Chapter Fourteen - Flying High

The plan was to sail into Seaward Shoals in the morning, after thoroughly scouting the town and surroundings before dawn.That meant that I would be up very early, so I reluctantly put away my books and research materials just after dinner and took a dose of a mild soporific potion.

I didn't expect to dream because of the potion, but I did, and it turned out to be a very nice dream indeed.

It began in a crumbling ruin, with the dark and weathered statue of an ugly, ancient god muttering to me in low and threatening tones. Then Luna blithely trotted in and turned the whole scene to sand with a wave of a wing.

"None of that!" she said. "There shall be naught but refreshment and a pavillion of pleasures here!"

It seemed that Luna had decided that the waking world was giving me enough cause for worry. She was determined to make sure that the dreamlands were a haven until such time as I had the leisure time for further symbolic introspection.

I awoke utterly refreshed and relaxed, ready to fight hydras with a salad fork. Luna is amazingly good at her job.

= = =

Shrrbrgrth and Khaatarrekket in their natural changeling forms had very good nightsight, and with their shapeshifting ability, were the ideal crew members for a scouting mission.

That didn't stop me from wanting to go with them. I could shapeshift too, or cast illusion, invisibility, or nightsight spells.

Ket smiled as I fussed a bit, double-checking the straps on her bags and the raptor transceiver slung across her chest. She rightfully pointed out that sending the captain out on a scouting mission was complete foolishness.

"If I wasn't a fool," I grumbled, "I'd probably still be back in Canterlot, teaching theoretical thaumaturgy at the university and ignoring my mother's hints about giving her grandfoals."

Ket chuckled. "And be doing so under the Holy Moon of the Eternal Night, no doubt. Perhaps we will drink a toast to appropriate foolishness when Shrrbrgrth and I return?"

I laughed, both because she was completely correct, and because I'd done plenty under the Holy Moon of the Eternal Night in last night's dream.

"I'll have a bottle of the good stuff ready when you get back. Be safe!"

I could have relaxed in my cabin, but for no good reason, I remained on the quarterdeck with the second raptor floating in front of me. Clove Hitch had the watch, but Ao stood beside me, armed and ready in case she was needed. Aside from the occasional scrape of my hooftip rubbing against the deck in a nervous tic, all was quiet.

An hour or so after they departed, there was a burst of static from the raptor, and then the sound of Ket's voice. "Nebula, we have arrived at the town. Over."

"Understood. Anything to report? Over."

"No airships here, and the town is quiet, but there are several damaged buildings on the waterfront and a ship half-submerged at the dock. Something happened here pretty recently. I think we should do a low sweep to see if there are any yeti ground troops nearby. Over."

"Be careful. Your primary goal is to get back safely and have a drink with your captain, understood? Over."

"Understood, Captain. Expect an update in a half hour. Out."

It was a damned long half hour. I caught and stopped myself rubbing my hoof against the deck at least three times.

"Nebula, we are on our way back." The sudden crackle of Ket's voice made me start and then sigh with relief. "No enemy spotted. Details when we arrive. Over."

"Understood. Out."

"Ao, do you think the yeti fleet has bypassed us?. They could be as far north as Somnambula by now!" I gestured with the raptor, which I really ought not to have done. The things were hideously expensive, and one little bump against a railing could have put it out of commission.

"This one cannot be certain, but other possibilities suggest themselves."

We discussed the matter until Ket and Sherbet arrived. Clove Hitch collected the raptors and stowed them away in their padded case as Ao poured out tots of calvados for the quarterdeck crew.

We solemnly toasted each other's continued health and prosperity, because it is "the thing to do,"[1] and then we got down to business.

[1] Aeronautical traditions get started so easily and are defended so tenaciously, that I firmly believe that at some time in the future, aerial warfare will become impossible. Before the combatants can complete the necessary toasts, flag-raisings, declarations, (and probably interpretive dances) prior to engaging the enemy, they all will have died of old age.

"They're miserable," Ket said. "Grieving, I think; it was hard to tell exactly as most of them were asleep, but certainly very sad and unsettled. No hint of anypony down there being happy about their situation."

