Chapter Fifteen - Fiasco Fallout

Dawn brought a welcome sight. About seven leagues south of us, anchored above the rough desert terrain, was the Western Fleet of the Storm King's armada. Two battleships circled the anchored fleet about three furlongs out, but even though they were acting as flying guard towers, they were still far below us.

The ships were closely grouped and in the middle of uninhabited wasteland, so Plan A would be perfect.

We would be hard, but not impossible to spot, and since I had no idea what sort of magical weapons the fleet might have at its disposal, I worked as quickly as possible. "Tempest, can you point out the flagship?"

"It will be one of the circling ones," she said. "The king doesn't like to get his paws dirty, but which one…" She peered through my spyglass again. "Sorry. I can't say for sure."

"No problem. I plan on destroying them all, so it doesn't matter that much."

She gave me a doubtful side-eye. "Friendship magnetism?"

"Nope!" I said, grinning. "I'm going to throw a rock at them."

She scowled at me. Well, her expression didn't really change all that much, but I could tell she thought I was kidding her. "A rock?"

"A really big, really fast rock. Give me a minute." I sat down, took a few deep breaths, and then opened my magesight to the heavens. The beautiful interwoven spheres, cycles, wheels and epicycles of the celestial mechanism appeared above me. I just sat there for a few seconds, drinking in the magnificence of it all. Then I sought out one relatively tiny filament that Luna had marked on the chart. The little type-C asteroid had a nice close orbit that would only take a little nudging to shift into a collision course.

I nudged. I observed it for a second and then gave it a little correction. There! Right on target. "Ms. Summer Breeze—" I called up to Fluttershy, "—bring us about and make all good speed away from the target." The engines spun up to full ahead, and when Ralf signaled from the main deck that they were all running well, Fluttershy rang them for Emergency Ahead. The props shrieked in the thin air and we began to pick up speed.

"Attention all crew!" I used the Royal Voice to make sure that everycreature heard me clearly. "Prepare yourselves for a collision. Tie yourselves into your hammocks or use a safety line if you are on deck. You have—" I glanced back at the sky. "—two minutes to prepare."

"What's gonna happen,Twi?" AJ called up from the main deck where she was busily lashing herself to the mainmast.

"Big explosion, and I mean really big. I'll shield us from any physical debris that gets flung this high, but there will be a shockwave and it could be rough."

Ralf had tied himself to the pin rail near the number one engine pedestal. He looked like he was about to panic. "What will happen down there?"

"Everything within ten furlongs of the impact will be destroyed. That means the fleet and a good deal of the desert around it. Nice of them to moor themselves far away from anything important."

"H-how…?" Tempest was staring at me, her mouth open, with an expression on her face that I had never seen there before: fear. Grubber was frantically lashing himself to the binnacle.

I glanced upward again. "No time to explain now. I'd advise not looking at the target area until after the impact. The flash can—"

There came a canine howl of rage from below us "NO! No, you can not do this!"

All of the quarterdeck crew turned to stare at Ralf in surprise. He was untethered, out on the number one engine strut with the cowling of the engine torn off. He held a large hammer above the energy crystal, threatening to smash it.

"Ralf, no!" shouted Fluttershy. It was an actual shout, probably the loudest I'd ever heard from her. "Bad dog! You put that hammer down!"

The big crystal was nearly fully charged. If Ralf smashed it, the energy release would take out the engine and a good chunk of Nebula's hull. It would also, of course, kill him instantly.

There was no time for debate. I grabbed Ralf and hauled him away from the engine, pulling the hammer out of his paw and floating him up to the quarter deck. "Ms. Zepherine, tie him to the rail. Tightly. I will deal with him afterwards."

Zeph bent to her task and Ralf moaned, "No! Please! All those dogs! Thousands! Puppies!"

I spun on him. "What? Ralf, what are you talking about?"

He was openly weeping by then. "The Caves of Conundrum! The High Song, beneath the fleet! Ten thousand dogs or more in those caverns!"

There was dead silence for a second.

"Oh, frass," Ket hissed.

I whipped my head up searching for the chondrite. It was close. Too close. I couldn't deflect it in time. Even so, I shoved it with all of my might, but knew that the impact, even several leagues off target, would shake the ground like a massive earthquake. I drew as much power as possible from the storage gems hidden in my greatcoat and did the first thing that came to mind. I poured pure energy into the rock as heat and rotation. It went soft and the spin flattened it out just before it hit the atmosphere.

The sky went searing white. We could feel the heat of it like a second sun.

"Fluttershy, turn us toward the blast!"

Nebula spun as fast as an airship her size could, which wasn't what anypony would call nimble, but it was enough. Before the shockwave hit us we were lined up head-on and braced as well as possible.

