Early morning sunlight bathed Canterlot’s Mane Street, which was already beginning to fill with bright and chipper morning ponies, ready to seize the day.

Luke wished he had even half their enthusiasm. As if the daunting prospect of starting a new job in a big shiny tower full of ponies that probably weren’t going to like him very much wasn’t enough, he also had to face this day having had only three hours sleep.

He’d already contemplated just staying home about three or four times whilst getting ready that morning, and as he stood staring up at the huge marble structure, he couldn’t help but consider bailing out once more.

The only thing that stopped him was the thought of Celestia’s smug face when she found out. And she would find out. He’d never hear the end of it, and he’d more than likely end up working as her ‘royal pet’ out of pure shame.

No. It was time to grow some balls and go to work, whatever that work may be…

A quick perusal through a couple of fashion magazines Luke had hastily bought after Celestia had left was enough to tell him that J’adore was the leading modelling company, not just in Canterlot, but all of Equestria. Its founder, some old mare named Fleur de Lis, was a rich Prench supermodel, and pretty much everything she and her company did influenced the fashion industry in some way.

The magazines hadn’t mentioned much more than that, and with the severe lack of an internet-like system in Equestria, Luke felt as though he was walking into this job mostly blind. He trudged up the stairs regardless, feigning a confidence he didn’t feel.

The heat of the sun was chased away by a magically generated air conditioning field as he passed through one of the five revolving doors built in to the vast front of the building. The white marble balconies looming overhead looked even more impressive from the inside, the golden helix glinting in the light shining from the vast wall of glass panes. A long marble reception desk shaped like a giant horseshoe dominated the lobby. It ran most of the way around a raised platform bearing a large statue of a very pretty unicorn mare reared up on her hind legs.

The statue looked friendly enough, but the actual unicorn sitting behind the desk was looking at him as though he had gotten lost. “Can I help you?” she squeaked, the barest hint of terror in her voice.

Luke cleared his throat, the confident-sounding line of relevant questioning he’d rehearsed in his head as he’d laid awake in bed last night promptly vanishing from his mind in an instant. “Well… uh-I… Celestia… said there was a job for me here… somewhere,” he stuttered, quite pathetically.

The mare blinked, her maw slightly open and one of her fuzzy little ears flicking against her mane. Her horn flared, a silvery sliver of magic fumbling around in the breast-pocket of her tiny black uniform and pulling out a quill and a small bottle of ink.

Luke gave her an apologetic look, wondering if he could get away with just turning around and walking back out of the place, but a second receptionist that he hadn’t noticed sidled into view. “Forgive me, but it sounded like you said Princess Celestia told you to come here?” she said, her cute little voice ever rising with an upward inflection.

Luke cleared his throat again, seeing as it hadn’t really worked the first time. “Yes. She did,” he muttered, already beginning to regret embarking on this pointless endeavor.

In fact, it wouldn’t have been that much of a surprise if the Princess had just made this whole ‘job offer’ up as some sort of joke… Well, actually, it would. That would be incredibly mean. Celestia liked to joke, but she wouldn’t go that far. Would she?

“What’s your name?” asked the first mare, having fished out a fresh scroll of parchment from a drawer in the desk. She looked at him expectantly, her pretty eyes unblinking.

“Luke Nona. Look, the Princess said there’d be a job for me here. She didn’t say what it is, but she told me to be here at eight ‘o clock,” he explained, trying to ignore the two mares looking at him as though he was an escaped mental patient. He failed. “...you know what? You obviously had no idea I was going to show up, so I’m just gonna go ahead and get out of here,” and shove my foot so far up Celestia’s plot hole that I kick her teeth out.

“Oh, you’re the new trainee airship pilot!” the first mare suddenly exclaimed, looking down at the post it note now stuck to her hoof. “Look, it says here, ‘Luke Nona will be starting his flight training today. Send him up to the dock as soon as he arrives.’”

Luke blinked. “I’m the what now?” he muttered. Did she just say airship pilot?

“Sorry,” the second mare said with a sheepish grin, “I guess we were expecting a pony.”

