, “was one of the wildest, bravest and most brilliant engineers ever to grace the skies of Equestria. But we were a team. I did my work. She did hers. Because that’s what good crews do, instead of sitting on deck all day trying to get a tan or whatever you grease-brains do for fun.”

Both stallions now had their teeth clenched and eyes narrowed. Probably feeling guilty for being so rude. Maybe this would finally make them change. Celestia knows she’d been yelling at them so much she’d had to buy throat drops on their stopover in Baltimare.

“And don’t call me Bee,” she snapped as a parting remark as she turned away. “I hate that stupid nickname.”

“Now, wait just a damn minute, you little featherhead!” Tensile shouted as she grabbed her left forehoof and spun her back around. “You don’t get to just go fluttering away after bitching us out like that—again!”

Blue blinked a few times and frowned at both stallions. She snorted out a short huff of air. This wasn’t fair. Lune always did this part. Blue had always been terrible at it! But, Lune… wasn’t here. So she had to do it.

“Maybe if you didn’t make it so necessary to correct ninety-three percent of your so-called work, I wouldn’t have to ‘bitch you out!’” Blue shouted at Tensile. “Why are you even talking to me? You’re a trainee. I can at least understand you being incompetent! You’re learning! It’s your boss I have a problem with.”

She turned to glare at an oddly red-faced Cogstrut. Most ponies tended to have expressions like these and even now, she didn’t get it. She knew the signs of anger. Anypony could see that, obviously. But just a moment ago, they’d been guilty! Maybe stallions just had really bad mood swings in general.

“We’re going to call you Bee, because that’s what you are,” Cogstrut snarled in that rough-and-tumble voice of his. “You’re a pathetic, busy little bee who got broken one day and no one could figure out how to fix you. So they used some duct tape and gum and shoved you back out into the world.”

“How dare—”

Cogstrut ran right over her! Why did so many ponies do that?

“This is my engineering section, Bee. Mine. Not yours. Yeah, you helped build the ship. Woo-hoo.” He waved his forelegs around and even conjured a few sparks with his horn. Then, it was his turn to get right into her face. “I’ve been listening to you rant for weeks and I’m convinced the only reason nopony’s thrown you overboard is because you have wings. All your pretty speeches? All your little lectures? All yours stupid micromanaging, correcting, suggesting and tips?! No. Pony. Cares. The only one who did? She died with the Icarus.”

Crack.

Blue took a step back and blinked, her left forehoof suddenly aching… and Engineer Cogstrut on the floor, clutching his face. He pulled his hoof away, only to reveal a rather badly bleeding lip and quickly developing bruise. His eyes found her and, for once, she understood exactly what the stallion was thinking.

It wasn’t hard.

Tensile knelt to help his boss back to his hooves as Blue took a few steps back. Her heart hammered in her chest. Her wings shook. Her knees trembled. From the way Cogstrut kept staring at her… she… she wanted to pull out her multibow, even if it went against everything she believed.

“Get. Out.” Cogstrut growled.

A single drop of blood fell from his muzzle to the deck.

Blue Venture got out. She did it without thinking or hesitation. She moved on instinct and fear. She darted through the main hatch leading to the cargo bay. For a moment, she debated hiding somewhere in the mass of boxes they were transporting to Canterlot. But while confining spaces were normally comforting… not now. She needed to get further away. Not just from what had happened.

From the words. The words that battered at the thin, pathetic shell of her sanity. The words that still smashed into her. It didn’t matter how long she’d spent at that hospital. Those words still threatened to shatter her.

Her eyes darted around frantically in the dark hold, but she’d never had trouble seeing in the dark. She spotted the central stairway and bolted for it, scampering up with all four hooves galloping as hard as she could. Blue shoved opened the deck hatch and a blast of cold air buffeted her, nearly knocking her back into the stairwell. There were days she hated being smaller than everypony else.

But she powered through it and managed to seal the hatch, hoping the words would stay belowdecks. They didn’t, of course. Instead, the words became something far, far worse.

Memories.

Twelve minutes and forty-seven seconds staring at the newspaper that informed her the Icarus had been destroyed—with all hands lost—by the infamous Crystal North Pirates.

Approximately thirteen hours flying over the Coltumbia River as she hunted for the site of the attack.

The shattered core fragments.

The hooflocker.

Her eyes fell on the bracer she wore. Tungsten and steel with copper plating and stainless steel. The sensor plates allowing twenty-eight combinations of commands to connected devices. The generator. The—

The body.

