6 Embarkation
Chapter Six - Embarkation
Canterlot Yards was busier than usual. Spike and I had put on our disguise amulets just after leaving the embassy so that we could trot along without interruption, and hardly a pony looked our way as we entered through the big front gates. The chemical smells of varnish, solvent, boiling tar, paint, engine grease, and envelope dope assaulted my nostrils as the shouting of apprentice shipwrights, riggers, crane chiefs, and other bustling workponies assaulted my ears. Gudgeon, the master shipwright, glanced up from the half-model on his workbench that he was scrutinizing, nodded to me, and muttered, "Cap'n," around the thick carpenter's pencil he had clenched between his teeth.
All the tension in my neck and shoulders immediately bled away. "Master Gudgeon," I replied. He nodded again and went back to his model, and I trotted past the boatshed to the slipway assigned to Nebula. Spike followed along behind me, nearly hidden beneath my large sea chest. I had told him that I could float it along behind us easily enough, but he insisted he wanted to carry it. To his credit, he did so easily. My little brother was growing up, and I suspected he wanted everypony to notice how strong he'd gotten.
I wasn't surprised to find most of her crew hard at work, because by the time I arrived, it was after lunch. Luna had kept me up very late, and then complained bitterly when I tried to get up and get going in the morning.
"The hour is obscene, my love!" she had grumbled and cinched her forelegs tighter around my barrel. "'Tis not yet noon!"
I chuckled softly, but still gently untangled myself before kissing her on the tip of her muzzle as I slid out of bed.
She had been absolutely correct; I should have stayed in bed. There were dozens of letters waiting for me: mostly impractical requests for my time, but also some ridiculous demands and a couple of offers of marriage.[1] I spent an irritating hour dictating replies to Spike while we both snatched a hurried breakfast.
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[1] One letter managed to be both of those, and got placed in the special out-box for more direct handling by some very specific ponies.
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Nebula's envelope sagged slightly in its stays, the gas cells inside only inflated enough to take half her weight while her hull rested on a huge slipway carriage. Several workers were clomping along low scaffolding attached to the carriage, busily inspecting Nebula's ballast valves and other through-hull fittings.
On her larboard side, there was a big chandler's wagon loading crates into a net attached to a jury-rigged crane from the main deck above. Standard procedure was to fly over to the chandlery pier after a refit or repairs and load supplies there, but I assumed that Ao and Ket were crowding the schedule in order to get us ready for departure as soon as possible.
Around to starboard there was a boarding gangway where other ponies were coming and going with smaller packages of goods. I followed a big earth pony up to the main deck.
"Welcome aboard, Captain!" Ao called out to me from the quarterdeck where she was supervising the crew working on the lift control housing. I had planned on a week or two in Canterlot for a significant refit. The work had barely begun when the Storm King's fleet had arrived to rearrange our priorities, and now everything was being hurriedly put back in place and restored to the original configurations.
"Things are going as well as may be expected. This one is confident all will be in order by this evening," she continued, as I climbed the short ladder from the waist to the quarterdeck to join her.
"Any chance they got those additional speaking tubes installed?"
"Alas no, Captain." She gestured at the starboard rail where there was a line of empty notches and brass mounts. "But the fittings are in place, and Ms. Khaatarrekket has taken the tubing and other necessary pieces into stores. It is a job that may perhaps be done by the crew while underway."
"Good thinking. Can we—" I was interrupted by a metallic clatter from somewhere forward and a frustrated canine yowl. I turned and saw our new engineer, a rather small, sandy-colored diamond dog, perched on the number one engine pod. He was propped against the open cowling hatch and furiously yanking at something inside.
I turned to Ao, raised an eyebrow, and asked, "What is that dog doing to my ship?"
"This one is not entirely sure, Majesty,[2] but this one gathers that he is in the process of being professionally outraged by our capabilities in regards to engine maintenance."
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[2] Ao will usually manage to force herself to call me "Captain" while onboard, but sometimes she forgets.
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"This—" the dog howled as he finally managed to yank a complicated part out of the engine space, "—this thing is garbage!" He flung the part over his shoulder. It went overboard, fell to the slipway apron with a metallic smack, skittered over the edge, and headed for the Canter Valley a long way below us. "They bought parts in Klugetown or found them lying in a gutter, maybe?" The last wasn't aimed at anyone in particular; it seemed to be part of a running interior monologue that the dog couldn't quite manage to keep to himself.
"Mr. Ralf!" I called out to him. "Might I remind you that we must be underway tonight?"
