The Astonishing Airship
Imagine you are about to board a train.
The platform bustles behind you; the smell of soot permeates the air. You look up at the great beast of metal that holds its breath before you, waiting patiently—but not too patiently—for its handlers to set it loose down the tracks again. Its open maw beckons you inside.
As you place your foot squarely on the first step, do you feel that tingle down your spine? That jolt of electricity?
Whatever the reason, wherever you’re going, you’re boarding the train, and that little jolt runs down your spine, because as soon as you step into that cabin, your future becomes uncertain.
You’re about to spend the next little bit of your life—be it ten minutes, be it ten hours—in the belly of that beast, your only company people you’ve never met, people you’ll likely never meet again. As soon as you climb those steps, you’re sealing yourself in there with them. As soon as those doors close, the rest of the world stops observing. The train becomes something separate, detached from normal reality.
Perhaps you enjoy this feeling. Perhaps it unsettles you. Perhaps you’ve never felt it before, and you think this is all a little bit silly, and could we please get on with things? But whichever way you look at it, as soon as that door closes behind you, as soon as you’ve entered Schroedinger’s box...
Anything could happen aboard that train.
You climb the steps.
It’s electrifying, isn’t it?
Rainbow Dash wasn’t feeling very electrified. Nor was Rarity. Neither of them were about to board a train, and what they were feeling was bored.
“You know,” Rainbow said, “when you asked me if I had a couple days to spare for a field trip, I didn’t think you meant we’d be spending two days in a literal field.”
“A poor choice of expression on my part,” Rarity said, a noticeable edge to her voice. “Patience, darling.”
Where they were was a grassy field outside of Baltimare. The ground was relatively flat, although there were hills to the south. And they weren’t alone; theirs was an uneasy congregation, mostly of reporters, and a few faces Rarity would have recognized and Rainbow would not. And their congregation point was the foot of a small wooden stage, conspicuously unoccupied, which gave off the alarming air of having been hastily constructed an hour ago.
Which, in fact, it had. Rainbow and Rarity had arrived just as it was being completed. They’d initially been in high spirits, but those had gradually been exorcised over the course of an hour that, to Rainbow, had felt like a month. It didn’t help that the morning was ever-so-slightly too humid.
All in all, things could have been better.
“When were we supposed to take off, again?” Rainbow asked.
“Eight o’clock.”
“What time is it now?”
She glanced at a pocketwatch, which she’d retrieved from somewhere in the folds of her dress. Rarity, being Rarity, had dressed for the occasion; her attire was light, but modest; classy, but comfortable. She’d put a lot of effort into it, and she thought she pulled it off beautifully.
Rainbow Dash, being Rainbow Dash, had elected to wear nothing at all.
“Eight fifteen.”
Rainbow groaned.
“I’m sorry about all this, Rainbow,” Rarity said, re-pocketing the pocketwatch. “I had expected arriving slightly early would mean that we’d be here in time for the ceremonies. It seems I overestimated the accuracy of the timetable.”
“Hey,” Rainbow was quick to reply. “It’s not like it’s your fault these guys can’t stick to a schedule.”
“Oh? Well in that case, I apologize for nothing.”
Something seemed to catch Rarity’s eye, then, and she smiled. “Ah. Speak of the devil.”
She turned towards whatever it was she’d spotted, and Rainbow followed suit. It seemed their quarry had noticed them, as well.
“Ah! Miss Rarity! Miss Rainbow Dash!”
Rainbow’s breath froze in her lungs. For a moment she wondered if she was seeing things, but blinking didn’t dispel the vison, and then her brain reminded her that she’d heard him, as well, and so she wondered if both of her senses had betrayed her.
But no; they really were there, coming towards them through the thin crowd. And they were—
“F-Fancy Pants!?” Rainbow’s wings flared out slightly. “Fleur!?”
“Bonjour, mes amies,” Fleur said with a smile.
“It has been quite a while,” added Fancy Pants. “I trust you are both well?”
“Quite well,” Rarity said, stepping forward. “Though I am a little surprised that you’re only just arriving. Nothing too worrying, I hope?”
“Ah, no, nothing of the sort,” Fancy said. “There were a few last-minute adjustments to the engines that needed to be made. My apologies for the wait.”
Fleur leaned over and nudged her head against Fancy’s neck. “Fancy made them triple-check everything.”
