If At First You Don't Succeed...
"It is extraordinary how safe airship flying has become. You are now statistically more likely to be an alicorn princess in your lifetime than you are to die in a plane crash. What an amazing achievement, what a fascinating era we live in! But what we end up focusing on are the catastrophic failures that are incredibly rare but happen every now and then.
Anyway.... Let me tell you about my airship. The Comet was a long-range herd spotter during the Second Zebrican War, which the Lunar Guard bought from the Solar Guard for 90,000 bits. She had been converted to civilian merchant service, but we refurbished her back to military specs as an experimental airship.
The ship's overall look is heavier; iron straps brace the most vulnerable areas of the ship, where such precautions would not be needed on a merchant ship, and the weight of the iron would take away from its cargo capacity. The mechano-magical engines look like your standard steam-powered rotary piston pounders, though the steam pipes have been replaced with iron channels that hold gravity-defying crystals, and the engine room has been similarly upgraded.
Port and starboard sides each have two cannons, bearing the logo of "Clarkson Industries" stamped into the large barrels. Then, on each cannon, painted whatever colors someone had on hand at the time, the names of the cannons: Eva Destruction, Devilynne Syde, Moe YaDown, Buster Up. At the front of the ship is a much larger, forward-mounted, fixed-placement cannon with copper wires spiraling tightly around the barrel: Sintripetal Force.
The sauna was designed by an engineer and we keep a earth pony masseuse on staff. We have a lab for scientific research and experiments. Our kitchen contains probably some of the most technologically advanced equipment on the ship. Twilight Sparkle put together a top-notch research library for us with a complete first-edition set of The Lunar Guard companion series. We process our own research, and keep an acoustically perfect room on-board in case we burst into song while adventuring. Built at the bottom is an observation bubble, which I thought up in a dream, actually. The engine room has some problems with the bearing casings, but we can't afford to fix them this year. Topside we've got the bridge, the minisub, an old glider, and all kinds of magical and steam-powered gadgets.
Two bat pony scouts fly with the ship. They're supposedly very intelligent... although I've never seen any evidence of it." - Atom Smash, Science Adviser to the Court of the Moon.
10 Miles Southwest of Ponyville, The Research Airship Comet
The Comet was a rigid-body aerostat making its way from Applelousa to Canterlot. It was a kind of a blimp, with a giant gas bag. Under the gas bag was suspended what looked suspiciously like a small sailing ship refitted for flying duty. Instead of sails coming up from the deck, they stretched out from the sides, catching the wind. Small propellers called azipods hung on the sides of the ship, put-put-putting the ship forward at a lazy pace even when there was no wind. But right now, nothing about the ship was slow, or lazy. It would be fair to say that the Comet was going as fast as it ever had. Sails full out, propellers spinning so fast they whined in protest. A blimp is not made for speed, but right that moment, Comet was going at a speed her captain would call, conservatively, "maniac".
"Captain, we have cracks in the lateral structural members!" Cried one voice. "Captain, lifting gas is escaping out of bladder four!" Screamed another. "Captain, the horizontal stabilizer on the tail is starting to wobble!" Came a third cry.
Atom Smash decided that really had to be all that could go possibly wrong. Mostly because he was out of crew to report any more problems. He decided, quite glibly given the circumstances, that if he didn't hear any more bad news he wouldn't have to deal with it. The white unicorn with a cobalt blue mane was really more a scientist than a military captain, and while he looked like a nerdy male version of the infamous DJ Vinyl Scratch, he didn't have a musical bone in his body. What he had was an airship he was deliberately pushing past all of it's engineering tolerances. It was too much, he reached his hoof out to the ship's throttle, preparing to slow it down.
Pony technology was a fickle, unreliable thing. Steam engines, cogs, gears, sprockets and cables. As much art as science, and all of it fly-by-wire. Atom had heard a rumor once, that Princess Celestia knew of another world in another dimension where technology had harnessed the full potential of electricity. A place where metallurgy had replaced wooden airships with alloys, and where great engines powered machines that could fly faster than sound could travel. It seemed all so much fantasy, but he dearly wished even a tenth of it were true, and some of those marvels were on his own ship. Alas... what little technology Equestria had ran on steam and good intentions more than refined engineering.
"Captain... you can NOT slow this ship down!" A hoof came over his own, stopping him from pulling the throttle back. The hoof's owner was an amber-colored earth pony with a darker brown mane. His blue eyes we furtive, intense, full of intelligence. Truthfully, Atom envied his passenger quite a bit.