Blue looked toward the bow of the airship, but the wind made the night sky almost impossible to see. She squinted then gave up and pushed down her mechanized goggles. A few touches from her bracer adjusted them for nighttime use. For anypony else, that would mean fancy night-vision enchantments. For her, it meant completely clear.

She’d come up right in front of the forward cargo hatch. The railing and bowsprit—jutting out from the front of the Silver Lining like a thick spear—were only a few hoofsteps away. Beyond—and below—that, lay the countryside surrounding the Everfree Forest. She shivered at the thought of that unnatural place, but they weren’t going anywhere near there.

Just like she needed to be anywhere but here.

Blue stepped forward and made for the bowsprit, stowing the rest of her tools, cinching her bag and adjusting her cloak. It wouldn’t do to allow it to be damaged from a bad—

“Lovely night, eh, Bee?”

Blue squeaked in surprise and whirled, almost sending herself spinning off the narrow spur of wood. Captain Greystern rolled his green eyes. His horn flashed and yanked her hooves back onto the deck of the Silver Lining.

“Captain!” Blue squeaked, trying to get her breathing under control. “What are—I mean… what are you doing out here?”

Blue’s hooves still crawled at the touch of the stallion’s magic on her. She… she didn’t appreciate that. But right now, the last thing she wanted was another fight. She… she couldn’t handle another fight.

The tall stallion in a bright white uniform eyed her up and down with an insufferable smirk on his lips. While his brown-and-gray mane fluttered in the wind coming off the airship’s prow, he strode past her and looked out over the vista before him. Almost like some ancient king surveying his domain.

He put his immaculately clean hooves on the railing and sighed into the wind. “I just had the most interesting conversation. Would you like to know whom it was concerning?”

He sounded like he was talking about the weather. Blue knew better. And she also knew for this kind of conversation, her participation was not required. She remained silent, her terror beginning to melt under the heat of her annoyance.

“It was about you, little Bee!” Greystern said, sounding completely shocked, as if he couldn’t imagine such a thing ever happening. “About how you… let’s see, how can I put this delicately…”

Blue swallowed hard.

“You first decided to tell off my two engineers. And then? And then you assaulted my Chief Engineer with that metal monster you wear around your forehoof!” he shouted in a voice that could probably be heard all the way back in Manehattan. “You attacked a member of my crew, little Bee.”

Only then did he turn around, his face livid and his eyes blazing with hate. He began to stalk toward her. Part of her wanted to flee, but she knew she wouldn’t get far. He’d just proven his magic was strong enough to keep her hooves on the deck.

She’d always had a weakness when it came to reading other ponies… but there were some things she didn’t need help with. Things like this.

But this time, her fury at Cogstrut came back to help her.

“Your Chief Engineer is an incompetent twit!” Blue shot back. “I’ve been double-checking nearly all of his work since we first set out! Some of the modification he made to the core are moronic! If the cage gets knocked into the core crystal in the wrong way, they could fuse. Do you know what that would do?”

“Yes,” Greystern snapped, his ears down and his mane flying over his face. “Because I gave him approval for the modification. It’ll give us a ten percent efficiency boost in the main turbines!”

“And send those same turbines in an uncontrolled spin if something goes wrong!”

“You just think you know everything, don’t you?” Greystern towered over her, his tall form blocking her from the wind of the ship’s passing. “The busy little Bee, always flitting all over. Correcting everything from crystal core cages to rigging alignments to envelope stress tolerance. Always getting in the way of the ponies trying to do their jobs!”

Blue’s body shook with a desperate attempt to not repeat her mistake in engineering, but she wasn’t going to last very long at this rate. She narrowed her eyes and puffed out her chest. Still, even standing ramrod straight, she only came up the middle of his gleaming white uniform.

She really hated clean uniforms.

“If you have a problem with my performance, Greystern,” Blue spat, making sure to emphasize the lack of rank, “take it up with Spitfire Avionics. They’re the ones who brought me on board in the first place. They’re the ones who wanted me on the shakedown cruise. Because they know I am the best.”

“Were.”

Blue staggered backward, enough so her cloak caught a little bit of wind. “E-excuse me?”

“You were the best, Bee.” Greystern’s voice seemed strangely flat. “I doubt you remember, but I was the XO on the Endless Vista. The ship that brought you and Miss Skysong to Cloudsdale before… the accident.”

