James moved past me quickly in the dimly flickering light from the electric bulbs, climbing monkey-like across the secured pieces of furniture, using a combination of balance and careful handholds to approach the fallen princess.

"Almost there," he grunted, making a short hop from grabbing a lamp stand to a book case. The books were held by thin bars and had not fallen, but they shook as he went hand over hand along the shelf. He then slid down the carpet and wedged himself beside Cadance, pushing his back against the door and carefully wrapping his arms around her. He pulled her to his chest, and cocked his head towards her muzzle.

"She's breathing," he announced. "No blood. And I see what made that snapping sound. She broke the door frame when she hit it."

I breathed a cautious sigh of relief. While that was promising news, Cadance could still be seriously injured, and it would be a moot point anyway if the airship crashed into the ocean miles from nowhere. The rocking seemed to have calmed considerably however, although the occasional shudder still went through the ship, coupled with intermittent nightmare bellows from whatever was outside.

"Get her to the bed," I said. "Try not to move her head too much, her neck might be broken."

I did my best to steady James with my telekinesis as he staggered towards the tilted bed carrying Cadance. Mia was shoving the dislodged mattress back into place, and apparently knotting extra blankets together, which I didn't understand until she looped them through the solidly bolted down legs of the bedside tables, creating a sort of tiedown.

James carefully slipped the unmoving Alicorn under the sheets, and I crawled up beside her on the bed, bathing her neck in glowing magic from my horn while I checked her vertebrae as best I could.

"What are you doing?" Mia asked.

"Trying to see if there's any internal damage."

"You can tell that?"

"Maybe. I'm not a doctor and I didn't do particularly well in first aid techniques."

"Oh, great," Mia replied sarcastically.

"I know, I suck."

Mia didn't make the obvious joke, but instead put a comforting hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry, Eris. This isn't your fault. I know you'll do your best. You always do."

"I try. But my best might not be good enough." I sighed, letting my magic dissipate. "I don't think anything is broken. The most we can do is make sure she doesn't fall out of the bed-" My words were cut off by another sustained shipquake and howl. "-while we are dealing with whatever is outside," I finished.

Mia and James nodded, putting the chain of spare linens across the comforter tucked over Cadance's chest and pulling it snug without harming her breathing.

"Please wake up soon," I whispered in her ear, giving her a small kiss on the cheek. "We need you."

She didn't move or reply, the sporadic pulses of light repeatedly providing disappointing illusions of motion.

I looked at my other companions. "I hate to do this, but we have to find out what's going on. We have to go to the bridge."

"I don't want to leave her here alone," Mia said quietly. "I'm afraid something bad will happen to her. Someone needs to stay."

The ship shook again, and creaking sounds came from somewhere deep in the frame. "I don't think we have time to make many plans," I sighed. "But you're right. Someone needs to stay and protect her."

"Here," James called out from the lockers. I turned and he tossed a rifle to me. I caught it midair in my telekinesis and handed it to Mia, then accepted the second for myself. This time we chambered rounds.

"Lemme see what's going on outside." I swayed to the door and peeped out into the hallway. I instantly saw two crew ponies wearing ARHUDs approaching, one a unicorn with his horn aglow for light, the other an Earth pony carrying a ProteC-issued shotgun.

"Hey!" I called.

They staggered over to me, and I recognized the shotgun pony from the group who'd tied our vehicle down in the cargo bay. "Are you okay, ma'am?"

"I'm fine. Princess Cadance has been injured, though. She's unconscious on the bed. I don't know how serious it is yet."

Appalled, the two stared at me. "What should we do?" the unicorn asked. "We only have basic medical supplies onboard."

"Listen, you guys just stand guard, okay? Don't let anything hurt her. That'll help."

"Yes ma'am, we will protect her with our lives," the Earth pony said, hefting the shotgun. The unicorn nodded, eyes narrowed. "Harm will come to her only after I have fallen dead."

Their eyes widened a bit as the lights flickered again and they saw the lingerie I was still wearing, but to their credit they remained utterly professional, which was tested even further as Mia stepped beside me, kicking off her heels and bending over in panties and bra.

"I have no idea where my clothes went, and I'm not taking the time to look," she said, almost falling over as the ship kicked abruptly to the side. She caught herself and put her back against a cabinet before pulling her boots on over her stockings. "I found these, I'm good."

I nodded, seeing my backpack in a corner where it had rolled. I seized it in my magic and pulled our ARHUDs out, putting my own on at the same time as James and Mia. It came to life instantly, connecting on the local area ad-hoc network.

"Back in the saddle," I muttered, with no feelings of irony. Earth horses weren't even remotely like an Equestrian. I'd ride one myself, given the chance.

With a final look at the guards standing alertly over Princess Cadance, we opened the door and moved into the hallway as quickly as we could manage.