"Worried too, but not actively afraid," Sherbet put in, and Ket nodded in agreement.

"So the goons are probably long gone. How about the damage to the town?" I asked.

"Seems to be very deliberate and targeted. Warehouses, public buildings, and ships mostly. There's no sign of mass movement on the roads, so it probably was an air raid."

"Makes sense," I said. I ran through the scenarios that Ao and I had discussed and it was the general consensus that we should continue to the town to render whatever aid we could, and get more information.

"Mr. Hawser, crank down the keelmast and fly the big Equestrian flag from it. Let's not panic the townsponies if we can help it."

"Aye-aye, Captain!"

= = =

The good ponies of Seaward Shoals were too exhausted to panic much, it turned out. They needed reassurance as well as help, so I wore my Princess Twilight suit[2] when I met with the mayor and leading ponies of the town.

[2] I know how odd that sounds, but it's a very accurate summation of how I felt about it at that time.

The Stormguard yetis had taken anything of value they could lay their claws on, as well as all the food in town. The ponies had been eating grass and seaweed ever since the raid.

The attack had been sudden and overwhelming. The town guard consisted of five ponies in total, two of which had been killed in a brave but foolish attempt to get a few good kicks in before they went down. The only other serious resistance that had been offered was by one of the town's weather ponies. I was told she had made life miserable for the raiders by pelting them with boathooks, anchors and whatever other improvised weapons she could lay her hooves on. Nopony had seen what had killed her, but there were only a few burnt feathers left of her for the funeral. There were several other injured ponies, but thankfully, their wounds were all survivable.

One good bit of news was that the raid had come from (and returned to) the southeast, suggesting it had been a foraging expedition and that the main fleet was still somewhere in that direction.

I visited the wounded ponies personally, and thanked them for their bravery. I had Dr. Woundwort come along with me to examine their wounds. The town doctors were perfectly competent, but a little extra attention always helps with morale, if nothing else.

We also helped a baker to clean up her shop and donated the ingredients to start baking fresh loaves of bread to be shared out to the townsponies. It wasn't much, but it raised their spirits quite a bit. I had Spike send off a couple of messages. One to Celestia, requesting a shipment of food as well as updating her on the situation and recommending Morning Mist for a posthumous DR.[3] The other message was to Luna—just because.

[3] I doubted a Defender of the Realm medal would be of much comfort to her surviving family, but it came with a pension which might make life a little less difficult for them in the long term.

Then, I called the gang and Nebula's officers together in my cabin for a meeting and a quick working lunch.

"Our number one priority is to locate the fleet."

"And once we find it?" asked Clove Hitch.

"Well, the details depend on the exact circumstances, but if we can find the fleet, I have several options prepared to deal with it."

Clove knew who I really was, but really didn't really understand what that meant. She looked worried and unsure. "We aren't the helpless merchant airship we appear to be, but taking on even one of those battleships would be a terrible risk. Given that the Storm King has been collecting magical weapons, he might—"

"Don't worry, Ms. Clove, I don't intend that Nebula will ever engage any of those ships. She is going to act purely as a base of operations and an observation platform."

Clove Hitch was a clever pony (I would hardly have made her Nebula's Second Officer, otherwise) and she immediately saw where I was heading. "Ah! Then we should order the cold weather gear broken out?"

"Yes, Ms. Clove, we're going up."

= = =

Nebula's ceiling[4]is much higher than any other airship I know of. It's not that the design for such capability is difficult, but it is expensive, unnecessary, and impractical for most situations. The atmosphere is extremely cold and thin at high altitudes and that makes everything (including the crew) work less efficiently. There are layers of air streams up there, high-velocity winds that are rough and unpredictable. The thin air made engines horribly inefficient and the inverse square falloff of a keel spell makes sailing very chancy at best. Most airships settled for a good balance and that meant they used passes to traverse mountain ranges. Nebula could, if necessary, fly over Mt. Everhoof.