Fancy nudged her back. “Can’t have anything going wrong today, of all days.”
Rainbow’s voice finally returned to her. “Aren’t you two supposed to be in jail!?” she asked.
“We’re on probation,” Fleur said.
“Probation for treason?”
“Attempted treason.”
“And if you don’t believe us,” Fancy said, “you can ask our very nice probation officers.”
He waved to the side; at the edge of the crowd, a pair of very out-of-place ponies scowled back.
“Good chaps, them.”
“Like kittens.”
“Wait wait wait.” Rainbow fell back on her haunches and crossed her forelegs. “Time out.” She turned to Rarity. “Fancy Pants is the one who invited us here?”
“Oh, did I forget to mention that?” Rarity said, tapping her chin. “It must have slipped my mind.”
Rainbow squinted at her.
“Well, regardless, yes. He’s the owner of the airship, darling.”
“And you said yes!?”
Rarity shrugged. “It would have been rude to decline.”
“Rarity, you got him sent to jail. For treason.”
“And if he does anything ungentlemanly, I’ll do it again,” Rarity said. “Well, apart from the treason part. Probably.”
“If I may interject,” Fancy Pants interjected. “It was part of my intent in inviting the two of you that this be a gesture of good will. ‘No hard feelings’, as it were.”
“Besides,” Fleur said, “It’s not as though you’ve ruined our lives. When you’re as rich as Fancy and I are, jail time is barely more than an inconvenience.”
“Were that we’d all be so lucky,” Rarity said with a flirtatious grin. This earned some polite laughter.
“Yes, well,” Fancy said, after it had died down. “We were given quite a generous sentence, all things considered.”
“Handed down by Celestia herself, I hear,” Rarity said.
Fancy withdrew a cloth from his suit-pocket and gave his monocle a quick polish. “Indeed. A little too generous of a sentence, really. I’ve come to the somewhat unsettling conclusion that the Princess may have liked her nephew even less than we did.”
Rainbow shook her head. “So… you’re not mad that Rarity got you sent to jail. For treason.”
“Heavens, no,” Fancy said, smiling. “My dear, I could hardly call myself a gentlestallion if I swore vengeance after every lost game of chess, could I?”
“A good thing, too,” Fleur whispered to Rarity. “Fancy is terrible at it.”
Fancy continued. “And the same is true of the battle of wits Miss Rarity and I partook in at Blueblood Manor. I have accepted my loss, and I now move on with dignity.”
His monocle returned to its usual place over his eye.
“Of course, should the opportunity for a rematch ever arise, well…”
He winked at them.
“Who knows what the outcome might be?”
Rainbow shivered.
“Now then! I must be going,” Fancy declared. “Mustn’t keep the crowd waiting any longer!”
He gave his wife a quick peck on the cheek and departed, heading for the stage. The remaining three turned to watch him go.
Rarity was the first to speak up.
“So, darling—”
“No,” Rainbow said. “Uh-uh. No way am I getting on a ship, or anything else, with a murderer.”
“Attempted murderer, darling.”
“Does that really make a difference!? He still tried to kill someone!”
Rarity smiled. “Rainbow Dash,” she said, in that sort of half-laughing way she sometimes did. “Relax. I have the utmost confidence that Fancy has no ill intentions towards us.”
“Oh yeah? How do you figure?”
“Simple. It’s been half a year since Blueblood Manor, and he hasn’t tried to have us killed yet.”
“Oh, well, that’s very reassuring.” Rainbow rubbed the bridge of her muzzle. “Look, Rares, I don’t like this. This whole thing stinks worse than Applejack’s farm.”
“Don’t you routinely sleep in Applejack’s trees, darling?”
“Not the point!”
“Si je puis me,” Fleur said, “I know that we didn’t exactly meet under the best of terms, but my husband is nothing if not a man of his word. You may not trust him, but least wait until after Fancy’s speech to make your decision.”
“Which appears to be about to begin,” Rarity observed. Indeed, Fancy Pants had just made it to the rickety platform. The low murmurings of the crowd died down as he climbed the steps, his hoofalls echoing in the hollows of the wood. He strode with aplomb to center stage with his head held high, exuding an aura of confidence and showmanship not dissimilar to that of a circus ringleader.
“Ladies and gentlecolts! Your attention, please!”