His expression didn’t make any sense. There were a thousand emotions there, moving so fast Blue couldn’t read a single one of them. Like he couldn’t make up his mind. She caught regret, pity, anger, disgust… and a lot of other things. Blue, for her part, just stood and stared at him.

“I saw you two working together. It impressed me. Enough that I requested you accompany us on the shakedown. But what I’ve seen since leaving port has revealed a lot.” Greystern shook his head. “Whatever you had, you lost when you lost Skysong. She did do amazing work. Really did. You were the best with her at your side. But she’s not here.”

Blue blinked and kept it all inside. “I-I know that.”

“You know attacking a member of the crew would get you thrown out of the Equestrian Engineering Guild. Most private groups wouldn’t even touch you. At least the legal ones.” Greystern remained subdued as he studied her. “Still, all that would cause me more trouble than it’s worth. So, I’ll cut you a deal.”

“What deal?” Blue demanded, even as something shrank inside her while the ramifications of her actions below really hit home. If anything, Greystern was being generous. She’d be lucky to ever be allowed on an airship again with an assault charge like that on her record. It still didn’t mean she liked the stallion, though. “What do you want?”

“Stay in your bunk the rest of the trip.” Greystern’s face remained impassive. “Let me and my crew run my ship. Once we reach Canterlot, you sign off on the Silver Lining and we part ways. And by the way? I’m only offering this because of Skysong. It’s a one time deal. You get into it with me or any member of my crew again, and I’m throwing you to the Canterlot Constables the moment we tie down.”

Blue didn’t have much choice. Greystern had her cornered. What would Lunar say?

She didn’t have to think hard.

“Done,” she spat, trying to find some comfort from the shifting of the deck and the vibration of the engines coming up through her hooves.

“Good. Now, it looked like you were going to go take a fly. I think that’s a good idea. Cool your head for a bit.” He walked around her, likely heading for the bridge. “Just be back here within thirty minutes. I’m not sending anypony after you once we hit the class-two squall.”

“I wasn’t aware of any—”

“I don’t care what you’re aware of!” Greystern spat, any sense of decorum finally cracking into shards of anger. “You aren’t part of this crew. You’re a consultant. We both know I could get a hoofstamp from someone on the gray sides of the dock, but I’d rather not bother. Let me handle my ship. And just stay out of our manes!”

With that, he marched away, his lightly armored horseshoes clicking on the deck.

Blue tried to get air into her lungs, but it barely came. The stallion walked in that cocky way all stallions walked. Especially stallion captains. Especially stallion captains who thought the ships she built were actually theirs!

Especially ones who constantly looked at her with pity since Lune had—

She didn’t let a single tear fall until he was out of sight.

Blue stood there for a bit, the tears forcing her to remove her goggles. She faced the wind and let the night air dry her eyes. Only when she was sure she had it out of her system did she put them back on. A few new clicks on her bracer generated the magical readout before her eyes, revealing the velocity of the Silver Lining, the ship’s position, relative windspeed and other such things. She glanced at the readouts more out of habit than any real interest. Then, all the data vanished save for the altimeter.

She wiped the last few tears from her cheeks, turned on her hooves and galloped for the bow. Her hooves clattered against wood of the deck to the stronger stretch of wood sprouting from the prow that made up the Silver Lining’s bowsprit.

She leapt through the V-shape created by the twin ropes securing the envelope above. With practiced ease, she landed on the forward-most tip of the bowsprit like a cat ready to pounce.

Then she flung herself off the ship.

Her cloak billowed as she fell, sounds of rigging and engines fading into the rush of racing wind. She closed her eyes and let herself fall for a time. She embraced the strange freedom of total freefall. After… everything… it was bliss. She fell through normal air. Without anypony demanding anything from her. Without anypony yelling at her for getting in the way. Without the comments about Lune or her own issues.

No judgements.

Only her.

Her eyes shot open. Ignoring the altimeter, she licked her lips and gauged the world around her. Another few seconds passed before two small blue wings snapped out at her sides. Instantly, her plummet transitioned into a dive, then she stabilized and it became a soar.

For the first time since last night—her last flight in the moonlight—Blue Venture smiled. A few flaps, a twist of her wings, and she began to ascend far above the distant countryside.

All around her, Equestria lay quiet until the gentle touch of Luna’s Moon. The stars were out, each a tiny pinprick in the universe, like diamonds scattered throughout the sky. The sight of them all managed to fill her with a hint of hope that today wasn’t a sign of things to come.