“Yes, please—forgive us. The dock is at the top of the tower. You have to take the first elevator up as far as it will go, then you need to get out and head along the corridor about sixty hooves, take a left, then a right, then another left, and along to the last door on your left. That’s the the main shoot studio, you can’t miss it. Head through there to the express elevator on the far side, and that will take you up to the dock,” she nattered off, pointing a fuzzy hoof to the first elevator. “Sompony will meet you up there and let you know what to do next,” she smiled.

“I… what?” Was she seriously expecting him to remember all of that? He had a hard enough time remembering what day of the week it was, nevermind a labyrinth of directions.

The other receptionist gave him a big happy grin as well. “Elevator, sixty hooves straight ahead as you get out, then left, right, left, last door on your left. Go through the studio to the second elevator, and that will take you up to the dock,”

Luke took a deep breath. “Okay. I think I’ve got it.”

He hadn’t got it. In fact, he was nowhere near.

The elevator was easy enough, but how far was sixty hooves, exactly? He made a fist, which was about the size of a hoof, right? There was probably around three fists to a foot, so… twenty feet?

That could’ve been one of two different red-carpeted corridors on the left, which led away in slightly different directions. Only one of them had an immediate right, however, so that was the one Luke chose.

Who in their right mind would make him a trainee pilot anyway? Was this old friend of Celestia’s crazy? Perhaps it was even Fleur herself? Had old age driven the mare mad? He hadn’t a clue how to fly an airship. Hell, he could barely fly a kite.

Grumbling inaudibly to himself, Luke reached a set of double doors at the end of the corridor. He blinked. “Shit.” … It was left, then right… He threw a glance back down the empty corridor. I should have taken a left on this one at some point, he pondered, but not for long.

The double doors sprang open in a blue glow, and Luke found himself looking down at a young blue unicorn with a bleach-white mane. She was very pretty, probably a model, by the look of her perfectly styled mane and tail. She took one look at him, threw back her head and screamed.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAA! GUARDS!”

Two burly unicorn stallions, one silver and the other grey, appeared behind her, but even they paused at the sight of him. Luke panicked. Somehow, he got the feeling it would be a bad idea to stop and ask these ponies for directions.

He bolted back down the corridor, taking the first right he found, then a left, then another right, and sprinted… and sprinted… Crap. There were no more branching corridors, just a dead end up ahead.

“Halt!” boomed one of the stallions, but Luke had just spotted a plaque on the door to his left that read ‘STUDIO’. Hoping it was the studio with the second elevator he was supposed to take, he tumbled through the door, slamming it shut behind him.

This was a mistake.

The studio was packed with supermodels, near enough all of which snapped their gazes to him when the door slammed. The walls were covered with heavy black curtains that hung from a rail that ran the entire circumference of the room, save for a large green screen on the back wall. A multitude of lights hung from specialised racks on the ceiling, and a quick glance revealed four expensive looking cameras on thick metal tripods dotted about the room.

“Hi!” Luke croaked, tottering away from the door. He could see it. Right there. The elevator. All he had to do was reach it. “D-Dont mind me. I’m just gonna…” he pointed feebly at the lift. “Yeah… Sorry… S’cuse me,” he muttered, his voice barely a whisper as he carefully shimmied around the pretty mares. At least they weren’t screaming at him.

One of them in particular caught his eye, and Luke had to stop for a double take. Damn, that’s a good looking horse… Her coat—partly covered by a short blue dress with white pleats that hugged her barrel in all of the right places—was a purer shade of white than that of freshly fallen snow. It was perhaps whiter even than Celestia’s, if such a thing were possible. She looked barely a day over twenty two, around a foot taller than any of the ponies occupying the room, and her perfectly spiralled white horn seemed to be proportionally longer than any other unicorn’s as a result. The silkiest of pale pink and white locks cascaded from her head and rump in the kind of lengthy graceful curls that were guaranteed to get any red-blooded male’s attention, whatever species they happened to be.

The only other article of clothing she wore—if one could even call it that—struck Luke as a little out of place. It was the dark leather collar fastened around her neck, studded with what looked to be sharp platinum spikes, of all things. But that wasn’t the most alarming thing about it. What really sent a shiver down his spine was the bright, elongated hexagonal sapphire embedded in the center. He wasn’t entirely sure why, but it made him feel a little uneasy. The gem was so bright that it almost appeared to be glowing.