This was a formality, of course; he’d already ensnared everyone’s attention. “Thank you,” he said, again as a formality, and then he began.
“For many years now, the travel market has been dominated by the railways. I would not hesitate to guess that the majority of you arrived here by train.”
There was plenty of nodding, in the crowd, Rainbow and Rarity included.
“When the steam locomotive was first introduced,” he continued, “it fundamentally changed the way we think about travel. Grueling journeys that would have taken days on hoof could now be done in a matter of hours. Vacations and day-trips to other towns, other cities, became not only possible, but affordable. The creation of the train lines made our world smaller, more accessible.
“But,” he said. “But.”
“Locomotives are not without their limitations, and they are quite large limitations indeed. They are inefficient; they are dirty; and above all else, they are bound to their rails. The construction of a railroad is a long, arduous, expensive process, and even today there are entire towns which cannot be accessed by train because laying the tracks to reach them is simply too difficult a task. Not to mention the problems inherent in traveling over water! Our interconnected world extends only as far as our rail lines.
“But what if we could decouple travel from the rails? Well, that would change everything, wouldn’t it?”
“He’s really getting into this, huh,” Rainbow whispered.
“Fancy Pants never was one to do things by half-measures,” Rarity whispered back.
“You think the train pun was on purpose?”
“Not a doubt in my mind.”
“I believe,” Fancy said, “that—and the pegasi among us may agree—the next wave of innovation in travel will be found… in the skies!”
A buzz swept through those members of the press in the crowd. Fancy held up his hoof, and there was silence once more.
“For years, airships had been seen as nothing more than a novelty, too expensive and too fragile to make and maintain to be anything more than toys. But we at Fancy Freight proved that was hardly the case! The introduction of our cargo air-fleet revolutionized the way we distribute freight, and today I am here to tell you that we will be extending what we have learned to revolutionize the travel industry!”
He signaled someone to his side; a moment later a flare went off, soaring high into the sky and burning bright over their heads.
Fancy continued. “Our engineers have created a new breed of passenger airship. One which can be produced reliably. Affordably. One which can carry twenty passengers in modern comfort, with all the conveniences one may need… And one that can keep pace with the trains.”
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said with a flourish, “it is my great pleasure to announce that we have created the first truly commercially viable passenger airship! I give you: the Anesidora!”
He raised his hoof; it took the crowd a moment to realize he was pointing behind them. Turning, they got their first glimpse of the Anesidora as it rose up from behind the hills.
It was just a shadow, at first, silhouetted as it was by the rising sun; they had to squint to make out the details.
The first thing Rarity noticed was the sheer size of the thing. The sleek wooden gondola which hung suspended by a number of tethers was large on its own, being nearly (by her estimate) the size of a well-off house. But it was dwarfed entirely by its balloon—and the balloon itself was unlike any she’d ever seen. It was shaped a bit like a teardrop, but elongated, so that the rounded front was some distance away from the tapering-off back. What’s more, it appeared to be held to a frame; the sides of the thing were angular, and rigid.
The ship was propelled along by a pair of—well, propellers, mounted on struts that jutted up and out from the sides of the gondola. They turned lazily, but even at such a low speed the ship glided along at a decent clip as it passed over their heads. The Anesidora descended from the sky like an angel descending from the heavens, if the heavens were about a mile up, and the angel weighed nine tonnes and was shaped like an airship.
Sleek, but elegant; a fusion of classical aesthetics and modern utility, connected together by thread. Rarity could feel the inspiration bubbling up already.
Rainbow Dash, despite herself, let out a whistle.
Cameras flashed as the ship drifted down, its gondola (which was most definitely the size of a large house, now that it was right in front of them) touching down on the grass of the field some distance behind the stage, its tethers growing slack for a moment as momentum carried the balloon down with it. Fancy allowed the reporters their chance, then held up his hoof for silence once more.
“Of course, I couldn’t just boast about our accomplishments without a proper demonstration,” Fancy said. “’Putting my money where my mouth is’, as they say. Which brings me to the reason I’ve gathered you here today.”
“Ladies and gentlecolts, you are here today to witness the beginning of a historic journey. The first of its kind, a feat never before attempted in the history of mechanical aviation! A non-stop transcontinental flight!”
He put his hoof down.
