Anonymous in Nu-Questria 2

After making a quick breakfast, Izzy followed you back up to the main deck, talking the whole way.

You sat on the deck, eating your peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and sipping tea, and Izzy kept pestering you about things in her typical fashion.

“Oh, did you go on the trolley? It’s so much fun, right?” Izzy says with a huge grin.

“No.” You say. You then wash down a mouthful of peanut butter and bread with sugarless black tea.

“What, really?” Izzy says. “What about the toy store, did you go in there?”

You sigh. “No, Izzy.” You say. “You see one small town pony village, you’ve seen ‘em all. It wasn’t that interesting.”

Izzy tilts her head to the side for a moment. She’s barely touched her food.

You take another bite of your sandwich. Izzy quickly perks up her ears.

“Ooh, but what about the Canterlogic building? I bet you haven’t ever seen that before! It’s so big, and they have all those machines inside!” Izzy says.

“Izz-urk.” You say, your throat accidentally becoming lodged with too much sandwich.

You cover your mouth and cough. Izzy just continues to look at you with a pleasant smile.

“I’ve seen bigger buildings, Izzy. The stupid oversized pink glasses were weird, though.” You say once you clear your airway.

Hitch comes out of the doorway to the cabins, stretching his neck. His chest strap is shining with his sheriff badge, and his short teal mane is quaffed perfectly.

“Well, good morning you two.” He says.

Izzy’s head whips around. “Hey Hitch!” She says in a friendly tone.

You give him a small, two-fingered wave.

He walks over toward you both. “Hey, is Sunny up yet? What’s the plan for today?”

Izzy is chewing with about half her sandwich in her mouth. “I dunno! Shunny hash the plansh!” She says. She swallows audibly. “I’m just along for the ride~!” Izzy says in a cheerful voice and raises her sandwich to the sky.

Hitch quickly glances around the deck. The door behind him opens again and Sunny and Pipp walk out of it. Sunny is looking her usual self. Her purple-pink mane is in the typical long braid. Pipp is wearing white ear-muffs and a fluffy white scarf.

Sunny perks up a bit once she sees that you, Hitch and Izzy are already up. She speeds up to a trot as she comes over.

“Okay, okay, okay... where’s Zipp?” She says, walking in place with giddy excitement.

“She’s uh... on the bridge.” You say. You point a thumb behind you.

Sunny turns in the direction of the control room and calls out. “Zipp! Come here, please!” She then turns and starts pacing towards the starboard side of the deck.

Pipp takes a seat near you and Izzy. Izzy offers her half of her sandwich, and Pipp smiles. You dust the crumbs off your hands and look up to see Zipp gliding above you.

She swoops over the main deck. Her wings of white, pink and blue are fully outstretched. She lands gracefully near the group and looks over at Sunny.

“Hey. Everything’s looking good, Sunny. We’re ready to ship out.” Zipp says casually.

Sunny stops walking. “Perfect.” She says.

Sunny whirls around, standing proudly with her head held high. “Alright everypony!” She says. Zipp sits down and Sunny runs her eyes over her ragtag crew. Her eyes drift to you and she adds, “And human!”

Sunny begins walking in long strides along the starboard side as she talks. “This is it! We’re finally about to reach the heart Equestria for the very first time. We have our team, we have our airship, and this time there is nothing stopping us from heading straight-

She thrusts out a hoof to the western horizon. “To Canterlot!”

She beams with a brash, confident grin. There’s a look of pure determination in her eyes. She slowly sets her hoof down, and the ponies listen with building excitement.

“From this point on, we must all work together and to keep our wits about us. I have assigned you all roles, and while they are not strict roles you always have to follow, I expect everyone on this vessel to pull their weight!” She says, tapping a hoof on the deck to punctuate her statement.

“Hitch,” She says, pointing a hoof at him. “You’re our chief of security. You’ll be in charge of watching the skies and surveying the ground for any possible threats as we make our journey.”

Hitch nods. “Alright.” He says with a grin.

Sunny turns to Zipp. “Zipp, you’re our chief engineer. It’s your job to keep the ship running and report any damage immediately to the rest of the group.”

Zipp cocks her head. “Well then. Aye, aye, captain.” She says smugly.

Sunny turns to Pipp. “Pipp, you’re going to be our secondary lookout. You’ll be working with Hitch in shifts, alright?”

Pipp folds her ears back and looks “What? Why do I have to do that? Can’t I be like, the beautiful singer sitting across the bar~?” Pipp says wistfully.

Zipp lets out a breathy sigh and scrunches her face. She glances at Sunny.

Sunny tilts her head a bit. “Well, we don’t have a bar, but you can sing from the bow of the ship if you want...?”

Pipp perks her ears up a bit, but still looks hesitant.

“And you can take pictures to, uh... document our journey!” Sunny adds with a smile and a nod.

Pipp looks a bit relieved and smiles. “Alright. Deal!” She says with a cute grin.

“Oh! Oh! What do I do?” Izzy says. She raises a hoof excitedly.

