Project
It was early Saturday morning. I did my usual morning routine of flying through the cold morning air. It was a great time to think about everything that’s happened. After Rainbow and I had our heart to heart, I felt somewhat better. I decided to put my focus into something that could distract me from it all. After telling Rainbow about my idea of getting an airship, she was totally into the idea of it. I didn’t plan on going through with it at first, but she was pretty adamant on me doing it. I thought about asking her to join me, but decided against it. She had a life here, had friends here that cared for her. Hell, she was the Element of Loyalty for God’s sake. It didn’t feel right to ask her to join me.
Anyway, today we’re supposed to head down to a seller in Cloudsdale about it. I wasn’t sure how much it was gonna cost, but I was sure I could cover it. Instead of taking all of bits with me, I’ll just make a money order or something. Do they even have money orders? Eh, I don’t know. I have a bank account with the Equestrian Bank Association so hopefully they have one of those in Cloudsdale. I’ll figure it out when I cross that bridge. I don’t even know if I’m gonna get an airship, I’m just entertaining the idea of it right now.
I decided to end my flight here as I headed back home to clean up and take a shower. Rainbow would be by there around eight or so, so I had plenty of time to prepare for the day trip. A part of me is really excited about this, it would certainly be fun to explore Equestria. No, to explore the world! Maybe… maybe I’ll actually do this. I guess I’ll make that decision when I get there.
I had gotten ready fairly quickly and decided to spend the rest of the time just drawing something up. I didn’t really have anything in mind to draw so I just decided to sketch a dog. I used to have a beagle named Orange, sweet little guy. Loved him to death. He lived a good life, only ending through old age. Maybe I should get a dog… maybe, let’s just focus on the airship for now Mav.
As my thoughts came to a close, I heard a knock on the door. Just in time. I pack up my sketchbook in my satchel and met an impatient Rainbow outside. “Hurry up, Mav! We gotta meet the guy in like an hour.” She began to pull my tail as I locked the door and said a small prayer. “An hour is plenty of time, Rainbow. I don’t know why you’re so stressed, you could make it there in like five minutes.” I said jokingly. She rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, of course I can make it there in five minutes, but I’m not worried about me; I’m worried about you!” She pushed a hoof into my feathered chest as she floated up to my face. I just laughed. “Rainbow, I might not be as fast as you, but I’m not a slowpoke either. I’ve been flying everyday for the last nine months.” We took flight as she argued with me.
“I know foals who can fly faster than you Mav. Heck, if I had to bet on my life on a race between you and Tank, I’d put my money on Tank—and he’s a tortoise!” She was very expressive today. Think she’s just excited about this whole thing. Can’t blame her, I’m excited too. I’ve never piloted anything like this before either so I was also a little nervous about it. Come to think of it, do I need a license to fly an airship?
“Hey, Rainbow. Do I have to have a license to fly an airship?” I ask, ignoring her insult. She took a moment to think about it, even making a cute face as she tried to remember if that was a thing. “Honestly, Mav? I have no idea. Eh, never mind that, we’ll get you one if you need it. Can’t be that difficult to get.” Uh oh, don’t jinx it.
“Well, hopefully I don’t need one to purchase a junked airship at the very least. Couldn’t imagine why I would though. Could make some complications though if they do.” I say.
“Yeah, I think it’ll be fine, Mav.” Rainbow did some twirls in the air as we continued to Cloudsdale. If I needed one, I’ll just go get one. I hoped it wouldn’t take too long to do so though.
Wait. I can just ask Princess Luna! She did say that if I ever needed anything… I’ll write her a letter about it. Also gives me an excuse to check up on her as well.
Anyway, as we discussed some things about the airship with one another, Rainbow and I made it to Cloudsdale in record time. We immediately headed over to where the seller was at, which supposedly was at an old airship junk yard or something. Made sense for what I trying to get. Rainbow was concerned about me buying some old junk heap, but I was into building things up. Just an old passion that my father and I had. It’d also distract me from the thoughts I’ve been having lately.
“Well this is the place. “Rap Scrap’s Air Junk”. Simple name.” Rainbow said, looking at the sign that overlooked the entrance to the gated yard. I could already see some ships within the yard, some destroyed and certainly unusable, and others that looked exactly like what I was seeking.
We headed inside to talk with the seller. Hoped it’d turn out well. Knock on wood!
Well, that ended up way better than I was expecting. Rap Scrap, the Pegasus that owned the lot, had a few pickings for me. A few racers, a cruiser, and some cargo ship that seemed to be worse off than the others. I decided to go with the Cabin Cruiser. It was simple in design, had quite a lot of room, but still seemed agile enough to fly through the air without being weighted down. At least, that’s what I hoped anyway. He didn’t want that much for it either, only five hundred bits. After heading down to the bank to get a deposit, I made the purchase that would change my entire life. I didn’t know that yet so don’t tell me yet.