Blue slalomed through the currents, taking the time to study various sections of the sky, spying hits of nebulae and other distant celestial bodies. She made sure to spot at least three, as three tended to bring back memories of her first trip above the clouds so very long ago. This silent place of wind and dark light all made a strange sort of bandage wrapping around her damaged insides. When she’d left Fillydelphia after her time at the hospital, her sister had encouraged these little outings. She’d also encouraged a little bit more.

Golden Aura could be a pain in her flank, but… she was decent for a little sister.

Blue adjusted course and climbed straight toward the Moon.

As soon as she was aiming directly for it, the familiar warmth washed over her. It only happened during moments like these, when it was just her, the Moon and the stars. She’d once tried to explain it to other ponies, but they’d thought she was crazy. The only one who hadn’t laughed at her had been Lunar.

To her surprise, that was the first thought of Lunar she’d had that hadn’t hurt tonight.

The truth was, when she let herself go in the middle of the night, she could feel the moonlight. As if the long-lost princess’s wings were wrapped around her small form in some great dream-like hug. She basked in the warmth, studying the clear face of the Moon. She even let herself do a few twirls, making sure she could feel that warmth on every side.

“I wonder if you’re still out there…” Blue whispered to the Moon. “I mean… you have to be out there, since, you know… the Moon’s still moving. But nopony knows where you went.” She swallowed a knot in her throat. “What made you leave?”

Blue hated how young the question made her sound, but there was no one to judge her here. And she didn’t think Princess Luna would really mind. She adjusted her course to stay steady when she ran into a random thermal.

“Why’d you abandon us? Are you still watching us? Do we even still matter to you anymore?”

She took a breath. The last question… she didn’t ask it often. But sometimes she needed to.

“Were you at least watching over her when she died? Just so… she wasn’t alone?”

Her ears flattened and she coughed faintly. The pause was more tradition than anything else. She didn’t get an answer. She never did. She hadn’t expected one, not really. Still, it… felt good to ask. Just like the air, the stars and Moon never judged her. Even if the questions lingered around her like a cloud… her heart felt just a tiny bit lighter.

Blue took a deep breath, then let herself simply slide beneath the Moon and the stars. After another few minutes though, she checked to make sure she was staying parallel to the Silver Lining’s course. The last thing she needed was something to go wrong on the ship when she wasn’t aboard to save their tails, no matter what they thought of her.

Her mind wandered like the winds, but they were drawn back to the ship. Like always.

“Nerve of that stallion,” Blue muttered to herself, gently coasting from side to side as she tried to shake off the captain’s words. “Treating me like… like… I’m nothing more than some… charity case electrician!”

Lune used to be here to talk to them. Yes, I was the prodigy, but she was the only reason anypony ever listened to me. She could have had Greystern eating out of her hoof. Blue chuckled morosely and remembered that annoyingly roguish wink of the sky-blue pegasus. She could have anypony eating out of her hoof.

She forced herself to remember it wouldn’t matter. Another day, maybe two and they’d be in dock. After that… well, she’d figure out what was next. Spitfire Avionics might have a new ship for her to work on. Who knew? She didn’t much care these days.

Realizing she was falling a little behind of the Silver Lining, she flapped her wings and sped up, looking out beyond the ship to the landscape between them and Canterlot. Her special talent allowed her to see Canterlot’s shining lights, spires and towers even from this distance on the other side of the Everfree. Her eyes fell on the forbidding stretch of wild forest and she shivered, then shivered again when she spotted large swaths of wild clouds wandering over the ancient forest, blocking her view of New Ponyville and the lands beyond.

A few degrees to the north—along their present course—she spotted what was probably the squall Greystern had mentioned. A massive bank of thunderheads stretching at least a hundred miles in either direction, climbing up to block out the stars. The land beneath the storm looked utterly soaked, highlighted only by the glow of the homesteads of those brave—or foolish—enough to live so close to the Everfree. A few bolts of lightning ran through the cloudbank, but those were few and far between.

The squall didn’t look too nasty, though she knew better than to push her luck. The last time she’d been careless with a storm, only the pegasi emergency rescue team—PERT—had saved her and the ship’s crew. That wasn’t an experience she ever wanted to repeat. Which, unfortunately, meant she’d need to be on board before the Silver Lining hit the stormfront, otherwise she’d have to fly over the storm or wait it out somewhere on the ground.

Blue shifted slightly and dropped a couple dozen feet, then a dozen more as she accidentally wandered into a cold drift from the oncoming storm.