“Oh, well obviously you’re my first mate, Izzy! You’re going to relay my orders and make sure everything runs smoothly!” Sunny says.

Izzy looks pleased. She adopts a reassuring smile.

The sun starts to crest over the bow of the ship. Sunny glances at you.

“Anon, obviously you’re our expert on Ancient Equestria. You’re going to called on to identify anything we find that looks like it might be from old world.” She says.

You nod, wearing a bored expression. “Yeah, I figured.” You say and shrug with one hand.

“That means you might be called at any time, so be ready, okay?” Sunny says with a smirk.

You nod and roll your eyes back. “Yes, ma’am...” You say. You tilt your head skeptically. “And I suppose that makes you...?”

“That’s right, you can call me Captain if you want. Captain Sunny!” She says boldly with her chest puffed out. The sun rises up higher in the sky now, and the light of the orange-red globe illuminates the small furs of her coat, giving her a radiant aura.

You smirk sarcastically. Wow. What a display. The other ponies, however, buy into it immediately. They brim with eager anticipation.

“Yeah! Well alright everypony, you heard the mare!” Hitch says. He stands up and extends a hoof.

“Let’s get this bird in the air.” Zipp says. She stands up and walks forward a bit, also extending her hoof.

“Yeah!” Izzy says, springing up into the air. Pipp giggles and steps forward, adjusting her scarf.

Sunny walks forward and all of the ponies put their hooves together in a circle. They glance at you and Sunny nods you over.

“Come on, Anon!”

You stand up and then bend over far enough to rest your hand on the top of their hooves.

Sunny grins perhaps a bit too wide at this gesture. “Alright everyone, for friendship on three.” She says.

She and the other ponies count to three, pumping their hooves each time.

“For friendship!” They all shout, raising their hooves to the sky. You raise your hand up with them.

You followed the ponies towards the bow of the ship. Soon, the mooring cables are undone by Zipp and Hitch, and Sunny stood at the helm. With the ship detached from the cliff, all that was needed was a little push with Izzy’s magic to send it coasting out sideways into the air above the sea.

Sunny turned the vessel slightly to port and gently pushed the throttle forward. The grand dirigible, remade and given life through the friendship of the five pones, then fluffed up its sprawling canopy with magically generated helium produced by the crystalline arcane reactor of the M.A.R.E. With a steady hiss, the ballonets within the frame deflated and made room for more lifting gas inside.

With that, the ship began its lazy-yet-graceful ascent into the skies above Maretime Bay.

As you looked off the bow, you saw the streets below had been almost completely purged of fog. The sun cut along the streets, casting bands of piercing tangerine light. Swirling clouds of mist race off the stern of the airship, churned up from the powerful engines beneath.

A few ponies below poked their heads out of their windows and front doors. A few waved a hoof and tried to yell goodbye, but you’re too far away and could not hear them over the engines.

As you clear the main streets, bulkhead rumbles with a bit of turbulence and Sunny gradually tilts the throttle back. “Whoops!” She says. She glances back at the group, then folds her ears down and leans forward, putting both hooves on the large, mahogany wheel.

“Haha! She almost crashed into the Canterlogic building!” Izzy laughs from her perch next to you. She looks at you and lowers her voice. “We certainly wouldn’t want that to happen, now would we?” She says with a mischievous grin.

You just shake your head, choosing to ignore the implications of a group of over-idealistic young ponies crashing an aircraft into the tallest buildings in a city.

Sunny continues to hold the rudder steady as the ship continues it powered climb. Within about a half hour, it is easily soaring well above the approaching foothills in the distance.

Airships are not really known for their top speeds. Given what you know, it will probably take about two or three days to get to Canterlot. You watch the scattered houses on the outskirts of Maretime Bay scroll past, the cobblestone streets turning into rough dirt paths, and the rolling green hills coming after.

“Hitch!” Sunny yells from inside the bridge.

“Yeah, Sunny?” Hitch calls out. His head is leaned over the edge of the front of the bow.

“What’s it look like on your end?” Sunny calls out.

Hitch raises his head up. He’s wearing some elongated periscope-like contraption on his head.

He lifts up the goggles and says, “Nothing so far, Sunny!” The wind whips his goggles down make his teeth clack together hard. “Ah!” He says painfully.

Izzy bursts out laughing. You can’t help but grin too. Pipp giggles from inside the bridge.

Zipp trots up to him and extends a wing to block the wind. “Dude, why are you wearing those things?” She says. “Don’t you remember? We have a better way to watch the ground.”

Hitch takes off the goggles, then clips them to his shoulder strap. “Yeah, I know,” He says awkwardly. “I just felt like I could put them to some good use for once.” He rubs the top of his muzzle as Zipp folds her wing in.

Zipp shakes her head and folds her ears back. Her eyes are narrowed as she turns away from him. “Okay, Hitch, let me show you how to run the equipment again.” Zipp says.

“Okay, thank you.” Hitch says with an exasperated sigh. “I was too afraid to ask because you already told me so many times...”

Zipp leads Hitch down the stairs to the main deck, passing by you. Hitch glumly follows, but pokes an eye up at you as he crosses your path.