Anyway, Rap Scrap said he would have it delivered to me tomorrow afternoon, which was perfect. I wanted to go get some paints, and some tools and parts that I would need to fix her up. When we went through the cruiser, we inspected the ship pretty thoroughly. It seems she is missing her fuel tank, apparently her propulsion engine runs, but there’s a loud noise while it’s running, she seems to have some hull damage that can be easily fixed, and lastly, I have to get a new balloon for it, but I was fine with that. Those were the things we could tell we needed to fix, but it’ll take some more work to find out any other issues she has. I was confident in my ability though.
Sure, I’ve never worked on more than an automobile, but it can’t be that hard to learn. I’ll also get some books on airship mechanics as well just in case. Rainbow wanted to help as well, but I wasn’t sure how. She literally has no experience in any sort of mechanical engineering or repair. Yet, I would feel bad if I told her no, so I decided that she could assist me with things I needed. I also let her name the ship as well. She seemed quite excited about it.
For the rest of the day, I spent it going through machinist shops, hardware stores, and everything in between, doing what I can to find everything I would need. It was gonna be a hard job, but I was starting to get into it quite a lot. I mean, I already spent a lot of bits on this project already, not about to let it go to waste!
It has been roughly a month since I’ve started my project. Although I was new to this, after reading some blueprints and doing my research on airship mechanics (as well as asking experts about some questions I had), I was able to get the ball rolling and made some decent progress.
There were a few times that I had messed up on some things, but Rainbow was a huge help where I needed it. When she was available, anyway; she had job after all. She also has been trying to think of names for the cruiser, but has been shooting them down as quickly as she says them. I know she’ll find a good name, Rainbow is awesome after all. Or so she says.
Anyway, I was able to get a makeshift fuel tank attached so I could test the propulsion engine. Right now, I’m trying to figure out what that thunking sound coming from the engine is so I could fix it. I was thinking maybe it’s cracked somewhere, but I wasn’t sure. I didn’t have Google or anything, so it’s gonna take some work to figure it out. Never seen an engine quite like this before, after all. I was thinking about ordering a new engine completely, but I really wanted to get intimate with the machine that I would be flying, so I ultimately decided to rebuild it instead. Wish me luck on getting this thing fixed!
Its been about two months since I had gotten the Cabin Cruiser. Yeah, I had to replace the engine entirely, unfortunately. Like I thought, there was a crack in it, among other issues that made it unusable. It would be more of a hassle to fix it than replace it, so I just decided to bite the bullet and get a new one. Thankfully, it arrived quickly and I was able to get it installed.
While I was waiting for the engine, I decided to fix the hull by removing rotted pieces and replaced them with brand new wood panels. I also had to fix the framing a little, but with a little welding and some reinforcement, it seemed to do the trick. I also started to work on the balloon as well. I would have to make the frame for it first before getting the actual balloon itself, but that was fine. Progress seems good right now. I currently have Rainbow working on the interior of the ship, finding any signs of rotted pieces or broken pipes and having her repair them. I’ll go through it later myself to make sure. Trust, but verify is what I always say. She also apparently found a great name, but hasn’t revealed it to me yet. She said she wants to wait until it’s completely finished before telling me. She’s silly like that, but I humored it.
Also, because of the nature of the project, my worksite was huge. Many ponies from the village would come to see what I was doing, more so curious than angry with the noise. I even had some older gentlemen come up to me with some advice about fixing her up. I took all the help I could get. I also received more letters from the Witch, wondering what I was doing after Twilight told her about it. I didn’t answer of course, only ever telling Princess Luna of my progress.
Speaking of Princess Luna, she was able to get me a flight license for the airship, the caveat was that I would have to do a course after the ship was running, which was understandable. Still though, Princess Luna is such a blessing to me, I’m so glad I became acquainted with her. She even invited me up to the castle to visit her.
Anyway, the project is turning out great. Here’s to hoping it stays that way!
It has been over six months now since I started my project in rebuilding the Cabin Cruiser. I have made a lot of progress now. The new engine runs fantastically, all the damaged internal parts have been replaced and repaired, the hull was good as new with a new, fresh paint job. The balloon was more or less done now, only needed to inflate it using the helium I got. Glad they didn’t use hydrogen, don’t need another Hindenburg.
The last thing was the fuel tank. Now, with this, I ran into an issue. Cabin Cruiser Airships are not supposed to be used for long distances, they were designed for easy sailing in a small locality. Unfortunately, I did not know this when I bought her, but that’s fine, I would just have to build a bigger fuel tank for the propulsion turbines. I’ve done the math for it though, I should be able to double it’s size without having to worry too much about weight. It’ll cost more to refuel, but that’s only if I use the turbines.
