Clear Skies

by Amber Spark

Repairs

That night, I had trouble sleeping, though I wasn’t sure why.

After leaving Canterlot, I’d lived in Vanhoover. During that time, pegasi controlled the weather around the city, just like most major civilized areas of Equestria. In the middle of winter, we might get the occasional storm like this. Apparently, the wilder parts of Equestria ran by different rules.

I could see the snow swirling above me through the skylight, softly glowing in the light from the Skyport.

Even then, I didn’t think it was the weather keeping me awake.

The encounter with the crazy crew of the Colour wasn’t it either. Yes, Trinket was creepy as all get out. Snappy was obsessed and obnoxious and loud and… a lot of other things. And Easy was way too normal to be on that ship.

And it wasn’t... her. I was sure of that. Well, mostly sure. There was hardly a night that went by that I didn’t at least think about her a little. So I should be used to that, right?

Was it the two voices from the past? Admiral Fairweather aboard the HMS Valiant Sunrise. The other, a gnarled griffon claiming to be aboard the Cloudshark under fire. Both claimed that one of the treasure-laden cargo pods of the Cloudshark had crashed into the west ridge of Canter Basin Lake.

I still didn’t really believe any of this. Not a word. This was insane.

But...

I didn’t really have anywhere else to go, did I?

Minuette and I hadn’t really talked about my plans. They weren’t really of any of her business, after all. And the only plan I truly had was to see the Crystal Faire. But that was weeks away. After that? I’d occasionally thought about running some light cargo in the Trottingham area to pay off the rest of my debt. But I could hardly call that a plan.

Truth was, I didn’t know where I was going or what I was doing. I just knew I had to get away.

Best for everypony, really.

So, what was I hiding from? I mean, this was Minuette! How could I not trust her with the truth?

That’s something I couldn’t quite answer.

And that also left me with only one thing that was keeping me awake.

With a sigh, I flung off my covers, slid into my slippers and padded to the door. I popped it open and stepped across the short hallway to listen just outside Minuette’s door.

I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t really want to talk to her, after all.

A soft snore came from inside the room.

I lifted a hoof to knock anyway.

Then, I hesitated. Finally, I shook my head.

Minuette... was Minuette. No, I wasn’t going to bother her with something like this. I needed to just tough it out and get some rest.

Still, it took some effort to turn around and walk back to my room. Once I closed the door, however, it was easier. I pulled off my slippers and crawled into bed, snuggling up under the covers, accidentally bumping Smarty Pants, who’d slipped under the sheets. I adjusted the little stuffed doll, leaned back on my pillow and sighed.

Hopefully, tomorrow would reveal that both accounts were bogus. There would be no treasure of the Cloudshark, no ancient loot, no secret stash. And then, I could make a beeline for Whinnyapolis and deliver Minuette as agreed.

Then, I could finally, at long last, be alone. Just like I was supposed to be.

A loud knocking woke me from a frigid dream. I blearily looked around, trying to figure out who could possibly be so annoying to make that kind of racket.

I looked around, but there was nopony in my room. I levitated over my glasses, but my restored sight didn’t reveal anypony either.

Then I looked up to see a red-maned mare with a yellow coat. She wore a pair of denim overalls and a green bandanna. And she was waving at me through the skylight with a grin.

The overall look told me immediately who this mystery pony was. And that I’d forgotten to make the skylight opaque before passing out.

I waved to acknowledge her, then stumbled out of bed. For privacy, I closed the skylight so I could quickly change into my nice warm jumpsuit and took a glance in the mirror, eying my mane.

It was the only thing I’d had left of... her. I’d decided to go back to my old style, from before, even though she had sworn she’d liked the one I tried out after the Battle of Unity. Now, I was wondering if I hadn’t made a mistake.

Both styles were wrapped up in her, but this is the one I had before, so that was something that helped me get through most days.

I brushed it quickly, then hurried out of my room.

I knocked on Minuette’s door with a few quick raps, my hesitation from last night gone.

“W-wha?” said a sleepy voice from the other side.

“Minuette, Torque Wrench is here,” I called through the door. “I’m going upstairs to meet her. Get ready, because we’re going to town today. Wear your jumpsuit and for the love of Celestia, put on some coffee, please?”