The mare’s pale violet eyes regarded Luke with mild curiosity, as opposed to the fearful glances thrown by the other models. He could almost feel her gaze, and it seemed to excite the butterflies in his stomach to the point of making him feel a little giddy. He was suddenly aware he’d been staring at her inanimately for the better part of fifteen seconds. Even then, he couldn’t quite will his feet to just take him to the elevator. Maybe he was imagining things, but he thought he caught perhaps the barest hint of a smile from the supermodel. The fleeting moment was broken however, when the door suddenly crashed open.

BANG.

“Stop right there, criminal scum!” yelled the silver stallion, who had finally caught up. The look of glee on his face suggested he was very happy to have discovered Luke in a room full of supermodels.

Luke rolled his eyes. Perhaps it had been a stupid idea to run. “Look, I think there’s been a misund-” he began, but his words were cut short by the door of the studio banging open once more. Several of the models gave looks of exasperation, but quickly adopted a more neutral expression when they spotted who had entered.

A roughly middle-aged looking earth pony came striding in, her pale blue coat covered in a stylish black dress and a rather expensive looking camera lens clasped between her teeth. A pair of black rimmed, pink designer shades obscured her eyes, and her mane and tail were shoulder and hind-hoof length masses of neatly-cropped white. She waltzed past Luke as though he was nothing more extraordinary than a coat rack and carefully screwed the delicate bit of kit onto one of the cameras.

“Ausgezeichnet. Now, where were we?” she glanced around the studio, spotting the unicorn bodyguard in an instant. “Silver Shield? What are you doing here? Sky Swan is not due her shoot for another hour, at ze very least.”

The aptly named Silver Shield appeared a little taken aback at the earth mare’s nonchalance, but raised his hoof to point at Luke regardless. “This… monster managed to sneak into the building to harass the models!” he blindly accused.

Luke scowled, just as the mare finally seemed to notice he was standing in the middle of her studio. She gave him a brief glance, her rolling eyes finding the stallion once more. “He’s supposed to be here, you blithering brute! Zis is ze new trainee pilot for Fleur’s ship. A company newsletter was sent out to everypony zis morning, but obviously nopony bothered to read it. Again. Der Sonne zuliebe!”

“Oh,” muttered the stallion, glancing from her to Luke, disbelief evident in his eyes. He looked almost afraid to contradict her. “Are you sure?” he finally asked, in a voice that would be more suited to a pony a third his size.

“Out! Get out of mein studio!” snapped the mare, her nostrils flaring with rage. The stallion didn’t have to be told twice. He scarpered as fast as his burly legs would carry him. A smirk curled Luke’s lips as the door slammed, but it fell right off his face when the mare rounded on him instead. “What are you waiting for, Luke? Get up to the dock. I have thirty photo shoots to complete by ze end of the week, and you’re distracting my models.” With that, the mare turned back to her camera. “Come now, Fraulein, give me ze magics!”

She wasn’t wrong. Their fear of him was gradually dissipating, much of it being replaced with the same idle curiosity afforded to him by the extremely pretty mare with the choker collar. Hopelessly enthralled, his eyes found her again. There was something about this pony, and it wasn’t just the fact that she made every other mare in the room look like a pack mule in comparison. It was almost as if something deep in her eyes… deep in that gem of hers, in fact, was calling to him.

The smile on her face faltered, her eyes flicking to the bossy earth pony behind the camera. Apparently she had caught wind of the model still observing Luke. The earth mare turned. “Why are you still here?” she snapped.

“Sorry!” Luke muttered, finally managing to tear his eyes away from the unicorn. He gave the earth pony what he hoped was an apologetic look and covered the rest of the room in long strides, stooping low to jab a fist to the hoof-sized call button next to the elevator.

The doors slid open, and Luke quickly stepped inside and jabbed at the button labelled ‘Sky Dock’ several times. The pretty mare’s eyes flashed over him once more before the doors closed, the lift jolting into motion. No pony had ever had such an effect on him. Hell, he was certain he wouldn’t become so flustered if he ever met a human supermodel.

