An Astronomer's Light

Chapter Three: Down

Flarania hit the ground with a thud. "Urgggh...." she muttered. "That could have been a better landing," she told herself as she dusted off. "Well, time to get to work!" Flarania pulled a machete out of her bag and, holding

it in her wing, began to cut a path through the forest. Ever so often she'd look up at the zepplin. "I wonder what

he's doing right no," she wondered. "Probably reading a book." She smiled and kept going.

Barzano sat at the bow. He knew he didn't have to be at the console, the Constellation wasn't going anywhere

fast. He looked at the deck clock, "Eh, I don't have to work for another hour or two. Oh, who am I kidding, I need to get those maps done," he said to himself as he walked below decks, towards the bilge of the vessel. Barzano checked the engines, making sure they were running smoothly. A mishap on a 34' airship could be deadly. The

Constellation was powered by two internal combustion engines, as there wasn't enough room on the skyship for a steam

boiler, and Barzano had an easy way to get oil, actually cheaper than coal, not to mention the water. The engines where the most powerful anypony could get for their size, however they required a lot more maintenance and observation. The other complication on the Constellation was that, like the Hindenburg, its dirigible was filled with Hydrogen instead of Helium. The hours went by, and it began to get dark outside. Barzano decided to leave his work for now, and he went up to the deck. Had he stayed a few seconds longer, he would have seen the red light on
the engines indicating a fuel leak click on.'

Flarania looked back on her work. "I did well for today," she said, smiling. "Time for the fun part!" She reached into her bag, pulling out a small explosive and lighter. "Hope he's not looking right at me right now,"

Flarania remarked as she lit the explosive, tossed into the air, and covered her ears and eyes. The explosive made a flash bright enough to see for miles and a sound deafening to those around it.

"Suns of Celestia! What was that?" Barzano exclaimed. He looked over the rimbar of the ship; there was a fading light some 450 yards away. "Hmmm, must be where she is," Barzano walked over to the console steered towards Flarania's location. Flarania, looking up from the ground, smiled as she took off for the Constellation.

"Hey there!" Flarania said excitedly as she jumped on board. "Miss me?"

"It definitely got lonely up here," Barzano responded.

"Yeah, I actually got kind of lonely myself," Flarania looked down. That was the first time she had ever

goten lonely while doing her job.

"Well then, are you hungry?" Barzano asked as he brought out some sandwiches.

"Oh yeah! Those look delicious!" Flarnia said. At first they were quietly eating, but conversation soon broke

out.

"So tell me about yourself! I don't really know much about you, Flara," Barzano said.

"Oh ok! Well, I have a younger brother, he's a bit of a pest, but my mom's nice! I'm away from home a lot,

so I miss my family. Oh, you must too! Being away from home for so long! How often do your parents visit?"

"I-I don't miss my family. And my parents never visit." Barzano stared at the deck.

"Oh goodness! That's horrible! What happened?" Flarania questioned.

"I don't really want to talk about it...." Barzano said slowly.

"Oh man, it must have been bad! Is there anypony in your family you DO love?

"My brother. I love him dearly," Barzano looked up.

"Does he visit you then?"

"He used to, he's in the guard now."

"You really are lonely..."

"Yeah, well we write each other, it's not so bad. I like the peace and quiet"

"Honestly though! How do you live? I always have my buddies at base camp to go back to, but you...you have

nopony!"

"It's not so hard really, you get used to it."

"Oh my," Flarania said, looking north. "That sky." The northern sky was absolutely black, and a wall of water could be seen approaching them rapidly.

"Squall!" Barzano yelled as he rushed for the console.

"What do you normally do during storms?" Flarania said, worried.

"Land! But seeing that's not possible, I'm going to go at a 45 degree angle to the storm, squalls are usually narrow. I'll need full speed though," He said. As soon as he threw the throttle forward, the sound and sight of an explosion cut him off. "Tartarus!" Barzano yelled.

"What was that?"

"No idea, stay here!" He ran below decks. The whole ship was on fire. "How did this happen?" He questioned himself. All sorts of alarms were blaring as the ship rapidly dropped in altitude. The fires were ever-so-slowly creeping towards the second engine. "Oh no...." Barzano ran updeck. "FLARANIA! JUMP!" He yelled as loud as she could. Flarania, understanding the emergency, immediately jumped off the ship. "Guess I'm going down with the ship,"

Barzano said to himself as he walked to the bow of the Constellation. At that time, the second engine exploded, and a few seconds later the ship plunged into the ground in a roaring fireball.

Barzano woke up staring at...some part of his ex-ship. He didn't know how long it'd been or how hurt he was.
"'Bout to find out, I guess." He tried to get up. "URRRGGGH!" He yelped. Blood was streaming down his side. "Gah!"

He looked up, only to see the dirigible still floating above the ship. "It hasn't been punctured? Oh no! The hydrogen's ganna go any minute!" He ran to the supplies locker, which was fortunately unscathed. He grabbed as much food and water as he could, bandaged his wound best he could, howling in pain as he did so, and tried to make his way off the ship.

"Barzano!" He could hear Flara yelling for him.

"Flara! Run! Get away from the ship!"

"There you are! Oh, you're hurt! How bad is it?"

"Never mind that! We need to get away from here!" He responded. The two of them ran from the ship, Barzano

struggling due to his wound. They stopped about 320 yards from the crash. "Argh!" Barzano groaned.

"Here, you need to stop moving. Sit down, good, now let me see the wound," Flarania said as she unwrapped

Barzano's bandage. "Oh man, you've lost a lot of blood. What caused this?" She stared at the deep gash in his side.

"No idea, probably metal, seeing as I don't have any splinters," Barzano responded weakly.

"Ok, I need to treat this, do you have any alcohol?" Barzano handed her a first-aid kit.

"I have whatever's in here," he told her. Flara opened the kit. "Here's some, now this is going to stin-"

"I know, just do it," Barzano groaned. He tensed as she rubbed it on his side and rewrapped the bandage.

"Ok, that'll be good for now, but you're going to need stitches." Just then, a loud explosion was heard.

"Woah! Was that ship?" Flarania asked, whipping her head around.

"No way, would have been louder, that was thunder," Barzano said, looking at the sky. Another explosion,

much louder than the first, sounded. "THAT was the ship," Barzano said. "Look, storm's on the way, we're going to need shelter."

"There are some caves east of here."

"Alright, let's go!" Barzano said. The two ran off, Barzano lighting the way with his horn. The wall of water that was the squall was advancing towards them with every passing minute. It blocked the view of all that was behind it. The pair was still half a mile from the caves when the rain hit them. Visibility dropped to about 10 feet. Thunderclaps and roaring winds were heard loud and clear.