"Ah, captain ma'am." His large ears swiveled straight up, and he saluted, leaving a diagonal smear of grease above his right eye. "Number One is a good engine. He doesn't deserve bad parts! Ralf will fix him up, very soon!" He smiled fondly at the partially dismantled drive train and patted it gently. "Good engine," he said to it, his bushy tail wagging. He then dove back into his work, pointed snout first.
Until Ralf came aboard, we had never had a full-time engineer. Nebula could sail quite well, and having four engines meant that even at the peak of our privateering adventures we always made it back to a shipyard with one or two functioning acceptably.
But things change, and hiring him had seemed like a good idea at the time.
"Anything else I should know?" I turned back to Ao, determined to leave the engineering in supposedly expert paws, no matter how doubtful I felt about the matter.
She gave me a concise but thorough rundown of the current state of my airship while Spike unpacked my sea chest[3] in my cabin.
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[3] Yes, despite Nebula being an airship, her crew had sea chests and sea bags to carry their belongings. Naval and aeronautical traditions and terminology have murky antecedents, and it's best not to question them overmuch unless you like getting long and improbable lectures from old sailors as to why something that is obviously a piece of rope is actually a "line", and why a particular line is actually a "sheet". It doesn't help that the seat boards in the sterns of small craft are also called sheets, or that calling a sail a sheet seems perfectly logical, but in fact is a horrible gaff that marks one out as an absoluter duffer. It's like Pinkie Sense; a wise pony just goes along with it and doesn't bother asking fruitless questions about the whys and wherefores of the matter.
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= = =
I spent a couple of hours examining Nebula from stem to stern, keel to topmast, casting a gimlet eye on… well, everything. It's not that I didn't trust Ao, or any of the ponies that reported to her. Knowing my first officer as well as I did, I assumed she had done exactly the same. But it never hurts to have confirmation of thirdhoof information, and there were certain special stores that only I had access to.
Along the way I got to chat with each of the girls, busy at their own self-appointed tasks. Their various situations being as they were, none of them were in the normal line of command, and were listed in the rota as supercargos[4], so they worked at whatever jobs they thought needed doing.
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[4] Supercargo is perhaps a term that needs explaining. It is a portmanteau of "supervisor of cargo" and once strictly meant a representative of the owner of a cargo being transported. (Usually onboard to ensure against pilfering or poor stowage.) In modern usage it has become a catch-all term for crew who are an integral part of the airship's operation for a variety of reasons, but do not fit into the traditional rank hierarchy. When Pinkie Pie first learned of her new title of convenience, she wanted to make a red cape with a big blue "SC" embroidered on it, and was terribly disappointed to learn that her new rank didn't convey any sort of outlandish superpowers.
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Nebula's galley wasn't a separate enclosed space, it was a loosely defined area forward of the big iron cookstove that stood on granite tiles set into the forward end of the crew deck. The bulkhead that separated it from the forward storage lockers was completely covered with cabinets where most of the provisions were kept.
I expected to find Pinkie Pie there, but it seemed as if almost all of the supplies had already been stowed away, and only Applejack was there, finishing up the job.
"That's a right pretty tune yer humming, Twi," AJ said, looking up from the kegs of apple cider vinegar she was securing against the inner hull between two ribs with a light net and a springline. "What's the name o' that song?"
"Huh?" I hadn't realized that I had been humming, and I had to give it some thought. "Oh, it's a dance tune; very old. Luna likes it and plays it on her lute sometimes. I can't remember the name, I'm afraid."
"Well, y'oughta hum it fer Pinkie until she can play it on her squeeze box. Be nice to have s'more tunes to dance to."
"What? You don't like endless sea shanties?"
"Yer the one who always calls for Cider Before Breakfast, Captain, ma'am," she said with a sly grin.
I laughed. "Guilty as charged! I'll pull Pinkie aside when I get a chance."
= = =
Tempest and Grubber had been given a tiny cabin to themselves, and they seemed content to stay out of the way of the bustling crew. I poked my head in to see if there was anything they needed, and found to my surprise that Tempest still had the suppressor ring chained to her horn.
I frowned. "Why didn't the guards remove that when they brought you aboard?"
She shrugged. "There was some debate about exact orders. The big brave stallions decided it would be safer to let you do it."
I unlocked the chain and released the cams in the ring without comment, stowing the lot in a pocket of my greatcoat.
"Will I be getting my armor back?" Her voice was low and carefully neutral.