Ralf howled.

"Ralf, it was an airburst, not a ground strike. It shouldn't be—"

I wasn't getting through to him, so it was just as well that the shockwave arrived and saved me from any more futile attempts at reassurance.

It was bad.

Moreso because I had been distracted and only put up the shield after the first wave had hit us. Thankfully, there was no flying debris, as there might have been if millions of tons of sandstone were flung into the sky as I had initially planned..

Nebula violently pitched and yawed as Fluttershy struggled to steady her. Unwelcome noises of ripping fabric and cracking wood came from all around us. Everyone on deck hung on for their lives and stared at the huge ball of flame ahead of us as it darkened and rose up through the stratosphere.

The inrush of air toward the explosion wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared, and the second pressure wave was relatively mild. I scanned the deck, looking for anyone who had been hurt, but it seemed like we had come through relatively unscathed.

I turned to Fluttershy. "How's Nebula?"

She didn't reply immediately, but rang the engines down to slow ahead and checked the instruments in the binacle before she stroked a hoof over the wheel housing. "I think she's okay. Just scrapes and bruises, but I want to get the feel of her again before we push her."

I knew what she meant. "I will send inspection teams around to check on everything, while you maneuver her."

"Can we descend a bit?"

I leaned over the larboard rail and looked forward. The desert ahead was completely obscured by a huge cloud of dust that was rapidly spreading. "Go ahead, but stay above the dust cloud."

Everyone was untying themselves and Zepherine asked me if she should release Mr. Ralf.

I hesitated, then knelt down on the deck beside the little dog. "Mr. Ralf, look at me."

He raised his tear-stained face to mine.

"I didn't know. I thought it was empty desert. I did everything I could to soften the impact, and we will go there as soon as we can to help any…" I had been going to say "survivors" and thought better of it. "We will give help to any dogs that need it."

"They… They aren't dead?"

"I think there's a good chance that most of them will be okay. If they were underground when the meteorite exploded they would have had some protection."

He stared at me for a long moment and then lowered his head to the deck, without replying.

I called up a spell and put him into a deep sleep. "Untie him Ms. Zepherine, and take him down to his bunk."

She did so, levitating him along in her wake.

There were no major injuries to any of the crew or severe damage to Nebula, but there was enough to keep the crew busy. Clove Hitch had two crewponies out on the number one engine pod, fothering[1] the hole in the cowling. Ralf, in his panic, had torn the hatch clear off its hinges and dropped it overboard. We could eventually replace it, but in the meantime I wanted to keep any sand or other junk out of the engine's workings.

[1] "Fothering" is an emergency procedure, stretching canvas (sometimes a spare sail) across an opening that ought not to be there. Incredibly, it is very effective for ocean-going ships that have damaged their hulls. The canvas still passes some water, but far more slowly than a gaping hole, and the technique had sometimes made the difference between limping into harbor, and sinking like a stone.

All of Nebula's gas cells seemed to be in good shape. I heard the hiss of the storage tanks releasing more gas into them to equalize pressure as we descended. There were several tears in her envelope forward of her beam, where the force of the shockwave had ripped the canvas where it pressed against the supporting ribs. Half Hitch was making a list of all the tears and their locations. The little ones could wait to be repaired, but there was one big rip right at Nebula's nose below the mooring sprit hatch that would have to be done as soon as possible. It not only disrupted the smooth airflow over the whole envelope, but the turbulence it caused was making the rip grow larger.

"I've stitched up the aft end of the tear, Captain," Half told me, pointing to the makeshift repair he'd made. "But if we run at anything over half speed or hit bad air, it won't hold."

"Good work, Half Hitch. We will get that seen to as soon as we know we're out of danger."

The dust was settling and dispersing off to the east, but we still couldn't see the ground or any sign of the enemy fleet. About half an hour after the blast, Tempest pointed at a darker patch in the cloud and said, "That's smoke, not dust. Burning engine oil, I think."

Grubber was wrapped tightly around one of her forelegs, uncharacteristically silent.

I nodded. "Good. Looks like the wind down there is picking up. We should be able to see more soon."

I thought I heard Grubber whisper, "I don't wanna see it," but I wasn't sure, and chose to ignore it. I was depressed enough as it was.

Dr. Woundwort reported on the state of the crew, and I was glad to hear that some bruises, minor cuts, and splinters were the worst that anyone had suffered.

I sent Ao, Shrrbrgrth, and Rainbow Dash (with a fake bandage around her neck) out to scout ahead. Ao took the raptor and Dash and the ensign both got a set of signal flares. Yes, I gave Rainbow Dash a set of pyrotechnic rockets, because, at that point, why not?

