North Woods NightMares

The Night-Sky 1 steamed south as the sun hung low on the horizon. By now the airship and its occupants had left the trade winds behind and were now fighting a crosswind that slowed them enough that the red-sailed ship was keeping pace. Frosty used her scope to confirm that even now the pursuers trained the high-caliber weapons on the Night-Sky 1, as if expecting the balloon would come into range.

As she and Polaris were sharing a meager dinner the radio squawked to life. “Aris Control! Aris Control! Hello in radio-land!”

Frosty grabbed the piece and lowered her head in thought, trying to conjure up an appropriate callsign. “It’s cold and gusty up here.” She said, “We have unfriendly company on the air with us.”

“Yes, we’re aware! Come at once! Mount Aris is under bombardment from the sea! Multiple ships are attacking us!” A panicked female voice exclaimed.

“Aris Control?” PW wondered aloud. “Do the repeater stations even go this far south?”

“No, HQ must have set this up in the last few hours.” Frosty keyed in again. “Affirmative. FYI, there’s a radio-equipped ship of war under us also heading there.”

“Sooo sure you got us figured out!” Came a third, male voice that dragged his words with intent.

“Oh, it is on! Tell him you’ll rough him up! Hard!” PW said excitedly, coming up to Frosty in delight like a colt that had just been offered candy.

She glared back at him. “No communication flows to the enemy. We leave them in the dark.”

“Um.” The Aris voice spoke again. “Just, please take caution and land where you can when you get here! We need help! Did that ship really follow you from the tropics? And keep up?”

“Yep.” Frosty replied in a sour tone.

“Where are you now?”

Her eyes narrowed. “We’re not giving any help to the ship below us in finding their position.”

“Okay, control out!”

A gruff but clear call took her place. “You’re 32 degrees south of trouble and are flying right into the thick of it.”

PW reclined from sitting against the cabinets into an odd position on the floor with his hind hooves up in the air. “So he can navigate. Big whoop.” He shrugged, looking up to Frosty.

“This just keeps blowing up, Polaris!” She shook her wild mane and grew more agitated with every word. “We have an enemy with a potential insider who knows Night-Mares, has classified technology, unknown technology, who has all of our previous radio transmissions from who-knows-how-long, can jam our transmissions, can keep up with us, sails around the sea flying bright red colors and is now shelling a powerful friend of Equestria!” With a shout she bucked a hind hoof into the metal hull, permanently impressing her hoofprint. “This is what I was made to prevent!”

This display of anger and power so close to PW (who was still laying belly up on the floor) frightened him such that he froze up. She seemed to deflate upon noticing. “Sorry, buddy.” She apologized, gently lifting him to his hooves.

“I get it though, you have a right to be mad.” PW reassured, glancing at the sunset. “I’m going to get my sights prepared.”

By the time Polaris had his worksheet ready to go and the bubble sextant ready it was dark enough to take the shots. “35 south, 49 east.” He called out.

“We’re getting back into the temperate zone. The other one.” Frosty concluded.

PW nodded. “Do we need a lookout?”

Frosty thought for a minute. “I am now convinced one of us should at least stay up. We should be able to hear anything we need to from here.”

“Got it. I’ll do the first shift.” PW decided.

“I approve.” Frosty responded and it wasn’t long before her titanic snoring began.

He smiled. “Right decision, I bet. It’ll be harder to hear trouble with all that snoring. And if they attack it’ll probably be in the wee hours of the morning.”

He then watched the stars above until it was his turn to sleep.

“PW. Time for a morning sight. Should be almost there, right?” Frosty whispered.

He yawned and stretched. “Yeah, I think ten in the morning was what I predicted for arrival?” He sat up and looked out of the window but wasn’t able to see any stars. “Looks like a cloud bank rolled in. I’m going up-top to look for a gap in the clouds for stars.”

Polaris pushed his covers off and ascended the ladder, opening the hatch and climbing out with the sextant. “Oh, this side has plenty of stars!” He called down.

“Great!” Came the response from below.

“Whoa – Gemini?” PW muttered in alarm.