[4] In this case, "ceiling" means the highest altitude she can rise to, not the wooden planks over our heads, which on an airship (as I believe I've previously mentioned) is called the "overhead." Though it is rare to encounter it on an airship due to weight considerations, extra, finished planking inside the hull is sometimes referred to as the ceiling.

That didn't mean it was easy, or something to be done casually. Preparations had to be made and crew drilled on the hazards and procedures. It didn't help the crew's peace of mind that I also insisted that Nebula also be rigged for storm and collision conditions.

"What in tarnation are we gonna run into up there?" Applejack asked me as I was stowing away books and papers in my cabin, and locking down boxes and containers of delicate materials. "An' Dash tells me that there ain't no storms that get anywheres near that high, so why all the hubbub?"

"One of my possible scenarios might result in unusual turbulence or sudden pressure waves that could briefly affect Nebula's stability," I said as I wrapped cotton batting around bottles of alchemical reagents and nestled them in my sea chest.

"Are we talkin' a hoofball shoulder-check or a loose pea in a tin can in an avalanche sorta turbulence?"

I paused for a moment to look her in the face. "AJ, I wish I knew for sure, but since I don't, I'm being overly cautious."

AJ stared at me for a moment and then nodded. "All righty then. I reckon I'll go batten down my gear."

We were ready by nightfall, and I didn't see any reason to delay. I arranged for seven of the Nebulas to stay on the rocks with three chests of "delicate instruments" and since I didn't get enough volunteers, I had the crew draw straws. And yes, of course I had set it up that way as a sort of experiment. Lucky wasn't chosen to stay behind, and that was more of a relief than I was willing to admit to myself at the time.

Fluttershy was on the wheel for the ascent, Zepherine and Ket (in the shape of a zebra so fluffy, she was nearly spherical) on the quarterdeck with her. Clove Hitch and Ao were in the cupola, and Ralf was on the main deck wrapped in a thick coat, sitting on his toolbag.

I was on the fo'c'sle deck with my best enchanted spyglass. The chances I would be able to see anything significant before dawn were slim, but it was a good enough post and kept me from driving the crew crazy with unnecessary triple and quadruple checks.

"Static lines clear! Ready lift!" Ket called out. Then, "Lift, ho!" I heard the hiss and splatter of water ballast dropping from the number two and three tanks onto the stone quay below. Then Zeph rang the telegraph for slow ahead, the engines spun up, and we glided over the town. Deck ponies hauled in the ground lines and coiled them carefully as we continued to slowly climb and turn to a southeast course.

As soon as we'd cleared the town, Fluttershy released more ballast, and the deck pressed up under my hooves. The landscape below and ahead was a jumble of dark shapes that my glass resolved into a sparse juniper forest on stoney ground that slowly thinned out to bare sand and rocks in the far distance.

Fluttershy was releasing ballast in carefully calculated amounts while gradually turning up the heaters in the gas cells to improve our lift. Nebula's cells had been triple-reinforced a couple of refits ago and could take an astounding amount of pressure, but they still had limits. As we climbed and the air got colder and colder, I heard the compressor pumps kick in, pulling gas out of the cells and forcing it into the storage tanks. We would probably need to vent gas at some point, but the plan was to waste as little as possible.

My breath steamed out, and condensed into little droplets on the mouths of the brass speaking tubes as I checked in with the crew at their stations.

"I just checked the lift tanks," Halter Hitch reported. "They're pretty hot, but they're almost full now, so we should be okay."

Ao reported that the rising quarter moon was particularly beautiful, and that she felt it would be a fitting subject for a poem, which she would compose at some future time when she wasn't on duty.

The rumble of the compressors cut off, and I strolled aft to the quarterdeck, nodding to Ralf along the way. His head was sunk so far down into the thick wool collar of his jacket, that it was impossible to tell if he nodded in return.

"Cap'n on deck!" Zeph announced as I reached the top of the ladder. Formalities; there's no avoiding them. At least she used an appropriately quiet voice.

"How does she go, Ms. Fluttershy?"

"Nicely, Captain. Very nicely. There's not much left to do but vent a bit as we rise. Nebula should find an altitude she likes in an hour or so."

"How much higher can she go if we use the engines for lift?"