Luke knew one thing for certain, though. He’d have to rein in his wandering eyes. Fleur de Lis probably wouldn’t want a pilot that lusted after her models. As the lift ascended the tower, he wondered if he would get to meet the famous old mare.

Click. “Ooh, ja, ja.Das ist gut.” Click. Click.

Viola Terracotta, a blood red unicorn of Saddle Arabian descent, flicked her long flowing mane over her back, striking a practised pose that she knew would please Photo Finish.

Photo Finish was indeed pleased, happily snapping more and more photos, but Fleur de Lis was much too caught up in an increasingly irksome internal battle with her darker half to notice.

Le suivre.

Her eyes narrowed. And do what, exactly? Such a suggestion was ludicrous for a mare of her stature. A quick swipe of her tongue over her her teeth confirmed an alarming suspicion: she had fangs. Small, half extended fangs, but fangs nonetheless.

This was not ideal.

Normally, her dark counterpart lay dormant in the back of her mind, a docile beast that cared very little about Fleur’s hectic schedule. Through seemingly countless restaurant openings, theatre premieres and art exhibits, she was barely noticeable to Fleur, and completely imperceptible to anypony else. She just fed silently and sparingly on their admiration and unwavering attention, and nopony was any the wiser. Sometimes, Fleur would sing, if the beast was feeling particularly hungry. But most of the time, idle interest was sufficient.

That was, of course, up until about five minutes ago, when a tall, rugged looking creature from another world had entered the studio.

Some seventy years previously, give or take, Princess Celestia had covered up a highly embarrassing incident involving an aggressively amorous warlock, that had quickly progressed to being an unmistakably dead warlock by the time Fleur had lost her temper with him.

As repayment, Fleur had agreed to give this young ‘man’ a job. Had she known her unruly counterpart was going to develop such an inexplicable interest in him, however, she might never have agreed to take him on.

After all, it was not the nature of a siren to covet an individual more than the attention that could be gained from said individual—they just didn’t work that way… unless… Fleur barely suppressed a shudder.

She’d lived over a thousand years without running into that particular kettle of fish… No, it couldn’t be that. It just couldn’t. He wasn’t even a pony, for Celestia’s sake…

Le suivre!

Fleur exhaled through her nose. Non!

Click. Click. “Ja, just like that, Fraulein!”

Nous devons parler avec lui.

Fleur felt a sigh escape her. A foreboding sigh that she hadn’t even known she’d been holding. No amount of ignoring the situation was going to make this go away. She would probably just end up destroying the studio, and scaring the living daylights out of everypony. No, it was best to just go and see why her darker half was suddenly craving his company.

All she had to do was make a discreet exit…

“Ja, das ist gut. Vork it, Viola, ja, like zat-Fraulein—where are you going?”

Fleur had barely taken three paces towards the lift. She froze, eyes wide and thoughts scrambling. “I left an important memo from Princess Celestia in my office on Le Tesson, mon amie, I fear I may need it,” Fleur lied, keeping her eyes glued to the lift.

Photo paused, probably shooting Fleur a look dripping with skepticism. Fleur didn’t look. “Well, if you must, Fraulein,” Photo said, amidst the sound of more photos being taken.

Instead of going for the lift, Fleur burned away some of her anxiety, allowing her magical ember to flare through her horn. With a loud CRACK and a bright flash of pink, she teleported.

That had been way too easy. In all the years Photo had been her manager, Fleur had usually had to resort to reminding the earth pony who was in charge in order to get five minutes to herself. She couldn’t help suspecting Photo’s apparent nonchalance was perhaps a facade of sorts.

No matter, the thought was quickly pushed from her mind, rather forcibly, by her siren, who had just spotted the human up on the quarterdeck of the airship she’d just teleported to.

Upon exiting the lift, Luke was greeted with a sight that finally managed to drive thoughts of the gorgeous unicorn from his mind. He had emerged in a large domed lobby at the very top of the tower, its curved ceiling painted red and detailed with gold patterns depicting several stylised unicorns. He followed the red carpet out onto a large balcony, next to which a huge airship loomed, its vast white gas bag adorned with the three stylised liles blocking out the morning sun.