Greystern would go to the ‘grey side’ of the docks if she didn’t come back, but they knew that would just cause more trouble for both of them in the end. Might as well just finish this shakedown quietly. It’s what Lunar would do. Probably.

With a long, drawn-out sigh, she angled her wings and soared forward. The Silver Lining would likely be getting chop within the next ten minutes now—

Blue froze in midair when she caught signs of the propeller blades of the small cargo ship adjust their spin ratios, right before the rudder twitched and the ship yawed to starboard…

On a direct course over the Everfree.

“That idiot!” Blue shouted to the night sky. “He can’t be that stupid!”

The Silver Lining’s propellers accelerated to three-quarters. She could see it in the way the wind played along the rigging and the speed of the spinning blades at the rear of the ship. In a matter of moments, the increased power had driven the ship into an unmistakable heading.

Captain Greystern was driving the ship right into the wild cloud fields of the Everfree.

Blue shot forward as if propelled by a cannon, a surge of speed generated by sheer panic. Ignoring protocol, she skimmed over the railing of the accelerating airship before she slammed down onto the deck before the bridge. She looked up through the glass and glowered at the ponies inside.

Greystern stood there, completely unphased by Blue’s sudden appearance. Skiff—a small, tan earth pony mare at the helm—took a step back.

The bridge of the Silver Lining wasn’t big. The central station held the ship’s main wheel and navigation array. There was a small secondary station along the wall holding the systems for communications and backup engineering controls. There was barely enough room for four ponies to fit in there and only then if they’d all showered recently.

Blue shoved her goggles off her eyes and growled at the captain under her breath, but he continued to just stare at her, looking thoroughly unimpressed and generally being a complete idiot. She wanted to pound his face into the safety glass of the bridge, but that wasn’t going to help matters. Instead, she marched over to the side and threw open the hatch.

“I would remind you of our deal, little Bee,” Greystern said calmly, as if asking how many clouds were outside.

“I remember.” Blue forced herself to take a deep breath. It wasn’t worth a screaming match. Not yet. “However, as leading consultant for Spitfire Avionics on this ship, I must ask what you’re doing. You have deviated from the flight plan and will soon violate restricted airspace.”

She was impressed with the forced calm in her voice. Very impressed. Lunar probably would have been impressed too.

“Yes. Thank you so very much for an update on the course I just ordered.” Greystern sighed and rubbed his face with a forehoof. “New Ponyville sent out a weather update. The squall in our path has been upgraded to a level four, likely caused by air currents from the Everfree. I had no intention of driving this ship through a class-four squall on her maiden voyage.”

Blue paled a little. The squall that had nearly downed the Dreaming Angel had been a class-four. No sane captain went into a class-four, especially if the Everfree was involved. She glanced out the window and spied the storm, now looking far more menacing than it had during her flight. Still, her eyes drifted to the chaotic masses of clouds strewn all over the Everfree Forest.

“Then heave to and wait it out!” Blue cried, her wings flaring. “Or head north and swing around it. I’ll sign the paperwork saying it was a necessary deviation. Don’t be an idiot by flying into restricted airspace!”

Greystern’s eyes bored into hers. “I’ll take your recommendation under advisement.”

“That’s captain-ese for ‘go kiss the sun’,” Blue snapped.

“So it is. Nice to see you are capable of picking up on some social cues.”

“Do you have any idea what’s in those Everfree clouds?” Blue demanded, stepping forward, her voice echoing in the tiny confined space of the bridge. “For all you know a class-five squall could break out over the Forest at any time. There could be pirates lurking in them! Or hidden thunderheads that’ll fry half this ship’s systems!”

“They’re Everfree clouds, little Bee.” Greystern rolled his eyes and studied the small magitech radar array beside Skiff. Blue couldn’t help but notice entire swaths of the display were grayed out as the Silver Lining’s radar scattered off the Everfree clouds. “As long as we steer clear of them, we shouldn’t have anything to worry about. Believe it or not, but every captain I know has cut through the Everfree skies more times than I can count. As long as there’s a clear path, it’s perfectly safe.”

Skiff shifted awkwardly, but she didn’t respond to either Blue or the idiot of a captain.

“You can’t know that!” Blue shouted, pointing a hoof out to the approaching Everfree clouds, each looking like puffs of pure shadow in the light of Luna’s Moon. “I’ve been in those storms, Greystern! I barely survived with my life! Sit it out! Go around!”

Greystern twitched and closed his eyes. He took in a long, slow breath and adjusted his captain’s hat with a flare of dark green magic. Only then did he turn and face Blue. His motions were like some clockwork soldier, though when he opened his eyes, the glare she felt was very real.