We didn't run, because the sudden jerks of the dirigible would have made that more dangerous than helpful. Our progress was more of a quick shamble, ready to brace against something when tremors struck. Regardless, we quickly reached the stairs to the upper deck, and from there it was a short rush down the crew quarters hall to the bridge, the door of which opened immediately after I rapped on it with a hoof.

The atmosphere within was tense. Everypony was wearing a sidearm, and first mate Tumblewords was nervously gripping a shotgun. Captain Starchaser was seated at the flight controls, beads of sweat standing out on his forehead as he fought to maintain control of the gigantic vehicle. Hundreds of feet ahead, just past the foremost curve of the gas envelope, a tentacle swung past from above.

"What's going on, Captain?" I asked.

He spared me a glance, then did a quick double-take after seeing Mia in her underwear and boots. "Whatever it is, it's huge, and it's latched into the nose of the envelope structure," he reported tensely after a moment. The ship rattled again, emphasizing his point.

"And it's shaking us around like a dog that got his teeth in a cat," he added grimly. "It hasn't ruptured the internal gas cells yet, but it's only a matter of time until something gives way, and we are hundreds of miles from nowhere over open sea."

"We have to deal with whatever that is out there," James muttered. "Are there any Pegasus ponies on this ship?"

Captain Starchaser frowned. "Pegasi don't need airships to fly, and tend to not sign up for this kind of work. We're mostly Earth ponies and a very few unicorns here."

"Is there access to the top of the envelope?" I asked, hating the plan I was coming up with but hating the idea of a watery crash landing more.

"Yes." He didn't elaborate, gritting his teeth and struggling with the controls. "Can't talk. Sorry."

"Then we'll go up there and see what we can do." I turned to James, grinning a little at the clever idea which had just occurred to me. Why hadn't I thought of thus before? It had been staring me right in the face. "I assume you brought that missile launcher from the armory? Now would probably be a good time to grab it," I said confidently. "If we can run down into the cargo bay as fast as possible, we can chase the creature off the envelope, then blast it with a missile once it's far enough away that it won't blow our gas cells too." I mentally patted myself on the back for coming up with a plan that might actually work for once.

James looked at me uncomfortably. "Uh, boss?"

"Yeah?"

"That's a great idea. Unfortunately, the launcher is one of the few things I didn't grab. Celestia didn't want us to go in looking like a raiding party, remember?"

The grin fell off my face. "Oh. Crap."

"I mean, there's a couple hand grenades, but I don't think they're the best idea," he finished morosely.

The mental image of frag grenades bouncing along the outer skin of the Pride of Equestria to detonate haphazardly wherever they felt like didn't appeal to me. "Yeah, probably not," I agreed.

"Yeah."

We stared at each other unhappily for a moment. "Then I guess rifles it is," he finally said.

"Yeah. Guess so."

"On the upper shell."

"Yeah."

"Shit."

"Uh huh." I turned to Tumblewords. "Think you can show us how to get there?"

"Uh, sure."

After a brief walk down the hall, we stood in engineering, staring up at a hatch in the ceiling while the engines whined frantically around us.

"Right there," Tumblewords said. He slung his shotgun and clambered up a vertical ladder, atop which he shouldered a hatch open with a grunt. "Okay, come on up."

Mia grabbed the ladder and swung up it rapidly, her lovely rear end a bit distracting even under the unpleasant circumstances. I climbed the ladder next, holding the rungs tightly in my invisible hoof grip.

James pulled himself up immediately behind me, and we took a look around the inside of the gas envelope.

It was beyond immense. The top was many floors above us, and we stood dwarfed by the balloon cells filled with lift gas that ran end to end of the compartment. The soft, eerie glow from the balloons told me right away that there was some magic to the lift gas.

"It's not explosive, is it?" I asked, waving at the gigantic spheres lined up above us.

"Nah, it's inert," Tumblewords informed us. "The fabric is pretty tough, but try not to shoot the crap out of them or we may start leaking faster than I'd like."

"Duly noted," Mia said, stumbling to the side from a nasty jerk in the ship beneath us.

"And that's the way up," Tumblewords continued after we recovered, pointing at a horrible-looking ladder leading from the floor all the way to the top of the shell, many stories above.

"Oh, fuck me," Mia groaned. "You're joking, right? That's like, oh gosh. I don't even know! Two hundred feet?"

"Well, we never use it except on very rare occasions," Tumblewords explained. "This kind of situation isn't supposed to happen, you know."

"Why did it have to be so high?" Mia whimpered, stepping to the base of the ladder.

"Look, Mia, if you're, uh, not okay with this-" I began.

"There is no damn way I am letting you and James go up there alone, and that's final," she growled, crossing her arms over her breasts. "I'm scared, yeah-" she almost fell over as the ship jerked again, a frightening cracking sound coming from somewhere near the front of the massive chamber we stood in.