"Doc," Atom looked him in the eyes, shaking his head. "The Comet is a light cruiser, it's not a speedster or a warship, at this rate we're going to land in Canterlot in pieces!"
Doc would not be deterred. "Great whickering stallions! If we don't make it to Canterlot, there won't be anything left of it but pieces, and it won't matter what shape this vessel is in!" He paused, forcing calm on himself, and looking at Atom in deadly earnest. "The information I have is VITAL to the survival of the kingdom. You know my credentials, Atom, you know I would not make a vain or ego-driven request. You have to get me to Canterlot no matter the cost. I need to you dig in. I need you to be your very best today, because everything could depend on it. Please, Atom, you have to get me where I need to be."
Atom sighed, and slowly removed his hoof from the throttle. He closed his eyes a moment, and started issuing orders to his small crew of unicorns. "Orth Agonal, I need a spell on the gas bag, a wind-slide to reduce friction. Quantum Mechanic, get down below and lash those support beams. Viscosity Breakdown, the horizontal stabilizer is just stressing under the..." He paused, and looked cross a moment. "The horizontal stabilizer shouldn't be affected at all by this..." He grabbed the unicorn named Viscosity and shoved her in front of the ship's large wheel. "Keep the rudder steady. Doc, come with me!"
Atom and Doc ran the length of the deck to the back of the ship where the balky rudder was, and stopped dead in their tracks. What they saw left Atom with a confused and terrified expression, and left Doc completely unsurprising. Something that looked like a pony was clinging to the ship's tail fin, blasting at the stabilizer with magic. It had a horn, and wings, two large upper fangs, and strange holes in its legs. Actually, it looked a bit like a demonic alicorn to Atom.
"What IS that thing?!" Atom cried out.
"What I am trying to warn Canterlot about. That.... is the enemy," Doc said. He set his expression in a grim determination. Ponies didn't kill. Ponies didn't hurt other creatures unless they absolutely had to. Ponies did not like to hurt. He looked over at Atom, and knew that of all the things Atom might try to stop what was happening, the use of lethal force was just not going to occur naturally to him. It wasn't in his nature. But it needed to be, and he had no time to soften the blow. "Atom," he said softly, sadly. "It's him or us."
All things considered, Atom took the rather sobering news quite well. He processed the situation, and the idea Doc had just implanted into his head, and nodded once. "You're right Doc, I do know your credentials." He shot the earth pony a look, hard and critical. "You turn ponies into your weapons." He said.
The words bit into Doc, causing the earth pony to wince and turn his head away as Atom charged the magic in his horn. But he did look back in time to watch the bolt of offensive magic fly from Atom's horn and crash into the changeling, causing it to explode in a shower of black chitin and green innards. He felt the least he could do would be to witness the results of his manipulation. Atom closed his eyes, fighting back tears, focusing on the task at hand. He looked at Doc with glassy eyes and turned, galloping back to the wheel to take control of his ship.
Doc came up behind him and rummaged into his saddle bags, pulling out a telescope and aiming it towards the mountains ahead. "I see Canterlot. The shield is still up, thank goodness. If we can just hold this speed..." He hissed suddenly, lowering the telescope. Even without the optical aid, Doc and Atom could see the rose-colored sphere on the horizon that was Canterlot under Shining Armor's shield. Then he saw that rose light flicker, and finally fade out as it shattered apart.
"We're too late," Doc said dejectedly.
Almost immediately thereafter followed a loud bang, and the sound of strikers ringing against the brass of alarm bells.
"In more ways that one," Atom said. "Horizontal stabilizer is boned.... our elevator is locked into the down position." Atom grunted as he started pulling controls and levers. "All crew, gravity spells, gravity spells!" Atom's horn surged with a rapid-casting of magic, applying the spell he'd just mentioned to both Doc and himself, fixing their hooves to the deck of the ship.
A shudder ran through the Comet and the ship groaned almost apologetically before abruptly aiming itself nose-down. The sudden change in angle competed against the placement of the spells on the gas bag, and won. All around the ship came tearing, snapping, whipping sounds as the gas bag was sheered off by the upsurge in wind, depriving them of all lift save for the feeble levitating power of the ship's internal magic, and that was meant to make the ship easier to move when on the ground.
Atom grabbed the ship's wheel, fighting for control with what was left of the ship, working the articulators that angled the ship's sails, giving even more power to the little propellers that were already close to catching fire.
Doc looked at Atom, eyes wide. "Can you actually land the ship like this?"