"I've got a large set of aeronaught's armor that ought to fit you with a few adjustments. I'll have your cutie mark engraved on the croupiere if you like." I glanced at the stylized design on her thigh. It might have been taken for three blossoms or fireworks bursts, or the sort of symbols that comic books used to indicate hoof hits. Probably that last one, I decided.
"I'm used to my old rig," she said with a bit more emphasis.
I sympathized with her, I really did. A pony's armor is a very personal and intimate thing, and I was sure she'd hate what I'd done to hers. Oh well, I told myself, I might as well rip the bandage off.
"Sorry, but I'm stripping it down to analyze and hopefully reverse-engineer that clever reactive defense built into it," I told her. "Not that I'd let you put hoof on my deck with the Storm Drain's mark on you, anyway."
She jerked her head up in surprise, and then tried not to laugh. It made her face go all scrunchy. It was, frankly, adorable.
Grubber had no such restraint. He laughed until he fell out of his bunk. "Ha, ha, ha! Storm Drain! Ha, ha! Oh brother! He'd have you skinned alive if he heard you say that!"
That casual comment made me a little bit more comfortable with my intention to murder the brute.
= = =
By the time the sun was sinking low in the sky, Nebula's gas cells were completely filled and tight in their shrouds. I walked both the dorsal and ventral catwalks that stood between the cells and her outer envelope and tested every one with a slight tug of my magic. I met Fluttershy near cell #2's main vent, where she was sniffing gently at the seal.
"All in order there?"
"Oh yes! I'm just double-checking." She turned to me, beaming. "Nebby is in wonderful shape. I can feel how eager she is to get flying again."
I reached out and gently brushed the Wheel of the Moon with my magic. "Not long now. Moonrise in less than an hour. You'll take her out?"
"Can I? It's been a long time…"
"There's no better hoof on her wheel," I said with utmost sincerity, and continued on my tour of inspection.
When I finished and returned to the deck, Ralf was testing the reassembled engines by running them up to 110% of their rated capacity. With their props cross-feathered to produce no thrust, they all hummed like giant, contented bees. I had to admit it; the dog really knew his business.
I felt a momentary urge to pat him on the head, but simply said, "Very well done, Mr. Ralf," in as business-like and captainly a manner as I could manage. His tail wagged furiously at the praise, nonetheless.
Rainbow Dash was on the quarterdeck pacing and lashing her tail, impatient with the wait, as usual. Well, I knew the cure for that.
"Dash, are you up for a night mission?"
Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. "I'm ready for anything Twi! I mean, Captain! Are we gonna go now?"
"Soon," I said.
Dash sighed and rolled her eyes. "That could mean, like, an hour, or even two!"
"You know our course to Twilight Town?"
"Pft! Yeah!" She rolled her eyes again. "All that zig-zagging. I don't know why we don't just fly straight there."
"Reasons," I told her, knowing it was exactly the sort of explanation she would be most willing to accept. "I need you to scout ahead of us and make sure there are no suspicious ships loitering along our route. There will be a quarter moon tonight, so you should be able to make sure we've got a league or so of clear air to either side, even after sunset. If you spot any ship running without lights, even a balloon, you zip back here immediately and warn us, okay?"
"And I start now, right?" Her eyes were positively glowing with the anticipation of action.
"Check in every half hour or so," I said, and pointed with a sweep of my foreleg to the open sky.
My mane, tail, and the tails of my coat fluttered in the sudden violent gust caused by her departure.
Khaatarrekket, who had been going over a pre-flight check of the engine telegraph and ballast controls, cleared her throat.
"Yes, Ket?"
"I was thinking that the raptor set[5] might be of use to Ms. Rainbow Dash on this mission. I could unpack it and get it ready for when she checks in, if…?"
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[5] The rapid amplitude-deviation interpretive oscillator set (RAPTOR for short, from the first and last three letters of the name) was a pair of crystal powered wireless microphone/speaker combinations that allowed two ponies to verbally communicate over a distance of many miles instantaneously. It gave us an incredible tactical advantage, and I would have had several sets made if they didn't require incredibly expensive and hard to get materials. As it was, we only had one set aboard, and I didn't think risking delicate equipment worth hundreds of thousands of bits to Dash's tender care was wise.
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"No need, Ket. I doubt there's anypony actually skulking around out there. This is just my admittedly justifiable paranoia coming up with a way to keep Dash from going stir-crazy. If she spots anything, she'll be back here almost as fast as raptor waves, anyway."