"No time!" Tumblewords handed what looked like a large belts to the three of us, put one around his own waist, then buckled it around the ladder as well. "Follow if you want. No time!" He slung his weapon and began climbing the long stretch with surprising rapidity, the shotgun slapping against his back.

"I'll go with him. We'll figure something out." James threw a belt on and began after him, moving slightly slower due to his lack of experience, but still setting a fairly good pace. "Just stay here. It'll be okay."

"Like hell it will," Mia hissed, clicking her own belt into place and starting up. "You aren't going off to get killed without us," she shouted.

I followed her, sliding my own makeshift harness into place and scampering up as quickly as I could with my hoof grip. The metal of the rungs felt hard and cold under my invisible, immaterial fingers, and I tried to focus on the simple act of climbing. I wasn't overly afraid of heights, but I was very uncomfortable with falling from them. The ladder felt interminable, a long nightmare of metal going up through the space between monstrous gas cells. We were a long way from the deck below when I glanced up, momentarily entranced by Mia's slender legs and butt moving above me, the thin, stretchy fabric of her panties leaving little to the imagination.

Of course, the airship went on another gyration spree at that exact moment. The awful bellows of the alien monster felt much, much closer in here, too.

I hugged the ladder in sudden fear, which increased exponentially when I heard Mia scream and a split-second later took a boot to the face. Woozy, I clung to the rungs, Mia's firm butt and crotch smothering my muzzle while she squawked in terror and tried to regain her grip. It might sound enjoyable, however, I assure you it was not. It was intensely frightening and painful. Mia may be a wiry, fit girl, but having her dropped onto one's face from several feet above is no joke.

I bit my lip while she trampled my neck, horn, and tender ears, not wanting to make things any worse by crying out. I was horribly, horribly frightened that she might slip out and fall to her death, and I did my best to steady her with one of my hooves while she righted herself. Thankfully the belt had held, directing her fall right down on top of me instead of out into empty space.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry Eris," she panted, pulling herself upright and gingerly stepping off my shoulder.

We both simply hung from the ladder for a moment. "Sokay, I'm strong," I gasped once I regained my breath. "I-I'm glad you landed on me, instead of... something else."

"Oh gosh. Thank you."

I gingerly touched my abused face, wincing involuntarily. "Don't mention it, dear. We've gotta keep going," I said, doing my best to keep the pain out of my voice.

"You girls okay down there?" James's concerned voice drifted down.

"Yeah," I called back, my tone slightly strained. "Just peachy. Let's not do this more often."

We pushed on, the endless climb continuing, until finally we reached the top of the cylinder.

"Here goes nothing." Tumblewords reached up, struggling momentarily with the hatch above him, and then a blast of cool air and raindrops hit me. "Careful," he shouted down. "There's no railings or anything else up here. Nopony is supposed to come out here, like, ever. If you slip, it's a long way down to the ocean. The best I can offer you is these."

He passed us down some ropes. "Tighten the belts, clip that rope to em, other end on the ladder. Try not to get tangled up."

The tether rope was rather thin, like parachute cord. I didn't find that very reassuring, and I hoped we wouldn't have to test it's tensile strength.

Then Tumblewords crawled out if the hatch, followed by Mia, who was moving very carefully.

Once her shapely rear cleared the entrance, I squeezed out as well, into a world of flickering lightning, driving rain, and a curved expanse of silvery panelling that ended in dark clouds.

"Is it safe to walk on this?" I shouted, poking the hard panels with my hoof, the rain soaking me to the skin through my skimpy lingerie. It wasn't too cold, but hanging out here for very long probably wasn't the best idea. Mia, crouched low near me, was already dripping. James's waterlogged shirt was hanging heavily off him. "Fucking hell," he said. "This isn't gonna work." He pulled the shirt off, hurling it down the hatch behind us, then turned towards the nose of the craft. "Guess we should go find out what all the fuss is about."

As if in reply, the ship shook, and that eerie call blasted past us, very close indeed. Glowing shadows shifted up ahead, some weird bioluminescence that seemed both sickly and menacing at the same time.

"Sure," Mia replied with a weak smile, crouching low while the tremors passed. "We're a few thousand feet in the air, walking around on a wet balloon with high winds all over the place and some nasty thing eating the nose of our ship. What's the worst that could happen?

I gulped. "Losing our Alicorn backup?"

It seemed like it should be gallows-humor funny, but I got a quick flashback of poor Cadance laying unconscious, looking so small in the huge bed. Instead of chuckling, I found myself sniffling and blinking back tears. Mia didn't look much better.

"This is turning out to be a lot less fun than I expected," James said, summing up my thoughts in a nutshell.

"Okay, that's enough," I said, resolutely putting my chin up and forcing my wayward feelings into some dark part of my mind where I could be tortured by them later at my leisure. "Let's go deal with Slappy and save this ship."