“That’s enough, little Bee,” he said quietly. “I have tried to be patient with you for the sake of Skysong. I have tried, and tried, and tried!” He took another breath to get his voice under control. Something dark flashed in his eyes, dark enough to make Blue cringe back until her flank bumped the bulkhead beside the door. “You seem to be under the impression that you have some sort of authority on this ship. Allow me to fix that for you. This ship is mine. You are here as an advisor. Your advice is no longer required and I will not tolerate any further insubordination. Spitfire Avionics may have built my ship but my contract is with Glitterbell Shipping. They own this ship now. And they trust me.”

Greystern slowly marched toward Blue until she was nothing more than a cowering ball on the deck, shaking like a foal as the captain’s rage washed over her in ways she wished she could ignore.

It shouldn’t be like this. She shouldn’t be doing this. She should have someone here to help her…

“Return to your cabin. Immediately. You will remain there for the remainder of this voyage. If you leave your cabin or attempt to further interact with my crew before we make berth in Canterlot, I will bring you up on charges of assault and mutiny.”

She… she tried to spit something back at him, but her tongue was glued to the roof of her mouth. She couldn’t get a word out. She… maybe she really was just an annoying little bee to everypony around her.

“Do you understand me?”

Blue nodded, unable to meet his eyes. She didn’t want him to see her crying.

“Good. I’ll have secu—”

A piercing alarm erupted from the navigation console, cutting off the captain’s words. Skiff let out a shrill shriek.

Greystern whirled and stared out of the bridge’s window. “Celestia above…”

The sudden change was enough to get Blue to push herself to her hooves. Skiff and Greystern may need to squint, but she had no such trouble.

While Greystern had been ripping into her, Skiff had piloted the ship into the Everfree. She’d been working herself through a narrow corridor of Everfree clouds, looming menacingly to port and starboard. But those hadn’t been what tripped the proximity alarm.

Three airships had just emerged from cover of the Everfree clouds. Lightning raked them all, but the black envelopes of their balloons absorbed the blasts and sent the electrical charge into power sinks toward the rear of each ship. One seemed to be a fairly normal air-clipper design, while the other two were needle-nosed schooners, ships designed to be fast above all else. The schooners would likely hold a crew of ten each, while the air-clipper would crew at least thirty.

All of this shot through Blue’s mind in less than two seconds as her eyes locked on the most important part: they were flying without colors and their hulls were matte black. Moonlight still glinted off the metallic struts and supports.

Not to mention the cannons and harpoons.

Greystern threw himself at the communications console and pulled a headset over his ears.

“Mayday, mayday!” he shouted into the microphone. “This is the Silver Lining, out of Balt—gak!”

Two black shapes shot out of nowhere and tore over the main deck of the Silver Lining. They’d been moving so fast Blue could hardly track them. But she did catch a glint of moonlight on something along their wings.

Wingblades.

The communications console went dead.

Greystern smashed it with a hoof, but Blue knew it was less than useless. He yanked off the helmet and slammed the intercom button right above Blue’s head in a field of magic.

“General quarters!” Greystern roared. “General quarters, three pirate airships on approach! Prepare to defend against boarders!”

Blue froze, the terror she’d felt at Greystern’s shouting nothing compared to the flashbacks she had at hearing those words.

Black-hulled Gemrunner on approach, her forward cannons blasting great holes out of the Siren’s Song’s hull.

The touch of a pirate’s blade against her throat and a demented little giggle.

Periwinkle’s terrified whimper, begging Blue to help her.

A single pirate’s blood on her hooves.

Blue started to shake.

The only reason she wasn’t forced to relive finding Lunar again was Greystern shoving her into a bulkhead. She reeled upon impact, her head spinning. Her trance broken, she staggered back upright and wiped blood from her mouth where she’s bitten the inside her of cheek.

“I said dive, dammit! Take us low!” Greystern bellowed at the white-faced Skiff.

“We can’t outrun them, Captain!” Skiff shouted, her hooves in a death grip on the ship’s helm. “They’ve got boosters!”

Indeed, both schooners were now blasting toward them using some sort of chemical rocket booster. Blue swore, trying to calculate trajectories in her head as the captain and the navigator simply panicked.

“I didn’t ask for your opinion!” Greystern shoved Skiff aside, who landed roughly in a heap beside the communications console. The captain took the wheel and growled, “I’m not losing my damn ship to bloody pirates!”