Ket chuckled. "As you say, Captain." She nodded to the consoles on either side of the wheel. "The controls and instruments are ready for flight. Ballast is at 95% and we have neutral buoyancy. I have pre-warmed the gas cell heaters. I don't think we will need them, but the night air can get very cold over the Unicorn Range even at this time of year."
"Very good, Ket!" I caught sight of a pale yellow form, climbing down the mainmast ratlines from the ventral envelope hatch. "Ah, here comes Fluttershy to take the helm. Inform Ms. Ao we are about to depart and get the watch to their stations, if you please."
"Inform Ms. Ao and watch to stations, aye Captain!" Ket saluted and went about her tasks.
I turned and stared out at the sky, fretted with clouds glowing amber in the last of the sunset. I smiled to myself and said, almost under my breath, "Time to fly."
= = =
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RALF!!!!!!
Pity about the missed refit. Still it couldn’t have been that major. Even with Blackmane’s hoard paying for triple shifts there’s only so much you can do in a couple weeks.
Ralf is a good boy
Twilight's not gay and neither is Luna that's my only problem with this story
Inquiring Minds want to know more
The use of "murder" is worth mentioning. That's not a word you use if your actions are in any way justifiable, and Twilight would know this.
11880146
Oh, she knows. Twilight, despite her seeming determination, is not exactly comfortable with what she needs to do. That can manifest as technically inaccurate word choices, and other lies.
11880142
Think of them as really good friends.
11880131
Yes, he is!
Yes.
If you listen carefully, you can hear Ralf whimpering at this attitude.
Not any new ones, anyway.
(Though the mention of superpowers has me imagining the specifics of how this Twilight dealt with Sunset Shimmer. Definitely didn’t put up with the charade of the prom when she could just steal the Element of Magic back… though she might have left Sunset something to think about.
In any case, we’re shipping out! On to adventure and mayhem, but I repeat myself. Looking forward to seeing what befalls our merry crew (and vice versa) first.
11880186
I believe the Celestia Code, Twilight developing her ruthless streak, and diverging from canon happen after the Season 5 finale and Starlight Glimmer’s reformation. So Equestria Girls 1 probably went mostly the same way. Rainbow Rocks however… Well let’s just say I don’t think this Twilight allowed the Sirens to just run away afterwards.
I like Ralf. He seems like a good dog! Good thing they have someone onboard who can feel the ship like Fluttershy does and do the repairs to it on the fly. Knowing how hard this group is on their ship it should come in pretty handy, lol.
11880176
With Benefits.
11880222
Honestly, I wish I liked (and could grok) EQG more, because an Advertureverse version of Rainbow Rocks would be a lot of fun to write!
That's about right.
11880186
If you listen carefully, you can hear Ralf whimpering at this attitude.
I would link Dos Gringos' "I'm A Pilot" here, except I think the lyrics might crease the leading edge of a 'Teen' rating by site standards.
11880186
11880263
FoME is pretty big on EQG maybe the two of you could do a collab.
11880299
That would be a fascinating event! Even better, a meet-up between the Adventure and Oversaturated verses' main characters! I think we're both neck-deep in other projects, though.
11880293
"Fix it faster, Celestia damnit!!!"
11880176
They’re just, y’know, roommates.
Well, now I want to hear "Cider Before Breakfast".
11880299 11880315
"I've seen what that Twilight does to beings who could be mistaken for gods. I'm going to stay in my own universe and not do anything that might make her come over here."
11880492
Best for everypony, I think!
11880444
It's a slightly ponified version of a real (reel) song, that's very easy to dance to. (Which is undoubtedly why Twilight likes it.)
Your wish is my command!
I like Ralf, he's cool.
Thanks for writing!
11874903
Sounds good. Will she be enemy or frienemy in that book?
Btw, is The Sunset Substitute still on the table as well?
11880814
Well, nothing is off the table, even if it's unlikely.
So glad to see you're writing again. i love this series so much.
11881573
Thank you! I hope you enjoy this one!
11883817
She was "Her Exalted Highness" at the end of book two, "Her Serene Highness" was before that. Or is that "Serene" an Equestrian codeword for "temporary"?
Fun fact: I think your books are the only stories so far where I can stand and even like the idea of Flurry existing as an alicorn. I otherwise abhor that idea, given that it needlessly fucked up some perfectly fine and wonderful lore.
11883827
Oh yeah, that's right! I think "Serene" is for newly-minted alicorns and just means, "She's cool with it." (So many of them kick up a fuss!)
11883837
But Twilight LOVES hearing these lectures. And giving them.