Atom set his jaw, shaking his head. "Look down..." Was all he had the time to grunt out.
Doc did as he was bidden, and looked down. Which, given their angle of descent, meant craning his neck up. The Comet was diving through a layer of clouds, but when it emerged, out of the misty skies into clear air, Ponyville was laid out below them. A whole town full of ponies in the path of the falling airship.
Atom's three unicorn crew-members were moving of their own initiative, slipping each other into special saddle bags with the symbol of a parachute on their sides. Atom kicked a boxy compartment off to one side of the wheel with a hoof. "Get your chute on and jump when I say." He grunted again, pulling and fighting on the controls, the ship lurching, starting to grudgingly pull up under Atom's constant efforts. Doc did as he was told and pulled one of the parachute saddle bags out of the compartment, and strapped himself in.
"What about you, Captain? What are you doing?" Doc asked.
"Not crashing on a town full of ponies," Atom brusquely stated, gripping onto the wheel with his font hooves, using his horn's magic to pull control levers as he needed. "Wait for it.... wait for it...." The Comet leveled off finally, and Atom yelled out as he released the gravity spell on Doc. "NOW! All hooves, abandon ship! All hooves abandon ship! You too, Doc!"
Thew crew obeyed. They didn't want to, but they did. Not out of self-interest, or cowardice, but because of training. It's all very dramatic to try and linger and talk your captain out of going down with the ship. But that's not what he wants or needs. In fact, it makes everything worse. It forces the captain to repeat his orders, which burns time he could be spending flying the ship further away from a civilian population center. It makes the captain burn time worrying about his crew when he should be focused on flying. All very dramatic, not very helpful. So they obeyed, and the three unicorns released their spells, diving off the side of the ship, opening their chutes a few moments later.
Doc was not so well trained. He stayed. "Captain, I can't let you go down with your ship!" Atom snarled out as he used his magic to jam a control lever into place. "Well, you can die with me, because I am NOT leaving this ship until I am sure we're clear of the town and at the rate we're falling, by the time we clear the town, we're going to be too low to jump!"
Doc bit his lip, looking left and right. He waited, assessing Atom calmly. The unicorn was going to kill himself in an effort to save lives. The unfairness of that stuck Doc poignantly. So many who did not deserve life in the first place had it for far too long, and too many who deserved it the most had it the least. Not today. Doc waited, and waited.
Atom grimly acknowledged Doc's choice to remain with a respectful nod. Truth be told, in the back of his head, he thought it was a dumb-flank thing to do, but he didn't want his last moments spent on acrimony. "We're clear, Doc." Which also meant that they were dead.
Doc nodded back. "Alright, come with me to the cargo hold." He grabbed at Atom, still bound by his gravity spell, and gave a frustrated look at the unicorn. "Come. With. Me!"
Looking at him, Atom lifted one eyebrow. "Doc, nothing in the cargo hold is going to help us, all that's down there is your big blue box."
"Yes, and that's what's going to save us! Trust me!" Doc stared at Atom intently, willing him to believe just one more of life's impossibilities before it was too late. "Trust me..."
Atom released the spell holding him down to the deck of his doomed airship and he took one last look around the Comet. He nodded to Doc and the two sprinted for the cargo hold as the airship once again began to aim itself nose-down.
The Comet continued to fall, sails breaking off, azipods ripped out of their mounting points as the ship started to tumble end-over-end. As it fell, the airship careened across Sweet Apple Acres, knocking the weather vane off the top of the main barn. From inside of the house, Granny Smith had heard the commotion of the stricken airship, and stuck her head out the window of her bedroom.
"What in tarnation?!" She yelled, as she watched the Comet heading towards the Zap Apple orchard. She gaped at the sight, hearing the straining of wood, the groaning of engines tearing themselves apart, and a low, grumbled, muffled, mechanical wheezing sound coming from inside of the airship. "Oh... heh. They'll be alright. I wonder what the cutey's gotten himself into this time."
Granny eased herself into her rocking chair as the ship crashed in a loud cacophony of sounds, and the old mare smiled. Giving herself a little push to get the rocking chair going, her thoughts drifted back to better days and to a handsome stallion who was old in a young body, and the night he'd swept her off her feet. Oh, the adventures they had had back in the day, those two....
Author's Note
This story was originally going to be a set of interludes for my other story, "The Best of Enemies", but I found it was too jarring of a disconnect, it just didn't fit properly. So I've decided to try and make a go out of writing them concurrently instead.