“Wait!” Blue cried desperately as she finally realized what was about to happen.

Despite Greystern’s shouts to the contrary, the ships were on them in seconds. As Greystern banked, both the starboard and port side pirate ships fired a pair of heavy towing harpoons almost point-blank at their hull. The dive-and-bank managed to avoid the starboard ship’s harpoons entirely. However, they weren’t so lucky on the port side.

The entire bridge lurched horribly as the ship beams and timbers screamed in protest.

In less than a second, Blue knew what had happened. One of the harpoons had ripped straight through the portside rigging connecting the gondola of the Silver Lining to the envelope. Blue could feel the entire ship shudder as the weight of the vessel forced the ship to yaw dangerously to starboard. From the tilt of the deck, the harpoon hadn’t torn out all of the rigging, but at least half of it had to be gone.

A cold sweat washed over Blue as she realized the implications.

“Idiot!” Blue snapped as she tried to get past Greystern to the engineering controls. “They already had our trajectory calculated!”

“They can’t have my ship!” Greystern sounded more like a manticore than a pony. “Not now, not ev—”

A black-armored pegasus exploded through the bridge window, sending them all to the deck and showering them with jagged shards of glass. Blue screamed as the pieces ripped through her coat and skin. Skiff screamed as well, but Blue couldn’t see her. She could only see Greystern hauling himself to his hooves, a look of murderous rage as the Everfree Forest flashed outside the shattered window.

“Captain!” Blue could barely hear Cogstrut over the sound of the rushing wind and the laughing pegasus turning to face the bloodied Greystern. “Secondary core has shorted! The cage has crumpled on the side and is making direct contact with the crystal core! It’s funneling energy into the port propellers! I can’t get it loose!”

Greystern didn’t respond to Cogstrut’s panicked cry. Blue had a rather different reaction. Specifically, the cry froze the blood in her veins.

The world around her slowed as she processed the data in rapid succession.

Incident: Port-side rigging damaged. Result: Over eighty-two percent of gondola weight would now be focused on the starboard side of the envelope. Following Result: Shift in weight would cause ship to drift increasingly starboard. Risk: Starboard side rigging failure. Risk: Remaining port-side rigging failure.

The only reason the ship hadn’t spiraled to the ground entirely was the port-side rigging hadn’t been completely destroyed.

Incident: increased energy directed into port propeller array. Result: Port propeller array would increase in speed until problem corrected or propellers tore themselves apart.

There were a half-dozen ways to get a fused crystal separated from a dented cage, but with Cogstrut’s moronic modifications, she doubted any of them would work in time.

Incident: Pirate ships likely coming around for a second shot, but as ship is now in an erratic, spinning dive, increased likelihood of harpoon impacting envelope. Result if harpoon misses: none. Result if harpoon spears hull: ship boarded. Result if harpoon spears envelope: loss of air would cause immediate decline in altitude.

Combination of results: airship will likely either be captured, torn apart in midair or crash to the ground. Maybe a combination of the three.

At that point, Blue believed very firmly that whatever pony had named this ship had made a terrible mistake.

Time snapped back into motion.

“Get off of my ship!” Greystern bellowed. With a primal scream, he unleashed a torrent of arcane blasts at the pegasus only a few feet away from him.

The pegasus just laughed, his face hidden behind a thick cloth mask. He flung up his wings as an impromptu shield… only to have the arcane blasts ricochet off of the armor and slam back into the bridge. Blue barely dodged one, while Greystern had to conjure a shield to absorb two. Skiff let out another scream from somewhere behind Greystern.

Blue glanced behind the pirate to see more black forms swarming the ship. Crewmembers were shouting and fighting, magic going off and the telltale snap of crossbows erupting in the ragged wind as the Silver Lining continued its spin downward.

The pirate darted forward and bucked Greystern in the chest, hitting him hard enough to sending him flying over the ship’s wheel and crashing onto the deck with a thud. With a raspy voice, the pirate laughed again. He gave a sidelong look at the prone Blue and at the cowering Skiff, then seemed to dismiss them as he went after the captain.

Blue ignored the pirate and shot a glance at the terrified Skiff. She had a bad magic burn along her left flank and was covered in small bleeding cuts. But they didn’t have time for first aid.

“Get the ship level!” Blue shouted.

“What?!” Skiff cried, glancing out at the battle raging over the deck. “Our only hope is to get away before those ships get a solid harpoon in us!”