Fluttershy frowned. "I wouldn't recommend it. The air's going to be a lot thinner up there. The best way to get higher would be to angle the steering fins and use Nebby's envelope for an additional lift surface. But that would mean running as fast as possible. It would be better to jettison whatever cargo we could spare."

I nodded. "I don't think it will be necessary, but could you give me a guess at how much extra altitude we could get with just the engines canted up?"

Fluttershy thought for a while. "Nebula's different than she was back in Marezambique,[5] Stronger, but heavier, too. Maybe another few furlongs, but not much more than that. Umm—that's just a guess."

[5] The last place we'd tried to rake the moon with our topmast. See, The Twilight Enigma.

In my mind, Fluttershy's guesses about Nebula's capabilities far outweighed the expert opinions of any other dozen aeronauts. "That's good to know. Let's hope we don't have any reason to find out for sure."

We achieved neutral buoyancy a little after midnight. It was too dark to see much on the ground, and we were well above the range Nebula's altimeter was calibrated for, so high that some of the crew were showing signs of altitude sickness.

I assigned Zepherine and Hawser to make continuous rounds, checking on each of the crew members in turn. The doctor and I heated water bottles, sand bags, and anything else that might store a good bit of heat and distributed them along with extra blankets as needed.

When we rang back the engines to dead slow ahead, Ralf roused himself and went out to each engine pod to peer through the inspection hatches and fiddle around a bit. He asked if we could shut down number two for about an hour, and I gave the order to stop both numbers one and two in order to keep our thrust balanced. Despite the blazing stars above us, it was too dark to see any ground features, and there wasn't any point in rushing onward. We only needed a little headway to keep the steering surfaces working.

About a half hour later Ralf asked me to spin up number two again and then sat next to it for several minutes, his head cocked and his ears swiveled, listening intently. "Yah, he's good now," he told me. "Was a little rattle in the feathering rod. Ralf replaced it." He held up a steel rod with a hole in each end and then brought it down sharply against a wrench he was holding in his other paw. The rod snapped cleanly in half. "Bad temper on this one! Most times okay, but in this cold, not so good."

"Well spotted, Mr. Ralf!"

He grinned and tucked his ears back under his collar. He wanted to stay on deck, so I got him a thick blanket and heated up a couple of dropstones[6] for him to curl up around.

[6] Large stones with holes drilled through them so that a line can be tied to them. Useful for a lot of things.

I ordered an early crew change. I wanted the same ponies on duty at dawn, and that meant giving them a few hours of sleep at least.

I went down to my cabin, being as quiet as possible so that I wouldn't wake Dash and AJ, and found a couple of scrolls on the big table that Spike had belched up during our ascent. One was from Luna; I immediately recognized her lovely calligraphy.

Dearest Twilight,

I am going to accompany the aid flight from Applewood to Seaward Shoals, and am looking forward to seeing you in a more corporeal way again. I am fully confident that you will have trodden that loathsome creature underhoof by the time I arrive, and we shall celebrate in grand style! (The relief supplies include several bottles of Buzzy's Metheglin.)

A train with more supplies will follow shortly, when we have determined the specific needs of the ponies of Seaward Shoals.

I am attaching the star charts you requested and have indicated a few bodies that might serve your purpose. I believe that one of the chondrites would be most suitable for the task.

All My Love,

Luna

I also recognised the quillwork on the second scroll. It was from Cadance.

Dear Twilight,

I hate to be a bother now when it seems you are closing in on our enemy, but I have had another prophetic dream.

I can just see you rolling your eyes, so I will make this brief.

You will soon have a very important choice to make. Please, for the sake of Equestria and all of your loved ones, do not make it a rash one! I wish I could be more specific, but the dream was not. All I can say is that it was horrible beyond belief.

I trust in your judgment when you are given time to consider matters, and refuse to let yourself be carried away by emotion or panic. Just be careful and deliberate, and I'm sure everything will be alright.

Shining and Flurry send their love.

Love,

Cadance

The only reason I didn't scream in frustration was that I didn't want to wake Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

= = =

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Author's Note