Fluttershy shut down two engines and rang down the other two to dead slow to give the repair crew on the nose of the envelope an easier time of it while they made their repairs. We were low enough by then that the air was still cool, but bearable without heavy clothing.

I gave Fluttershy a questioning look. She gave me a little smile. "She's a tough old mare, Captain. Once that big rip is patched over, she'll be as fit as anything flying. We will need to take on ballast, though."

I gave a toss of my head toward the ground below us. "Sand will do in place of water, won't it?"

Fluttershy nodded. "We've done it before, but it isn't ideal. It's heavy enough, but doesn't drain as fast, or as completely." She looked over at me and grinned again. "And a pony can't drink it if the water kegs run dry."

I hadn't been aboard Nebula at the time she was alluding to because I had made some extremely bad decisions back then as well.[2] "You all had a pretty rough time of it back then," I said. I didn't apologize for the hundredth time, but I did inwardly cringe a bit.

[2] See The Twilight Enigma.

She shrugged. "Doing the right thing isn't always easy or safe. It all worked out okay—eventually."

"I wonder how this fiasco is going to work out." It was only after Flutters gave me a concerned look that I realized I had muttered that out loud. Damn Cadance and her vague prophecies! Rash choices? I had carefully considered several ways to destroy the Stormguard fleet, and picked the one that had seemed to fit the situation perfectly. The only decision I had made in haste was to change my plan when I had learned of the caves full of innocents below it. I couldn't possibly regret that choice.

The dust slowly cleared, and about noon we could make out the shapes of a few wrecked battleships, one still burning. There were bits of debris and wreckage scattered widely around them, but not enough to indicate major damage to another ship.

"That's three out of seven," Ket said. "Not bad for missing the target by three or four leagues, but we don't want to get jumped by the survivors."

There was no place for the other battleships to hide except for the distant dust cloud near the horizon, but I ordered the arms locker opened and all hooves to their stations in an overabundance of caution.

Shortly thereafter the speaking tube from the cupola whistled. I pulled its plug and spoke into it. "This is the captain."

"Rocket sighted on the larboard bow, at about eight or nine leagues," Spike replied. "White burning to red."

I didn't need to check the code sheet I'd made up for the mission; that color combination meant "enemy sighted." The direction meant that it was Sherbet who had fired the rocket. Ao had gone due south and Dash southwest.

"Should I reply?"

"Wait a minute, Spike, she may—"

"Another rocket! Green… Just green."

That was good. Green meant "retreating."

"Thank you, Spike. Fire a blue rocket, and then a red and gold one."

"Understood, Twi! Blue, message received, and then red burning to gold, all return."

I put the plug back in the tube, and turned to Ket.

"Hold station here," I said to her. "I need to attend to something in my cabin. Ms. Calvados?"

"Yeah, Twi?" Applejack looked up from where she was checking lines on the fife rail and recoiling the ones that didn't meet her approval.

"Will you stand guard outside my cabin? I need to concentrate, and I don't want to be interrupted."

"Sure thing!" She followed me down the ladder into the chart room and did an about-face outside the Great Cabin door while I closed it behind me.

I unpacked my carefully padded scrying dish and put it on the table. I set out the tuned crystals around it and poured the enchanted ink into the dish. The bowl wasn't terribly reliable, but any crystals big enough to power a death ray would be a fairly easy target.

Yes, it seemed obvious that if the dogs below us possessed such a weapon, they would have used it on the Storm King's fleet, and the fact that Lucky was aboard was an apparent indicator of our safety, but the extra reassurance was something I wanted just then.

The scrying spell didn't reveal any large thaumic power source, but it did sparkle with thousands of little crystal indicators. It confirmed that Ralf had been speaking the truth. To my unutterable relief, the pattern that was revealed made it feel like I was starting at a fluorescent ant farm. Movement meant life.

I had nearly murdered an entire city full of innocent, intelligent beings.

I drained the bowl and cleaned it, then packed away the whole set. It took me a while, because I had to keep wiping the tears out of my eyes and pausing to let a fit of the shakes pass.

I couldn't go on deck like that. I started for the chart room a couple of times and at the thought of facing my friends, a moan of despair tried to climb up my throat and force itself out through my clenched teeth.

"You're Blackmane," I told myself. "You have a ruthless reputation for a good reason. It's war. It's—" I went on like that for a while. I don't know if lying to myself worked or if it was just the slow steady taking of breath to mutter those lies that calmed me down, but eventually I felt I was in control of myself, and left the cabin.

I thanked AJ for standing guard, and went on deck.

"Alright, Ms. Summer Breeze, take us in over their anchorage, but keep at least a furlong off from the wrecks, upwind if you please."

"Aye, aye, captain."