“Ladies and gentlecolts, I tell you now without a trace of exaggeration that by tomorrow evening, my esteemed guests and I will have landed in Vanhoover!”
This set the reporters in the crowd abuzz, and there was no settling them down now.
“How did I do?”
“Wonderfully, dear,” Fleur said to Fancy, nuzzling him. “You’ll be the talk of tomorrow’s papers.”
“Well, can’t ask for better than that!”
“Quite impressive,” Rarity said. “You certainly know how to play an audience. You had them ensnared like a ringleader at the circus.”
“I will choose to take that as a compliment,” Fancy said, his pleasant smile unwavering. He pulled a pocketwatch from his suit pocket, glanced at it, and clicked his tongue. “We should perhaps continue this conversation once we’re aboard the ship. Shall we?”
“That depends,” Rarity said. She turned to her friend. “Rainbow? Will you be joining us?”
Rainbow bit her lip.
“Not that I trust you, or anything, but…” She eyed the ship. “How fast does this thing go?”
“Well, certainly not as fast as you, my dear,” Fancy said, smiling. “But I’m confident it would at least make you sweat.”
Rainbow’s eyes flicked to Fancy. Then back to the ship. Then to Rarity. Then back to the ship. To Rarity again.
She rolled her eyes.
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll come. Under protest, so we’re clear!”
“Really, darling?”
“Well, someone’s got to make sure Fancy Fright over there doesn’t ‘accidentally’ stab you with a butter knife,” Rainbow explained.
“Protection from silverware-related incidents?” Rarity smiled. “I feel safer already.”
She turned to the other member of their little group.
“Will you be accompanying us on the trip, Fleur?”
“Oh, goodness no,” she said. “No offense to my husband or his work, but you would not catch me dead in one of his toys. I prefer to keep my hooves firmly planted on the ground, merci beaucoup.”
“Who else is coming, then?” Rainbow asked.
“Didn’t you read the guest list, darling?” Rarity asked. “There was one with the invitation.”
Rainbow squinted. “You never showed me the invitation. And who sends the guest list with the invitation, anyway?”
“Someone who is very confident that no one will say no,” Fancy said. “We’ll make introductions once we’re on board. Things are behind schedule enough as it is.”
He kissed his wife, and then he was off, towards the towering mass of metal and wood that was to be their home for the next two days. Rarity lit her horn and grabbed her bags (of which there were many) and followed suit, saying a quick goodbye to Fleur as well, and then she and Rainbow together followed after him. The crowd of photographers, waiting like hyenas for the perfect shot in a ring around the ship (the journalists had all already departed, their job done) parted around them, a few flashbulbs going off as they did so. Neither of them were strangers to the sensation of being photographed, but given the circumstances, things were just a tiny bit more exciting.
The shadow of the ship’s massive balloon came over them as they approached the ramp that led up into the belly of the beast. And as her hoof came down on the wide wooden plank, the hair on the back of Rainbow’s neck prickled up.
“Something the matter, darling?” Rarity asked her, glancing back.
Rainbow hesitated a moment… but shook her head.
“No, it’s nothing.”
And up into the box they went.
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Just as I was beginning to despair that the once-raging flow of good new stories had dimished to a sad trickle, my all-time favorite mystery series gets a new installment. Boo-yah!
Detective Rarity stories are always good, and I'm looking forward to where this goes.
So, there is a two-day trip, and Fleur is staying behind, presumably due to a fear of flying. Fancy is establishing cross-continent passenger service in a pointed challenge to the railroad. He specifically invited Rarity and Rainbow Dash--two individuals whom he knows well to be detectives--and then proceded to make nice with them. It would seem to me that he expects trouble aboard his enormous flying hydrogen-filled bomb. That would be a reasonable assumption given the character and scruples for which railroad barons are known.
I'm already suspecting Fleur is, at the least, a co-conspirator under duress for what's gonna happen next. She seems to be too laid back and uneager to be on the airship with Fancy for my tastes. I just hope she isn't the mastermind as she and Fancy seem to be quite the lovebirds.
Edit: Also forgot to do this but HELL YEEEEES MY FAVORITE DETECTIVE SERIES IS CONTINUING!
awesome chapter mate keep it up cant wait for the next chapter
Sending a guest list with the invitation is a great way to ensure person A sees person B will ALSO be there. Which could be a great way to lure people together.