“O-okay, Moony...”

I estimated there was a 50/50 chance that she would do as I asked and not immediately fall back asleep. But I wasn’t going to keep Torque waiting. It was never a good idea to make your mechanic unhappy when you owned an airship. I’d read enough accounts to know their pleasure is what determined both price and effectiveness.

I jogged through the ship, winding my way through engineering and up the stairwell to the hatch. After adjusting the collar of my jumpsuit, I opened the door, waiting to see the ship coated in snow and frost.

Instead, Torque Wrench stood there on a completely clean deck, save for a couple of small puddles. While snow speckled the ridges of Canter Basin Lake, and some trees on a large rise in the distance on the port side, there was nothing.

“Jetstream and Rainy Skies cleared up the storm early this morning,” the pony said, obviously reading my expression. “Brought a nice little windstorm before dawn that yanked away all the wild snow.”

“Well, that was… unexpected,” I said as I walked out of the Blossom’s hatch and met the newcomer. “Would you be Torque Wrench?”

“That I am,” she said with a nod, offering her hoof.

“Moondancer,” I said, then took it. A second later, my entire world was shaken. No wait, that was just the earth pony being absurdly strong.

I had to wiggle my foreleg to get feeling back in the limb.

“So, I hear you’ve got some hull damage and a cracked stabilizer fin,” Torque said, her eyes twinkling. “That sort of damage sounds a mite familiar.”

I blushed, my ears folding back as I avoided her gaze.

“Just the truth, missy,” Torque said in a voice that brooked no defiance.

“Yeah, I tried to run North Unicorn Pass,” I admitted as I rubbed my mane.

“And?”

“At night.”

“And?”

“In a storm.”

“Yup, that about aligns with what I saw in my inspection this morning,” she said with a chuckle. “Hope you don’t mind, but the girls’ windstorm woke me right up and decided to get an early start.”

My head snapped up. “You’ve already done your inspection? But… but… what about the interior hull?”

Torque laughed and waved off my worries. “Missy, none of that damage could do a thing to the interior of one of Even Keel’s babies. Way I see it, you just need some planks replaced along your keel. The fin, though? That’s another matter.”

She looked a little more thoughtful and my heart sank. “Don’t tell me… you don’t have the right model.”

“No, I don’t,” Torque said with a shrug. “Those are custom Shimmerblade J14s. Good thing, too. After what you described, anything less would have snapped clean off in that run.”

I slumped and rubbed my face. So much for my grand adventure… or getting away from everything. I wondered what I would tell Minuette. And how—

“Hey now!” Torque shouted with another laugh, waving her hooves in my face. “I didn’t say it was hopeless, missy. I do have a Shimmerblade H8, but it’s shorter than what your ship here was designed for. Other catch is I only have one.”

I glanced at her, pushing my glasses up my muzzle. “I’m sorry, you’ve lost me.”

“They’re both Shimmerblades,” Torque explained in the voice of somepony used to informing ignorant ponies about their own airships. Sadly, at the moment, I was one of those. “Means that the mounting is going to be the same, so we don’t have to worry about extra hardware. But it’s about half as long as the J14. I can trim your J14 to match the H8, but it means the ship will be less stable in storms or high winds. She’ll fight you, mad because she doesn’t have what she needs.”

“But she’ll fly?” I asked, hope rising again.

“As long as your core crystal is intact, oh yes, she’ll still fly, missy. Just be a little shaky when the winds get gusting or you push your turbines hard.”

I couldn’t believe it. She was saying she could do it! I exulted in that for a second before I came back down to earth. Now, came the hard part.

“Thank you,” I said honestly. “This… this actually means a lot to me.”

“Well, you’re welcome. Be a pleasure to work on one of Even Keel’s ships. Right pleasure.”

I stood up again and smiled awkwardly. “I guess that only leaves two parts left, now that I know she can be fixed up.”

“Well, the answer to your first question—and correct me if it’s not your first question—is that it’ll take about a day, two tops. The woodwork is easy enough. There are more carpenters in this town than you could believe. After she’s been properly sealed, you could take her sailing through the North Lunar Ocean if you had a mind to. But working on the fin will be a delicate process. If I get the size wrong by even an inch, she won’t fly right. She’ll end up handling like a bad shopping cart at the grocer.”