Zipp steps over to the bride door and cracks the door open.

“Hey Captain,” Zipp says. “I’m going to teach Hitch the ropes again. Do you want to go over the charts again later?”

Sunny has relaxed a bit at the helm. She look back at Zipp and gives her an affirmative nod. “Very good, chief engineer! I'm just going to keep climbing until we reach about six thousand feet. After I level out, we'll look at the charts again.” She says.

Izzy peeks in through the bridge window curiously. She looks over at you and then to Sunny.

Sunny turns an ear and then looks over at Izzy. “Go ahead and go with them, first mate. You might need to know this too, alright?” She says.

Izzy sits up proudly on her haunches and gives Sunny a firm salute. “Yes, Captain! Right away, ma’am!”

She then turns and skips back towards the center of the deck, singing a tuneless melody.

Zipp closes the door gently and looks up at you.

You don’t really feel like being left alone with Sunny and Pipp, even with the reinforced glass windows between you.

“Uh, yeah, I’ll come along too, just in case I need to take over for a watch...” You say.

Zipp nods and leads you and Hitch over to the main pylon that connects the ship to the balloon frame above. Within it, there’s a spiral staircase made of sturdy stainless steel. It leads up to a small, chamfered box right below the balloon frame. You remember Zipp installing some sort of electronic equipment in there.

You walk along with the ponies in small steps, keeping pace with them as they make their way towards the spiral staircase.

Luckily, the winding stairs aren’t really that long. It goes up about one and a half stories before it gets to the horizontal white capsule.

You crawl more than walk your way up the stairs. Thankfully, it had a low railing on the side for you to hold on to. The entire structure felt stable. Spanner saw to that for sure, so you weren’t really worried, but you did still have to brace yourself against the small gusts of chilly wind.

Zipp leads Hitch and Izzy into the room, and you sit down at the top of the stairs, halfway into the doorway. Your feet stretch down the staircase below.

“Alright, so,” Zipp says.

“This is the radar. You press this button to turn it on, alright?” Zipp says, pointing to a small device with a green LCD screen. She taps a green button which powers on the device. A sweeping green line and two rings drawn in rough aliased pixels appears on the screen.

“And uh, how do I do the range-changey thing again?” Hitch asks.

Zipp points to the two circular buttons on the right side of the device.

“This ones makes it bigger, this one makes it smaller, alright?” Zipp says. “Also, this one right here, that displays the range of the last object it picks up.” Zipp says, pointing to another button.

“Okay, okay.” Hitch nods. “I think I got it.”

“Oh, oh,” Izzy says, scooting forward between the two. “Can I look with the camera?”

Zipp leans off to the side. “Sure, Izzy. Give it a whirl.”

Zipp reaches over quickly with a hoof and flips on a surge protector on the floor.

A group of CRT monitors anchored to the wall in metal braces turn their screens on with a sizzling ping.

Izzy picks up a small control deck. It has a pony-sized joystick and a series of large oval buttons.

Zipp leans her hoof over the pad. “Alright, so, this one switches between the feeds. This is to zoom in.” Zipp presses the button, and the bottom-right camera zooms in. It shows the picturesque landscape of Equestria in grainy, low-resolution quality. The colors are muted and there’s a bit of chromatic aberration going on with the screen. Inside the frame, there’s a featureless green hill dotted with a few small rocks.

“And this-” Zipp says, but Izzy has grabbed the control stick and is moving the camera around in circles.

“Bzz, bzz, bzz.” Izzy says, flattening her ears. She imitates her favorite stallion actor. “Scanning for Earth Ponies. Must find Sarah Cornflower.”

Izzy makes long sweeping motions with the camera. Zipp puts a hoof on Izzy’s as she starts to run the camera’s motors out to their limits. Hitch shakes his head and smiles.

“Izzy, I don’t think you’ll see many earth ponies for quite a while.” He says.

Izzy is tapping the zoom in and zoom out buttons erratically now. She tilts the control stick a bit and then gasps as a small, furry brown mass pokes it head out of a hill.

“Oh, wow! Groundhogs!” She exclaims.

“Really?” Hitch says, leaning over and quirking an eyebrow curiously.

Sure enough there are a few fuzzy, round groundhogs poking their heads out in a field of patchy grass.

“Alright. Come on, Izzy.” Zipp says. Izzy is transfixed by the sight, however, and keeps the camera centered on it.

Zipp looks up at you. You shrug and reach your hand over.

“Oh, what a little cutie you are...” Izzy says. You poke her in the back. “Oh!” She exclaims.

“Come on Izzy.” You say.

Izzy glances over her shoulder and then folds her ears back. “Fine...” She says, passing the control pad to Hitch. Izzy reluctantly scoots back towards the doorway.

Hitch moves forward a bit and tests out the camera controls. Zipp frowns for a moment as she glances at Izzy, and then her eyes light up as she is struck with an idea. “Wait, I got something you guys can do.” She says.

Izzy turns her head and looks at Zipp with a surprised face. Zipp shows you a knowing grin. You quirk an eyebrow.