We crept up on the wrecks, carefully scanning the surrounding sky and desert. I had a big flag flown from the keelmast again, but this time it was pure white; a signal of peace and parley. We didn't see anything but wreckage. I couldn't be absolutely sure, but it looked like the blast had caused the ships to rip out their mooring cables, and most of the damage to two of the wrecks had occurred when they had collided with each other. The third had burst open from the inside, and was still exuding an oily green smoke. Something in there had obviously reacted poorly to the impact of the shockwave.

The desert itself looked… Well, it looked picturesque with all the canyons, mesas, and sandstone spires stretching out toward the southern horizon, but it still looked empty, despite the activity I had detected with my scrying bowl. If we were going to contact the dogs of Conundrum, we would need Ralf to guide us to an entrance, since it seemed he had some knowledge of the place.

I looked around for an unoccupied crewpony to send to wake him, and saw Lucky Charm standing at the starboard rail, with a cutlass on a baldric slung over her shoulders. So much for Dash's assurances.

Speaking of Dash, she chose that moment to swoop in over the foc'sle deck, calling out, "Saw the recall. What's the sitch', skipper?"

Lucky didn't seem to notice Dash's arrival. Her eyes remained locked on the wreckage below.

"Sherbet spotted them. They're running."

Dash grinned. "Can you blame them? We gonna chase them down?"

"Maybe."

"Aww c'mon, Twi!"

"We have some other business to take care of first, and then we need to make plans." Before Dash could roll her eyes or object, I pointed at Lucky. "By the way…"

"Huh? Oh. Oh, horsefeathers!"

Lucky chose that moment to look up and spotted us. A brilliant smile lit up her face. "Ms. Rain Storm! I'm so glad to see you're feeling better! Does it still hurt much?"

"Uh… No, no, it's cool. I mean it's, like, much better!"

"Great! I just knew I couldn't really hurt a friend."

Dash gave her a sickly grin. "Right, right. Looked worse than it was. I mean, it was, like—"

"Ms. Storm," I interrupted, "You should go below for a rest. You aren't fully recovered yet."

"I'm not? Oh, right! Yeah… I'm kinda pooped. A nap sounds like an awesome idea." She saluted Lucky and said, "See, ya," to me and then rushed belowdecks.

Ms. Sherbet arrived next, and gave me the details of her scouting trip. The four remaining battleships were on a heading that would eventually take them to Klugetown if they didn't change course. Sherbet estimated they were making about three quarters ahead, based on Nebula's capabilities. As far as she could tell, they had all sustained some damage, and one was belching out considerably more smoke than the others.

Ao was last. Her innate flight magic worked very well, particularly for endurance flying, but it wasn't exactly speedy.

"Did you reach the impact area?" I asked her, when she had landed and solemnly saluted me.

"Indeed, Captain. This one was able to examine the area quite thoroughly. There was, as you rightly predicted, no crater. The ground there is irregular, and the only evidence of destruction was several new landslides on the shoulders of mesas and the walls of canyons, and the charred remains of scrub brush. Loose soil and sand had spread out from the area in a roughly circular pattern."

"No evidence of—of anycreature in the area?"

Ao shook her head. "None living or dead that this one could see, Captain."

Well, that was a relief. "Good work, Ao. Now, I've got another, less pleasant job for you."

She smiled at me. "All tasks in your service are pleasing to me—" She glanced around and seeing that there was nopony in easy ear shot, continued in a lowered voice, "—Majesty."

I didn't believe it for a second. She had been there at the highly irregular founding of Twilight Town, and after all we had been through together, we were friends and comrades-in-arms, no matter how much she played it up as Dark Queen and Loyal Subject. She just knew it bugged me, that's all. The amused ripple of her barbels[3] gave her away.

[3] Barbels are the long, whiskery tendrils that sprout from either side of an Eastern kirin's muzzle, and not weights for exercising with. Those are barbells with two Ls.

"I need you to keep an eye on the wreckage while I contact the Diamond Dogs. If you spot any survivors in need of aid, take a shore party and give what help you can, but be careful and don't get ambushed."

She frowned. "This one would prefer to be by your side, Majesty. You may need protection if the dogs resent—"

"I will be fine. If there's any sign of trouble, I'll teleport back here."

"It will be as you wish, Majesty, but will you take a raptor, at least? It may prove useful." Her barbels stiffened into tight curves. I have never pointed out to her that they often act as emotional windsocks, because someday I might need to play poker with her, and she has a razor-sharp mind. I would need all the advantages I could get if I wanted to avoid losing my kingdom to her.

"That's a good idea. You'll keep the other?"

She gave me a tight nod.

"Good. Now you'll have to excuse me, I'm going to the dogs."

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Author's Note

"Uninhabited" Wasteland