Despite small hiccups, everything seems to be on track. I’m so excited to finally be near the finish line!
It has been seven months. She is done. She’s finally done!
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What will the name of the fine vessel be? I vote Predator
Nice
Aawww...
I expected some harsh talk with Twilight, but oh well.
I hope we can get an insight of Luna and Celestia during those 6-7 months. It's mostly my curiosity though.
What is the chance of Maverick meeting other hippogriffs? And have you decided who will be on the crew? Since so far the only ones confirmed are Maverick and Tempest, and maybe Rainbow.
Way hay and up she rises!
Yes! Finaly! It's time to set sail! Set... baloon?
Forty guns come sailing by
Choose to live or choose to die
Damnation take my soul
If I give you quarter
Take the silver, take the gold
Empty out the sister's hold
Damnation take my soul
If I give you quarter
We love the pirate life
Black flags flying high
Drink 'till the barrels dry
Early in the morning
Manehatten is in sight
We'll sleep on land tonight
Then when the time is right
Cut you without warning
I am curious as to who Maverick's love interest will be Tempest, Rainbow or an OC? I am looking forward to seeing who be joining his crew be it Earth ponies, unicorns, Pegasuses, bat ponies, dragons, hippogriffs or even changelings from another hive?
Anyways keep up the good work.
How about Plankton? It's a pirate airship, so it's clearly 1% evil and 99% hot gas.
Airship balloon has a frame. Rigid. Airship type: Zeppelin.
Good so far.
Free Spirit. That is what I think the ship should be named. He shall be a free spirit, so why not call the ship something to reflect that?
11492782
It’ll happen :^>
Pacing is really slow. I figured this would be a story where the hero explores the world in an Airship or other airship shenanigans. Your Eight chapters in, 17,000 words and he is still kicking his toe in the dirt pissed off that he cant go home. He is just now getting to the ship. No offense, but this is looking more like a Coming of Age Drama, rather than an Action Adventure Novel.
Never loose track of what you want your novel to be.
Monk
"(On being born) Isn't it interesting that the very first act we all do, is a crime so heinous that it comes with a death sentence." -CyanFox
to slow
Glad to see some new chapters for this story, believe I said it before but we’ve never had
at least in a story I’ve reada hippogriff MC and the story itself is pretty intriguing as well. Hope to see more soon mate!11492896
I know it’s slow, and to be fair, I’m not a professional novelist. I just write it cuz it’s fun to me. I want the story to be intriguing, but I also want a good foundation. To me, it’d be weird if it took a chapter or two without any explanation that some random guy that was kidnapped with maybe a hope of returning home, that also has never cared for adventure, suddenly wanted to explore or be a pirate that for the sake of it. In my eyes, I like characters I can connect with and actual visualize them as a person, not just a two dimensional human turned hippogriff. He actually has a reason to explore now and it makes sense. To me anyway. I plan on making this a long one, and with me having some more free time now, I will be able to hopefully push out more chapters.
I do apologize that you find it too slow, it’s just how I write. I’ll try to be a bit more concise in the future. Thank you for the feedback.
No worries about detailing it in some grand manner. Fir the story this was the best approach. You handled it well without the need to go into major detail while explaining some of what he was doing and what was happening while he worked.
I look forward to reading the following chapters.
11493094
Fair enough.
I know you're not an engineer, but you got the right idea. Speaking of ideas. If there is a way to make armor for the balloon part of the airship, I recommend using a sew and needle thread. Use light metal plates with holes on all edges, use the rope as the thread to tie and bind the metal to the balloon, and give it some breathing space when it comes to rise or decrease in height flight control.
Wonder what Rainbow named it...
11493010
And you wrote too fast
11496670
you are too slow
11495097
It would be better if he made his ship look like this:
http://www.world-art.ru/animation/img/1000/51/67.jpg
It will be as cool and brutal as possible. And he will automatically become the lord of the sky.
11498190
That's...a little too advanced. But it reminds me of a blimp from a movie called: Conqueror of the world. Or something like that.
Also, you may need to scale it down a smidge on the idea. But it looks good, the art I mean.
11498773
This is a flying fortress from the anime "flying castle Laputa" by Hayao Miazaki.
11498835
Oh. But still, it's too big. Rather start out with an airship to withstand a medium airship in air/navel combat. If it were to come to that.
11498868
Yes, start small, and in ten years you get a big flying ship made of metal, and a team of loyal people. The starter kit of the Lord of heaven is ready.
For the name, I suggest: the sunwhichs fault