“Port propellers are stuck in a power spin!” Blue cried over the sound of the raging wind. She didn’t dare look outside. “If we don’t get out of this dive, we’re going to be a smear on the Everfree!”

Skiff, thankfully, knew her trade well. It took her less than five seconds to process Blue’s information. Her eyes grew to the size of dinner plates and she leapt up, only to scream when she landed on all four hooves. Still, she ignored her injuries and started to pull hard against the massive wheel.

Blue threw herself into helping the navigator as she spied a large shadow come up on their starboard side.

“By Harmony’s light!” she spat as she realized the lead pirate ship had decided to take part in the festivities.

Beyond them, the pegasus’s laugh echoed as he dodged more arcane blasts from the enraged Captain Greystern. Purple light flashed in the night, but not a single shot connected with the nimble pirate. He danced around the captain on black wings, darting this way and that with the grace of a Wonderbolt.

“Stop moving so I can kill you!” Greystern screamed, his voice almost hysterical with rage.

“Okay!” the pegasus cackled… and darted forward so fast he was little more than a blur, even to Blue’s eyes. When he darted away, Greystern was on his back, groaning.

“I think I almos—Oh, Celestia!” Skiff screamed when she looked up to see her captain. “Help him, please!

The pirate had unsheathed twin hoofdaggers, each gleaming in the moonlight.

For a fraction of a second, Blue hesitated. But really, it was only a fraction of a second. Still, she knew better than to fly in there and get directly involved. She’d be cut to ribbons. And with the rest of the crew occupied fighting for their lives…

“I hate doing this…” Blue whispered.

With a swipe of her left hoof along her right side, her magnetic bracer engaged the matching magnets on her multibow. She brought it forward and twisted her hoof a little to the right. Both the upper and lower limbs of the bow snapped out, revealing the enchanted bowstring. With another twist of her hoof, a small mechanical assembly on the side of the multibow slotted a single grapple bolt into the arrow rest. She hauled back on the string with her other hoof. The entire process took moments.

Another hesitation. Her heart twisted in her chest. But the pirate had Greystern dead to rights. Either she fired or Greystern was dead.

Blood on her hooves…

“Pirates are the exception,” she mumbled to herself as she sighed on her target.

She swallowed hard, and loosed the bolt.

The bolt shot through the air with a whipcord-quick buzz. It caught a sliver of moonlight before slammed into the pegasus’s left wing. The impact instantly shattered the wing armor and sent the pegasus spinning to the deck with a scream.

Greystern glanced back at her and seemed to nod once in the darkness. Blue didn’t nod back. She just thanked Harmony she hadn’t been forced to go for a killshot.

However, Greystern didn’t seem to be under any such apprehension. With a roar, he threw himself on top of the stunned pegasus. With a savage yank of his magic, he ripped the hoof daggers away and shoved them on his own hooves. Even from here, Blue could see the manic grin on Greystern face.

“No!” Blue screamed as she darted out in a blur of speed.

Only then did she notice the pair of shadows flying above the Silver Lining.

“Incoming!” a unicorn mare near the railing shouted, her voice laced with more resignation than terror.

Greystern whirled before he made the killing stroke. Blue turned in midair and gaped.

“No…”

One harpoon from the hovering ships missed entirely, flying out into the night. The second speared directly through their central envelope and crunched into the deck a few feet away from the bridge. Skiff let out a cry, but she was hidden behind the massive iron harpoon.

Shouts came from the large pirate vessel to starboard, most of them furious or outright enraged. Within seconds, they were already pulling away as the attacking pirates fled to the safety of their mothership.

She looked up and her heart sank as the enormous envelope of the Silver Lining began to deflate. Cries of panic sounded around her as the crew of the doomed cargo ship tried to find the safety gear. But Blue had seen their altitude. There wasn’t time. She had to get everypony off this ship now.

Blue turned to shout something to the captain, only to see Greystern being flung at her by the pegasus. She let out a scream as the massive stallion crashed against her and slammed her into the giant harpoon, now obviously cut loose from the pirate schooner. Greystern groaned and snarled something Blue couldn’t make out. From her vantage, she could just see the pirate pegasus give a one-winged salute to them both before darting off into the night.

Blue blinked a few times, trying to shove Greystern off of her.

Then she looked up as the canopy of the Everfree came up to greet them.

Author's Note:

And Bee's back! I know it's only been a couple weeks since In Transit, but this is the last of my stories which had collected dust for way too long!

...Bee's really not having a good time lately, is she?

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If you come across any errors, please let me know by PM!