I breathed out a long sigh of relief. I had been worried it would take a week or something. “No, no, that’s fine. Really.”

“And your second question’s a bit trickier. The H8 runs about eight hundred bits. Labor for retooling your existing fin would probably be… oh, since it’s an Even Keel original, let’s just call it five hundred bits. I’ll even throw the woodwork in free, if you’ll let me do a thorough interior inspection of the lower hold and the engineering compartment.”

I paused for just a moment, then nodded. I had enough for that, especially since, by my own estimates, she was giving me a hefty discount. Yeah, I had enough.

“Done, to all of it.”

I reached out a hoof and was once again subjected to the mad grip of the earth pony mechanic. It was a wonder my foreleg didn’t come out of its socket.

“Well, then, you okay with me getting started right away?” She asked with a grin. “Though it’ll take an hour or so to lasso a good carpenter.”

“That should be plenty of time,” I assured her. “We’ll be off the ship by then and I’ll leave the hatch unlocked.”

“Miss Moondancer, you’re my kind of captain. Honest, straightforward, and to the point. Let’s get this show on the road.”

She gave me a little salute and sauntered back down the gangplank.

“Thank you again!” I called after her.

She waved back as she headed down the elevator to the ground floor.

I smiled to myself. While I didn’t like the idea of being stuck in town for a couple days, maybe we could find a way to investigate that silly spot where the treasure supposedly was located. That would keep Minuette occupied. The cost in bits was going to be painful, but… it was really a drop in the bucket. Nothing to be done about it.

At least the Wandering Blossom would fly again. And this time, I would treat her the way she deserved.

Author's Note:

Inspired by the incredible visual novel Highway Blossoms!

Fun fact: I originally had Moony in a different manestyle in this chapter. It was going to be a short-haired version. Something like what Sunset has in this picture here. However, I forgot to mention this to Adge when the cover was being designed and I really didn't want to make her redo the whole thing, so instead, we have the idea that Moony changed it after the Battle for Harmony, that "mysterious" mare she keeps referencing liked it, but decided to go back after... things.

Moony seems REALLY determined not to believe this stuff, doesn't she? I think she's taking the skeptic thing a little far, personally. But it's Moony. She can be stubborn sometimes, you know.

Also, delighted to finally show off Torque Wrench in the story. I loved the characters we got to meet in Rainbow Roadtrip. Kerfuffle was my other favorite, but not really room for her here. But Torque? Torque is PERFECT for this role. She's so great! Weee!

In other news, I do apologize for the seemingly random delays in publishing these chapters. I'm going through some difficult things right now that make it very difficult to have enough energy to do the final edits and the posts. You'll find out more about that stuff later.

For now, just focus on the cuteness! Because in the next chapter, we get to find out the most important thing of all...

Did Minuette wake up enough to make coffee? DID SHE?!?

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

Comments

[Xanni]

Another great chapter! But somehow the Shimmerblade H8 mutated into an 8H...

[The Voice in the Water]

Restless nights and echos of the past,
What keeps the wanderer from sleep?
Wounded dragonfly will soon be healed,
Though not the same as before.

---

And so we get a few more implications of why Moondancer's out and away from Canterlot, and why she wants to be alone. As something that's naturally inclined towards solitude, I can appreciate the need to get away from others. I guess time will tell if it's the right decision for Moony or not.

[FanOfMostEverything]

After leaving Canterlot, I’d lived in Vanhoover. During that time, pegasi controlled the weather around the city, just like most major civilized areas of Equestria.

Implying that that changed later?

I pulled off my slippers and crawled into bed, snuggling up under the covers, accidentally bumping Smarty Pants, who’d slipped under the sheets.

Oh. Oh my. No one said there couldn't be two or more of the doll, but that's still potentially very significant.

Another day or two in town. More time for Minuette to convince Moony that she's not better off alone. But as you said, that mare can be terribly stubborn...

[SigmasonicX]

This was a nice chapter. Good to see Moondancer and Torque getting along!

[Ri2]

She STILL doesn't believe? This is Seto Kaiba levels of skepticism.