“Woah…”

Who in their right mind would put me in charge of that? It was as if someone had taken an eighteenth century warship, removed the sails, and replaced them with a giant helium chamber. It even had gun ports, though they all appeared to be closed off.

Like the domed ceiling of the sky-lobby, the ship was painted red, with a plethora of gold trim lining the gun ports and long railings. Even the rigging bore traces of gold, as well as its three large masts rising up to the helium chamber. Large silver lettering that spelled out ‘Le Tesson’ was painted on the side of the hull, where a scaled down, carved and polished wood version of the unicorn statue in the building’s main lobby had been fitted as a figurehead.

“Like what you see, lad?” croaked a gravelly voice.

Luke gave a start, spotting an elderly pegasus stallion hobbling past him. He’d been too busy admiring the ship to notice he was no longer alone. “It’s amazing,” he muttered.

“You must be Luke, eh? I’m the Captain of this here floating mansion. Captain Vertical Strike, but everyone just calls me Vert. Come on, I’ll show you the ropes. She has a lot of ropes, after all,” the stallion barked, voracious laughter following his words.

Vertical Strike shuffled up to a rope lined gangway leading to the ship. His pale blue coat was faded in places, and his mane and tail were the kind of washed out white of a stallion a few decades past his prime. His great age hardly appeared to hinder him at all, however.

“This is Fleur’s ship,” he began, making his way up the few steps to the polished quarterdeck. Luke followed, his eyes still wandering over the immaculate craft. “She’s a fiery mare, once she gets familiar with ya. I suspect it’s the Prench in her. I’ve been working for her for fifty years now, and she hasn’t changed much in that time. Not much at all.”

“How old is she?” Luke asked, running a palm over the golden wheel of the ship. He’d expected paint, but it became quickly apparent that the entire wheel was plated in gold.

Vertical Strike snorted, his bark-like laughter returning. “Nopony knows her exact age, she doesn’t discuss it with mere mortals like you and I. All I can say is she’s a damn sight older than the rest of us.”

Luke pictured a venerable old noblemare, with a muzzle bearing the stress lines brought on by a long career of hard work. Priceless pearls encompass her neck, and she no doubt had more riches and exuberant wealth than she knew what to do with. He knew the type. Canterlot was full of them. Why would somepony like that hire him? Celestia’s influence was the only thing that sprang to mind. Was that really all it took?

“Will I be meeting her?” he asked. It would probably be best to avoid such an acquaintance, lest Fleur did turn out to be a stereotypically vain Canterlot elitist. They usually didn’t approve of anything too out of the ordinary, and Luke was as far from ordinary as it was possible to be in a land inhabited by magical ponies.

Vert grinned. “Oh, I suspect you will, at some point or ano-”

CRACK.

Luke whipped around so fast he nearly cracked his neck. It sounded as though someone had just fired a gun. He didn’t see anyone brandishing a weapon, but what he found instead was perhaps more surprising. The pretty unicorn from the studio was now stood in the middle of the main deck. Had she just teleported? Such an ability was not very common at all. In fact, the only ponies Luke had met thus far who were capable of such a feat had all been alicorns.

“Ah, speak of the devil,” Vert chuckled, but Luke was barely listening, his eyes glued to the pretty mare now trotting towards him with that same curiosity in her eyes from earlier. “Listen, I’ll leave you two to chat, I have to go and do a routine checkup on the old Star Drives. The unicorn adaptation unit has been acting up, and with me being the only pegasus aboard most of the time, the ship won't move without it.”

With that, the old Captain opened a hatch in the deck, slipping out of sight.

“Oh… Um… Okay,” Luke muttered, but Vert had already left him. Alone. To talk to the extremely pretty mare now just a few feet away.

Don’t fuck up.

Luke is dumb. He has no idea. lel

Sorry for the kinda-sorta cliffhanger, but it's okay—you shouldn't have too long to wait for the third chapter.

I also apologise to any fluent French speakers for butchering the language, as I no doubt have. There's only so much one can do with online translators, and being able to speak French is not a skill I possess.

Also, top of the feature box—was not expecting that.

Finally, if you're looking for another HiE to read, make sure to check out Greater Lights: Adaptation if you haven't already. An update has just rolled out for it as of posting this chapter.