“What?” Called the hatch.

“How long did I sleep? I’m looking at Gemini in the west, it should be in the east!” Shouted PW.

“My body clock says it’s 5 A.M. Do you doubt me?”

“N-no, I’m just confused!” PW shouted back. "Second star, in Pegasus, yes that’s right, in the north… in front…" he mumbled. "Frosty! What’s our compass heading?”

“3-3-0!”

“We’re way off direction, we should be around south! We must have somehow turned around overnight!” PW called, sighting Enif dead ahead. “What is going on?!”

“Now what?”

“Celestia’s Almanac said Enif would be at 40 degrees elevation, which makes sense! It’s at 10 degrees north declination. But It’s way higher in elevation! Like, 10 degrees higher! Which means…” PW shouted, looking west. “How long have we been on this course?”

“I’m really not sure, I’m sorry. I don’t know navigation like you do.” Frosty’s response.

“Pollux and Enif have high angles now, both suggesting we’re further north at 30 degrees south latitude! We went north like 150 miles overnight!” PW shouted.

Frosty stuck her head up through the hatch opening and placed her muscular forelegs on the metal hull in front of her assistant. “What do you think happened? Didn’t eat any blue flowers did you?”

“Ha! The rudder should be able to tell us.” Figured PW, turning around. “Why hasn’t this cloud moved?”

“Say what, PW?”

“This small, round cloud has been here the whole time!” PW shouted, advancing with intent to clear it from the sky.

Frosty looked at it and squinted her eyes, then became concerned. “Windy! Use that superpower Marewaulkee stallion’s night-vision and tell me what you see.” Frosty asked.

PW stared hard at the object. “It’s solid!” He called, walking closer. “I see a seam, this isn’t a cloud at all!” PW called in alarm, racing back towards the hatch.

Suddenly the entire ship and balloon lurched violently.

“Frosty! Grab your weapon!” PW shouted.

In an instant both of the night-vision adapted ponies were blinded. “AUGH! Floodlight!” PW cried, feeling around for the hatchway.

“Too bright!” Came a complaint came from below.

A klaxon blared just beside them.

“What is that?” PW asked, unable to even hear his own shout.

An enormous *BOOM* rattled the sky and the next thing PW knew he was falling. He instinctively opened his wings to fly but something hot came down overtop of him, pulling him downward. His senses came back to him and he found himself pinned to the balloon in a fast fall.

“WE’RE FALLING RIGHT OUT OF THE SKY!” Frosty screamed.

PW looked up at the balloon and found its remains flapping in the wind in two pieces. He grunted in the effort to pull himself down to the hatch along the guy wires. "Falling at maybe a hundred feet per second, I only have a minute or two! Assuming we were still at ten thousand feet!” He cried, trying to open the repair kit. “No good! Only small patches!”

“PW?”

“FROSTY, PUSH YOURSELF OUT THROUGH THE HATCH NOW! JUST DO IT!” PW screamed.

He heard the wind stop and then start up again as the Night-Mare pushed her flanks through the hatch.

“Hold onto me, don’t let go!” PW shouted, guiding Frosty’s hands to his middle.

“You can’t fly me, PW, no matter how much you want to! I’m five times your weight with my armor!”

“That’s not what I’m doing, just don’t let go!” He called and flapped his wings. They were falling but he was able to steer where they fell relative to the balloon. “Frosty, can you snap the guy line here?”

“Yeah!” She grunted, stretching the metal cable holding the balloon to the vessel until it snapped.

“Don’t let go of it!” PW shouted. He angled his wings and guided them over to the other side.

“I see now!” Frosty shouted, realizing his plan.

She snapped the other one. PW smelled pine sap and felt moisture, a warning sign.

“We’re near the ground! You only have a second or two!” PW yelled.

Frosty pulled and the third and final cable snapped, the rest of the ship suddenly fell away from them like it was propelled, and their speed slowed considerably.

With his guiding phase done Polaris angled straight upward and flapped his wings as fast as a hummingbird, desperately trying to slow their stop as a loud crash was heard and darkness overtook him.